Thank you - i have purchased a 44

[Trent]

I know I'm drifting my own topic here, but the grip on the SP101 is pretty small and I have big hands, I can't lower my hand down anymore than it. Is there anything else I could do? Short of wearing thick gloves when I shoot?

This particular SP101 goes with me to work, I'll be packing 125's in it for the forseeable future. I don't think a bad guy is going to really care if he's hit with a 125gr or 158gr projectile. And, I know I can shoot those 125's accurately (and comfortably).

I would imagine in a self defense or hunting scenario, I'm not going to even notice the recoil of whatever I'm shooting. Heck when I went turkey hunting last time, I stalked a bird to a stand of tall grass. When it bolted, and I shouldered that shotgun, I didn't notice either the sound, NOR the kick, when I dropped the hammer and put a load of shot through it's neck & head. (Wasn't wearing ears at the time).

All I remember, and I remember it quite vividly, was the sight picture and the bird dropping in it's tracks.

 

[Captains1911]

I'm a huge fan of the Ruger SRH. Here's mine chambered in .454. These things are built like tanks, and are easily scoped.

 

[bluetopper]

All this talk of Freedom Arms 44 Magnums and not a pic of one have I seen in this thread. Well here's mine. It's a Field grade, not one the beautiful Premier grades but she suits me fine.
A 10 incher made for silhouette. I wasn't looking for one with a barrel that long when I was searching online. I bought it used and the barrel length has grown on me due mainly to its performance and groupings at 100yds with its superb iron sights. I found this a few years ago for sale on another gun forum in their classifieds. I offered the guy $900 and he took it. I contacted Freedom Arms and it was manufactured in 1990 and then sent to Hawaii to a dealer there.

 

[urbaneruralite]

Any reasonably heavy .44 will be more pleasant to shoot than a .357 SP101. It's not until you get into hot 300gr loads in something like a 4" N-frame that it get unpleasant like a small .357. .44 240gr target loads in a single-action are just plain fun. And you can take deer just fine with those provided you can shoot well enough and know how to find a deer with a light blood trail.

 

[peacemaker45]

Smith 29, Blackhawks, Redhawks, Super 'hawks, Anacondas, Dan Wesson or the BFR, it's hard to choose a bad gun out of that bunch. All of them have their own talents, so you really just need to determine which best suits your purposes and tastes. Since you're talking about long range plinking and handgun hunting, rather than woods carry and bear duty, I'd focus on the large framed, long barreled guns that are built to be scoped, like the Super Blackhawk Hunter, and Super Redhawk, over the smaller lighter guns that are designed to be carried a lot and shot a little. Beyond that, it's a matter of taste. Which grip do you like the feel of? Do you prefer single or double action operation? Answer those questions, and you'll be well on the way to finding your gun.

 

[Trent]

That puts me more at ease with the recoil of a 44.

Although it didn't bother me with lighter loads, the stock grip of my Ruger SP101, in my largish hands, doesn't fit me QUITE right. The "knuckle beating" I took (which is PURPLE today, BTW), is because the top of the grip on the left side has a thumb "imprint" built in. But my hands are a bit too big, so my thumb kind of comes down at an angle to it. That results in a "knob" in the thumb indent pressing right up against the inside of my thumb knuckle. Under heavy recoil that thing slams in to my knuckle, and.. well, HURTS.

I'm going to see if I can find grips that'll solve it, and if not, I'll just get out the hardwood and woodworking tools and MAKE a damn grip that fits me right. Or at least shave off that point on the grip with a dremel. (Bubbasmithing at it's finest! GET THE DREMEL!)

Point of contention

 

[Barry the Bear]

Whats with the "lower 48" stuff? .44 mag has been used with success across the world from elephants to kodiak browns. Yes theyve taken grizzlys handgun hunting to whats with the disrespect to the cartridge?

 

[Hammerdown77]

All you discovered is that when you start shooting stuff with sharp/heavy recoil, grip fit and shape becomes critical. For YOUR hand.

Trying to figure out which grips work well for you will be a quest in and of itself. Or you just might find them right off the bat.

 

[Trent]

It's been 2 days now and my thumb knuckle is still swollen and sore.

I need to go grip shopping! I don't want to limit myself to 125gr loads.

I'm going to keep my eyes open for 44 magnum revolvers. I went to two gun shops since Friday, none in stock. I'll hit a couple more this week to continue the search.

Would rather buy local and support my brick & mortar shops, first, then resort to online only after I find I can't source it locally, something I always do with all my firearm purchases. Even if it costs me a couple bucks more, it's important to keep those local folks in business, so when I need a widget on a Saturday morning and I *just can't wait* for the UPS guy, they'll be there for me.

 

[CraigC]

I would rather do at least twice as much shooting with any of my .44Mag's than any small frame .357 snub. Particularly the Bisleys. Large frame big bores are manageable over a long shooting session but everything about shooting .357 snubs is unpleasant.

 

[Trent]

OK, pulled the trigger and filled out my papers tonight. Illinois has a (completely unconstitutional, heavily burdensome, and very annoying) 3 day wait on handguns.

(I guess I need to cool off.)

Even though the Government doesn't trust me until Thursday, I picked up some ammo. (and oh DAMN that stuff is expensive).

Why the factory ammo, when I handload the vast majority of my own ammo?

#1 baseline!
#2 brass!
#3 lazy and impatient!

Anyway, here's the only part the Government trusts me to bring home with me:



That small pile of ammo cost about as much as some of my handguns.

Aaaanywho. Back to the gun part.

I truly appreciate everyone's advice. Just because I may not have picked your recommendation doesn't mean I don't like you. It might mean I'm stupid, don't listen well, or happened to spend too much of my PS90 sale on other stuff like two NRA training courses this weekend, dies, powder, BOOLITS, ammo, and since 4 of my 5 kids and wife went with me to Big R tonight, candy, toys, dog food, and other crap.

With that out of the way... Odd that the only store in town having an actual selection of 44's to handle was a box store, and not a normal gun shop.

The gun of choice which fit my hand, pointed well with my hold, and had a smooth trigger action that I really enjoyed, (plus fit in my rapidly dwindling budget!), was a Ruger Super Blackhawk hunter single action revolver with a 7 1/2" barrel.

I'll post target comparisons of the ammo pictured above, and my first-thoughts after I hit the range with it this weekend. (Hopefully with plain iron sights and probably also with my 2-6x Leupold mounted, as the gun came with rings.)

Thank you all!

EDIT: Actually I believe the model was Bisley hunter, not just hunter. But now my "gray hair" / "I have 4 children bugging me" syndrome kicks in and I'm not 100% sure.

EDIT 2: Price tag at big R was $699, which was $150 under the MSRP. Probably not the best deal I could have found, but certainly not a bad deal.

 

[Trent]

And now I'm back to thinking it was just a Hunter.

Hmm.

This goes to prove a man shouldn't go gun shopping with family in tow. Not once, in my entire life, have I ever bought a gun and an hour later forgot which model I bought. The receipt just says "Revolver Super Blackhawk 44MG".

So that's no help.

I guess I'll find out Thursday what I got! HAHAH!

Oh man.

 

[JEB]

very nice choice either way.

as a handloader, you will most likely want to keep the brass from those hornady FTX loads seperate from the others because the brass will be trimmed shorter to account for the longer FTX bullet profile. just a heads up.

make sure to post picks when you figure out whatever it is that you bought.

 

[Match10]

Here are two of my choices in the collection.... Different purposes. It depends upon what you want your revolver for....

Carry.... (629 MagNaPort)

Hunting.... (Super Blackhawk)

 

[Trent]

very nice choice either way.

as a handloader, you will most likely want to keep the brass from those hornady FTX loads seperate from the others because the brass will be trimmed shorter to account for the longer FTX bullet profile. just a heads up.

make sure to post picks when you figure out whatever it is that you bought.

Oh wow thanks for the tidbit! I wasn't aware of that. That would have drove me nuts too. I surely would have pitched them all in the same bucket and then been flipping out when I loaded some and the crimp was in the wrong spot (or nonexistent!) With my luck, I'd set up my crimp/seat die using a shorter case as a reference, and then crush the hell out of a longer case on the next one!

The more I think about it, the more I'm pretty sure it's the Hunter model.

But I held BOTH colors of grips tonight in short succession so I really don't know!

 

[Trent]

Here are two of my choices in the collection.... Different purposes. It depends upon what you want your revolver for....

Carry.... (629 MagNaPort)

Hunting.... (Super Blackhawk)

Not quite sure that I'm ready for a smaller 44 mag. I guess I'll know once I get some range time with the 7 1/2.

I *held* the 10 inch model tonight and .. yeah, it's not for me. The thing was enormous!

 

[Match10]

I would not call the 629 "small"...!

It is, however, a handful!

 

[Trent]

I would not call the 629 "small"...!

Well his picture is muzzle forward, it looks pretty small.

GREAT BIG FRIGGING HOLE though. Man that's .. intimidating.

 

[BCRider]

Trent, I hate to tell you now since you've already spent your money on the factory ammo. But if you had bought Starline or other brand brass, bullets, powder and primers you'd have gotten enough for three to four times as much ammo as what you paid for those nice looking boxes of factory stuff. And the next time around since you have the brass you could have bought 6 to 8 times as much in bullets, powder and primers.

Of course this assumes you can even find primers with the situation I understand is present south of the 49th these days....

Baseline? PHHHHHTH! ! ! ! Load up some max loads from the books of H110 with Magnum pistol primers and go see about shortening those wrists. No need for any factory ammo "baselines".

Anyhow, you've got the ammo now. So go with it. Begin sourcing what you need to reload pronto since I'm sure you'll want to play around with some different loads.

I've been playing with some plinking loads for my own Super Blackhawk. 8.5 gns of Tightgroup behind a 240gn cast bullet makes for a nice solid THUMP! that is great fun but less of a punishment to my hands then full house .44Mag. First indications are that it's decently accurate too. More testing needed yet. Power wise this equates to a .44Spl +P sort of ammo.

If you have larger size hands look at Hogue rubber grips or even wood grips. They tend to be a little more thick and nicely oval shaped so "our" hands wrap around with a more even pressure around the whole grip. If you still get purple knuckle with the Hogue grips you might just need to consider custom grips.

 

[Sam1911]

Yeah, the little 4" 629s can be quite a handful.



But if a 7 year old girl can do it, I'm sure you could manage! LOL!

(.44 SPC. is your friend!)

 

[Trent]

BCRider, not worried about it cost of reloading, I have tons of powder and primers. Now I'll have empty shell casings. Don't have any bullets, though.

Which brings me to my next question.

Anyone cast their own BOOLITS for 44 Mag?

Anything different about this, than casting for any other handgun caliber?

I have 600 lbs of lead, about 400 lbs of it is melted in to ingots. Got a 20lb casting pot with a spout, only thing I need is the right size molds for my handles, and I'll be practicing till the cows come home.

 

[98Redline]

I don't cast for any of my guns....yet, but on all of my Rugers in 44mag, the throats run between .4315 and .4320.
.432 sized boolits get me the best accuracy and minimal to no leading.
If I run anything smaller than .431 I get pretty severe leading.

As far as a particular mold or shape, I would lean toward bullets with either a WFN or a LFN profile on the heavier end of the weight range. 300-320gr gives me the best accuracy across just about all powders, although I tend to run my gun pretty consistently with a max load of H110.

I am in the process of firelapping the barrel (25 shots down the bore so far). The barrel has smoothed up quite a bit and I can tell a little bit of the restriction where the barrel screws into the frame has been taken out. TBD on any improvement of accuracy but it was a tack driver before.

All in all I think you are going to really like your SBH Hunter. It sits side by side with by 480 SRH as the most accurate gun I own.

 

[Hammerdown77]

I think the SBH Hunter is an excellent choice. Do you know if it is the Bisley or the standard grip? Either one will be fine as far as recoil control is concerned. Hunters have a lot of weight out over the barrel due to the rib on top for scope mounting. Most any real 44 mag load is going to be much more comfortable in that gun than a smaller S&W. And if you put a pistol scope or red dot out on the barrel, recoil will be much much less.

Here's my SBH Bisley Hunter. I traded this one off for a Bisley 45 convertible from Accusport, but it was still a very nice gun.

 

[Trent]

I'm pretty sure it's a Hunter, not a Bisley Hunter, but I won't know for sure until I pick it up Thursday. If I hadn't picked up and handled Rugers with two kinds of grips, I'd have a clear mental image. I handled a 5" (I believe) with one grip, and the 7.5" one that I bought, with the other. The 10" one, for sure, had a black grip. I *think* the one I bought was the standard Hunter because I don't remember the hammer looking like that one above.

But, I had four of my kids with me. By the time we got out of the store I was frazzled and ready to go straight home. (My oldest son was off at a school event and couldn't babysit).

Either way I won't be disappointed, I'm sure.

 

[blaisenguns]

Having never SHOT a 44 mag, I don't know the first damn thing about what brand or type to get.

I have a S&W 629-4 with a power port. It has a 6.5 inch barrel, that has like a compensator milled into the end. This is one of my favorite guns to shoot, with .44 special rounds it kicks less then my .22. I added Pachmayr grips, and that helps too.