P. Plainsman
Member
Since acquiring a 4" barreled S&W 629-6, I've tried a variety of factory .44 Special ammunition, consistent with my plan for the gun as a big-bore defense revolver for home and car, a "heavy .44 Special" that can also run Magnums in appropriate situations — comparable to the Model 19's mission profile in the .38/.357 caliber. The following unscientific impressions might be of interest. Think of these comments as marginal glosses on Mike Cumpston's excellent article on the .44 Special as a defense caliber in the 4" 629 Mountain Gun – it has plenty of chrono data and other information:
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:aVwu0Vto-VkJ:www.sixgunner.com/miles/mcump/mc15.htm
Buffalo Bore 255 gr Keith SWC Lead Gas Check "Heavy .44 Special": Rated 1000 fps on the box, this is an updated rendition of the Keith load – what Elmer thought of as the baseline for the .44 Special as a utility cartridge. (Keith's personal .44 loads ran more like 1200 fps and would be packaged as magnum ammo today.) This is pricey, crisply cast, impressive ammunition. There is some recoil. Fired from the bench without the lowered left elbow of the Weaver stance, the Buffalo Bore .44 produces appreciable muzzle flip. But I found the experience painless and pleasant. That old cliche about a push rather than a sharp wrench held true.
Though most of my test firing was limited to around 50 feet, this ammo gave a strong impression of inherent accuracy. It also illustrated why gun and ammo testing should be left to better shooters than me. My groups tended to yield four nicely clustered impacts and then a couple of embarrassing flyers attributable to drifting attention or general wussiness. All the flyers were called, and they broke in the directions I figured they would. (We've all experienced that split second intuition after the shot goes but before the gun recovers, during which the mind reports "flinched!" or "dummy, you pulled left.")
High-tech testing methods, i.e., shaking the cartridges next to my ear, suggested that the charge under that big blunt gas check bullet fills all or most of the case volume. It sounded like there's little room for powder to shift. This should aid uniformity.
In subjective feel if not SAAMI specs, this round is a .44 Special +P. It is a quality hunting load that I think any serious shooter can master, even if he or she is not a big-bore magnum maven. I don't hunt, so at $1.30 per round, I lack an obvious use for this expensive fodder. Nevertheless, I really liked it.
The box label states that the round is safe in all .44 Special handguns "except Charter Arms Bulldog." If I lived on a large rural property I would be strongly tempted to acquire a USFA Rodeo in .44 Special, sight it in for these Buffalo Bore rounds, and dub it my working gun, with a nod to Uncle Elmer.
Cor-Bon 165 gr JHP .44 Special: Cor-Bon makes its own "heavy .44 Special" with a very different mission profile from Buffalo Bore's Keith load. Basically, this round is what happens when the old .44 Special takes off its neckerchief, dons black tactical entry gear and does its best impersonation of a 10mm. Mike Cumpston clocked the Cor-Bons at a cool 1205 fps from the muzzle of his 4" N-frame. Felt recoil is very modest for a defensive round that delivers over 500 ft/lbs of energy. The kick exceeds standard factory fare but is discernibly less than the Buffalo Bore load. If I knew I might have to defend myself with a revolver against assailants outdoors, the Cor-Bon .44 Special would receive a close look. Indeed, I have begun to keep a couple of boxes in the ammo drawer.
I perceive three possible disadvantages to this round. One, muzzle blast and flash are greater than I want in an indoor home defense situation. You can tell the bullet is supersonic. Two, Cumpston's data revealed a tendency for the Cor-Bon .44 hollowpoint to fragment explosively in ballistic media at the high speeds produced. He viewed that as a plus (penetration remained fairly decent), but personally I would prefer a slug that stays together while cleanly expanding. Lastly, a minor quibble: the user may have to sight this round in separately. From my gun it hits differently from other .44 Specials and is closer to, but not identical with, magnum trajectories.
Cor-Bon deserves credit for engineering this bad boy – showing how innovative designers can stretch a familiar cartridge into new and useful territory. Besides, it gives us a sixgun round even mall ninjas can love.
Black Hills 210 gr FPL .44 Special: Black Hills may be my favorite ammo company. Everything I try from them seems to be clean, accurate, and of high quality. Their prices for ball ammo (.45 ACP, 9mm) are too high –- I stick with Federal American Eagle –- but their mid-ticket offerings rock. The company sells 124 grain 9mm+P JHPs tipped with the fine Speer Gold Dot bullet for $18 per 50, new production. That's very fair. I'm also indebted to Black Hills for helping to keep the cult favorite .32 H&R Magnum afloat with their JHPs and cowboy FPL rounds. The FPL, at $13.50 / 50, is the .32 Mag practice load.
Black Hills performs a similar service for .44 Special fans with this cowboy-style plinker. At $20 or so a box, it's not as good a buy as the .32 Mag. But it's well-made, not too smoky, and easy to shoot well. I like that it's mild-mannered yet not loaded so weakly (so "CAS-ized") that you feel cheesy for shooting it.
I had no problem getting good offhand groups with this stuff. It hits close to the same point of aim as the Speer Gold Dots that I use for defense. If they'd drop the price a few dollars, I'd purchase a case.
Winchester 200 gr Silvertip JHP .44 Special: The Silvertip is a fairly mild round, close to "traditional" .44 Special ballistics. Cumpston clocked it at under 750 fps from his Mountain Gun. Such numbers make me uneasy. Still, it is accurate and soft-shooting, and the ballistics results I've seen online indicate that the wide, slow-moving .44 Silvertip yields fine expansion. If one had to press into defense an older or relatively fragile .44 Special revolver, this load would definitely deserve consideration. It was probably earmarked for the old Charter Arms Bulldog.
Speer 200 gr Gold Dot JHP .44 Special: My defense load, backed up with a speedloader of the Cor-Bons. Shoots well in my 629, delivers more energy than the Silvertips, good expansion is reported, and the round displays moderate levels of muzzle flash and blast that should prove manageable in an indoor crisis scenario.
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:aVwu0Vto-VkJ:www.sixgunner.com/miles/mcump/mc15.htm
Buffalo Bore 255 gr Keith SWC Lead Gas Check "Heavy .44 Special": Rated 1000 fps on the box, this is an updated rendition of the Keith load – what Elmer thought of as the baseline for the .44 Special as a utility cartridge. (Keith's personal .44 loads ran more like 1200 fps and would be packaged as magnum ammo today.) This is pricey, crisply cast, impressive ammunition. There is some recoil. Fired from the bench without the lowered left elbow of the Weaver stance, the Buffalo Bore .44 produces appreciable muzzle flip. But I found the experience painless and pleasant. That old cliche about a push rather than a sharp wrench held true.
Though most of my test firing was limited to around 50 feet, this ammo gave a strong impression of inherent accuracy. It also illustrated why gun and ammo testing should be left to better shooters than me. My groups tended to yield four nicely clustered impacts and then a couple of embarrassing flyers attributable to drifting attention or general wussiness. All the flyers were called, and they broke in the directions I figured they would. (We've all experienced that split second intuition after the shot goes but before the gun recovers, during which the mind reports "flinched!" or "dummy, you pulled left.")
High-tech testing methods, i.e., shaking the cartridges next to my ear, suggested that the charge under that big blunt gas check bullet fills all or most of the case volume. It sounded like there's little room for powder to shift. This should aid uniformity.
In subjective feel if not SAAMI specs, this round is a .44 Special +P. It is a quality hunting load that I think any serious shooter can master, even if he or she is not a big-bore magnum maven. I don't hunt, so at $1.30 per round, I lack an obvious use for this expensive fodder. Nevertheless, I really liked it.
The box label states that the round is safe in all .44 Special handguns "except Charter Arms Bulldog." If I lived on a large rural property I would be strongly tempted to acquire a USFA Rodeo in .44 Special, sight it in for these Buffalo Bore rounds, and dub it my working gun, with a nod to Uncle Elmer.
Cor-Bon 165 gr JHP .44 Special: Cor-Bon makes its own "heavy .44 Special" with a very different mission profile from Buffalo Bore's Keith load. Basically, this round is what happens when the old .44 Special takes off its neckerchief, dons black tactical entry gear and does its best impersonation of a 10mm. Mike Cumpston clocked the Cor-Bons at a cool 1205 fps from the muzzle of his 4" N-frame. Felt recoil is very modest for a defensive round that delivers over 500 ft/lbs of energy. The kick exceeds standard factory fare but is discernibly less than the Buffalo Bore load. If I knew I might have to defend myself with a revolver against assailants outdoors, the Cor-Bon .44 Special would receive a close look. Indeed, I have begun to keep a couple of boxes in the ammo drawer.
I perceive three possible disadvantages to this round. One, muzzle blast and flash are greater than I want in an indoor home defense situation. You can tell the bullet is supersonic. Two, Cumpston's data revealed a tendency for the Cor-Bon .44 hollowpoint to fragment explosively in ballistic media at the high speeds produced. He viewed that as a plus (penetration remained fairly decent), but personally I would prefer a slug that stays together while cleanly expanding. Lastly, a minor quibble: the user may have to sight this round in separately. From my gun it hits differently from other .44 Specials and is closer to, but not identical with, magnum trajectories.
Cor-Bon deserves credit for engineering this bad boy – showing how innovative designers can stretch a familiar cartridge into new and useful territory. Besides, it gives us a sixgun round even mall ninjas can love.
Black Hills 210 gr FPL .44 Special: Black Hills may be my favorite ammo company. Everything I try from them seems to be clean, accurate, and of high quality. Their prices for ball ammo (.45 ACP, 9mm) are too high –- I stick with Federal American Eagle –- but their mid-ticket offerings rock. The company sells 124 grain 9mm+P JHPs tipped with the fine Speer Gold Dot bullet for $18 per 50, new production. That's very fair. I'm also indebted to Black Hills for helping to keep the cult favorite .32 H&R Magnum afloat with their JHPs and cowboy FPL rounds. The FPL, at $13.50 / 50, is the .32 Mag practice load.
Black Hills performs a similar service for .44 Special fans with this cowboy-style plinker. At $20 or so a box, it's not as good a buy as the .32 Mag. But it's well-made, not too smoky, and easy to shoot well. I like that it's mild-mannered yet not loaded so weakly (so "CAS-ized") that you feel cheesy for shooting it.
I had no problem getting good offhand groups with this stuff. It hits close to the same point of aim as the Speer Gold Dots that I use for defense. If they'd drop the price a few dollars, I'd purchase a case.
Winchester 200 gr Silvertip JHP .44 Special: The Silvertip is a fairly mild round, close to "traditional" .44 Special ballistics. Cumpston clocked it at under 750 fps from his Mountain Gun. Such numbers make me uneasy. Still, it is accurate and soft-shooting, and the ballistics results I've seen online indicate that the wide, slow-moving .44 Silvertip yields fine expansion. If one had to press into defense an older or relatively fragile .44 Special revolver, this load would definitely deserve consideration. It was probably earmarked for the old Charter Arms Bulldog.
Speer 200 gr Gold Dot JHP .44 Special: My defense load, backed up with a speedloader of the Cor-Bons. Shoots well in my 629, delivers more energy than the Silvertips, good expansion is reported, and the round displays moderate levels of muzzle flash and blast that should prove manageable in an indoor crisis scenario.
