Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns How to turn a 44 Mag into a 45 ACP!

Yep,


While I have put untold thousands of rounds of .44 mag through my various .44s, my wrists, between being broken numerous times from riding broncs for my college on the college rodeo circuit and then again during my initial LE days before it became a no-no to pound people into submission, just don't like the full power loads. My surgeon about a year and a half ago when he worked on my wrist for carpal tunnel said both were a mess.

The Russians, with their short case are very efficient with their use of powder. You get excellent accuracy and use very little powder. Kind of analogous to using a 6.5 BR to shoot little tiny groups at 100 yards instead of a .264 Win Mag. The Russian cases are very easy to distinguish from the Magnum cases in terms of length. While I have played with all three case lengths, as is obvious by the first post, when I pictured a Russian, a Special and a Mag, all next to each other, I find the Russian tailor made for the target loads I initially described.



The fact is that I do significantly more target shooting and small game hunting, than I do large animal hunting, so the Russian loads like the round nose lead for practicing fast reloads, bouncing tin cans, and general shooting are great. The wadcutters make outstanding little small game loads. Either would be a fine to leave with the wife unit if she needed a gun and one of her .38s was not readily available. The fact is that Wadcutters fly straight and go deep, with excellent penetration, even when they start out at modest velocities. I would not hesitate to carry a .44 full of wadcutters. The low recoil also makes it very advantageous in terms of manipulation.

The funny part is that WAAAAY back in the day, in early 1900s the .44 Russian was actually a very popular cartridge when chambered in the Smith & Wesson #3 revolver. Many (not all) were using the Himmelwright wadcutter shown here:




Some used standard round nose lead, but the Himmelwright design from 1900 essentially led the way to what we use today in terms of the modern wadcutter. There is a bullet caster and very knowledgeable gentleman by the name of Glenn Frxxell who has a lot of great articles on cast bullets, marlin rifles, etc that are online. That Himmelwright WC pic is from one of his articles BTW.

Anyways, just more food for thought this fine morning!

And a pic from the porch of the cabin from a couple of guys who think 5" N Frame .44s are the Goldilocks of Big Bore handguns!