I flame the .44 Special ....

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I credit the .44 Spl and the .45 Super for kindling my desire to start reloading.

Best hobby, and longest lived hobby, I’ve ever had!

Stay safe!
 
I LOVE 44's, but to be honest, I don't love the "spl.", even though I own one of the nicest 44 specials ever made. (S&W M-19)

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Anyway, I guess I spent way too much time with a M-19 357 Mag., to like the 44 spl. all that much, but I DO love the M-29 44 mag. and have taken some big game with it, from moose on down...

DM
 
I like 44 special a lot. It's not expensive if you reload. I carry it in my Bulldog sometimes. It's a hoot in my Rossi 720. It's absurdly accurate and easy to shoot from my 7.5" SBH three-screw.

It's kind of like the homely chick everyone thinks will die alone, but she's a great cook and great at snuggling. (The hot chick [10mm?] will end up 80 years old and alone in a houseful of cats.)
 
And to the poster who had a problem with loading 38 special/44 special in a 357 mag and 44 mag revolver due to carbon build up, i hope that was joke :D.
No joke there are people that concern themselves with a carbon ring that can be taken care of by using just a little more pressure to push the longer round through it. That's all I've ever done.
 
I like Taffins work, too. He and Mike Venturino are guys I would love to sit down on the front porch with and shoot the breeze (pun intended) about guns, hunting and life in general.

Stay safe!
 
Ok, what I don't get is this:

A gun chambered in .44 Special is not really 44 caliber gun, but a 42 caliber. The bullets are often within a thou of .429" but the bore is smaller still. Now I totally get Elmer Keith's work to load the .44 Special to modern (not black powder) pressure levels and Remington's effort to ultimately extend the case and create the .44 Magnum. But Elmer went on to create a 40 caliber gun chambering cartridges with .410" bullets that came to be known as the .41 Magnum. But as I understand it, he intended it to be called the .41 Police Special and although he may have supported higher loadings for hunting, his intention was for it to work for law enforcement use pushing a 200 grain SWC to 900 fps. That seems awful close to the .44 Special. It's also ironically close to the .40 S&W that ultimately came to be the 40 caliber cartridge of choice for law enforcement. But so long as it was the days of revolvers in America for law enforcement, why didn't the .44 Special find favor even with Keith who invented the nearly identical .41? I can't believe it was just to raise pressure levels above 15,500 psi, because first of all, it was hardly necessary to reach his velocity goal, but also because simply increasing a black powder cartridge's pressure level without changing anything else was well precedented by both the .38 Super and the .38/44. Keith couldn't have hoped to get the .41 into a K frame, and there was no intermediate L frame, so he must have had some other motivation for his apparent favor for the .41 vs. the already extant .44 Special.

I propose that today, because of the popularity of the .40 S&W, that a rimmed cartridge for bullets .400", not .410" or .429" and revolvers chambered therein would be better than either .44 Special or .41 Magnum. There are a wide variety of bullets in .400" and the bullet weights and sectional density are more suitable for shooting in L-frame and GP100 size revolvers than .44 Special or Magnum. Makers have seized on this by chambering such revolvers in 10mm/.40S&W, but a rimmed cartridge would be more appealing, and they could always offer conversion cylinders. While this was almost certainly a viable proposition 20 years ago, at this point, the continuing popularity of .40 S&W is less certain. While .40S&W is certainly bound to remain more popular than a new revolver cartridge (even one as justifiable as .327 Magnum was), it doesn't seem likely to maintain it's market share against 9x19mm as much as it has in past decades.

But a cartridge, whether it's old or new doesn't have to be the NBT to be a great idea. We don't have the need we once had for standardization. We don't need the local hardware store to keep stock of every cartridge we could want to shoot. And in the gun and cartridge factories, we don't need expensive tools and dies for every variation offered. Oftentimes the only differences are a few lines of code for the CNC machines.
 
I propose that today, because of the popularity of the .40 S&W, that a rimmed cartridge for bullets .400", not .410" or .429" and revolvers chambered therein would be better than either .44 Special or .41 Magnum. There are a wide variety of bullets in .400" and the bullet weights and sectional density are more suitable for shooting in L-frame and GP100 size revolvers than .44 Special or Magnum. Makers have seized on this by chambering such revolvers in 10mm/.40S&W, but a rimmed cartridge would be more appealing, and they could always offer conversion cylinders. While this was almost certainly a viable proposition 20 years ago, at this point, the continuing popularity of .40 S&W is less certain. While .40S&W is certainly bound to remain more popular than a new revolver cartridge (even one as justifiable as .327 Magnum was), it doesn't seem likely to maintain it's market share against 9x19mm as much as it has in past decades.

Apologizes for diverting the thread.

Interesting idea. If the revolver could be shrunk a bit due to the shorter cartridge and the cylinder cut for moon clips so that either 40 S&W or a new rimmed 40 S&W ammunition (cases with a standard sized rim, not a thick rim like on the 45 AR) could be used it could have potential.

Alas, the 9mm Federal (I think that was the name, a rimmed 9x19 case) was not successful.

Back to discussing 44 Special...

I agree. But, I don't recommend anyone going out & buying one just on a whim. It should be experienced first.

Right, and you need to be a reloader to get the most out of 44 Special at a reasonable cost these days.

I love the "thump" you get when a heavy, slow moving bullet hits its target. The 44 Special fits that bill in spades.
 
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Back to discussing 44 Special...

My proposal was a divergence, but my question about the .41 was not. Why would Elmer Keith come up with and promote the .41 Police Special if he knew and loved the .429 Special? I mean, didn't Elmer himself diss the .44 Special more than anyone else by first engendering the .44 Magnum by loading it to double it's rated pressure and then lobbying Remington and S&W to produce the magnum that would eclipse it? And that's not all. Then he comes up with the .41 which had it taken hold would have rendered the .44 Special totally redundant.
 
for every 10 people who bought into the dirty harry syndrome, seven could not use the 44 mag at full power and sold them. to me the 44 mag is a good hunting caliber, but a piss poor defence revolver as very few can handle the recoil for quick repete shots, don,t believe it, just look at what the fast shooting combat shooters are using, NOT .44 MAGS. I know of what I speak as I have several S&W model 29,s, a 6.5" and 8-3/8" and do not like the recoil from the full bore loads that it takes to be become good at quick shooting for defence use. watch a good plate shooter with a .45 acp and 230 gr bullets at 850 fps, he will make the 44 mag shooter look like he,s using a muzzle loader.
 

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You are chambered in revolvers that are 80-90% as heavy as a .44 Magnum, but you'll never have 80-90% of the power of a .44 magnum...

I guess you never heard of Elmer Keith and some of his 44 Special loads. But you don't need a magnum for every shooting chore. Sometimes less power is all thats wanted or needed. You don't drive your truck wide open every where you go do you? I didn't think so.

I propose that today, because of the popularity of the .40 S&W, that a rimmed cartridge for bullets .400", not .410" or .429" and revolvers chambered therein would be better than either .44 Special or .41 Magnum. There are a wide variety of bullets in .400" and the bullet weights and sectional density are more suitable for shooting in L-frame and GP100 size revolvers than .44 Special or Magnum. Makers have seized on this by chambering such revolvers in 10mm/.40S&W, but a rimmed cartridge would be more appealing, and they could always offer conversion cylinders. While this was almost certainly a viable proposition 20 years ago, at this point, the continuing popularity of .40 S&W is less certain. While .40S&W is certainly bound to remain more popular than a new revolver cartridge (even one as justifiable as .327 Magnum was), it doesn't seem likely to maintain it's market share against 9x19mm as much as it has in past decades.

I agree with that 100%. i don't see why a rimmed 40/10mm hasn't beed developed. I think you could get 6 rounds in a gun like the GP-100 instead of the 5 44Specials it holds now. And the load data is already there. Just add the rim. I don't care a flip for moon clips. But a six shot 40 would be great. I would be happy with just the 40S&W chambering.

I don't have a 44 Special gun. My only 44 is a Ruger BH that sees a lot of 44 Special loads in 44 mag brass. I like the 44 Special power level. I don't need a magnum round to bust rocks across my buds pond.
 
. I like the 44 Special power level. I don't need a magnum round to bust rocks across my buds pond.

I agree but I do like shooting my 44 Special guns.

My 44 Magnum guns have never seen a full power 44 Magnum load and probably never will in my lifetime.

But for someone who can only have one 44 caliber gun, a 44 Magnum is a good choice with alot of ammunition performance choices.
 
OK, I’ll bite...

My love for the .44 special grew in strange and unexpected ways. Let me begin by saying that I don’t shoot it because it is an economical round to shoot. I shoot it because it’s an accurate round. It’s big bore, but it’s a comfortable round with low recoil. My mentor was a .45 colt enthusiast. I wasn’t a rancher or a cowboy fan, and wanted to explore something similar but different. The .44 caliber family gave me a rich variety of platforms in single action, double action, and lever guns to explore. A gentlemen’s caliber for everything from target shooting to self defense to hunting.

It’s just a fun caliber that puts a smile on my face. My favorite carry gun is a Smith 329pd. Taffin calls it the perfect packin’ pistol. At 27 oz. you forget it’s even there. With Hornady Critical. Defense .44 specials it’s a great antidote for two legged threats. With Buffalo Bore low recoil .44 magnums it is great for 4 legged threats in the back country. It complements a model 92 lever in .44 magnum as a single caliber combination for revolver and pistol caliber carbine.

I’m happy to have found a caliber with so much versatility for me. It’s the best kept secret in the shooting world.
 
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