Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .44 Special fans?

How bout some pet loads, pictures, leather choices, good stories.

I sleep with a Taurus 44 Special revolver stuffed between my mattress. It's the one I would grab first if something went bump in the middle of the night. I never remove it, and haven't shot it in several years....yeah, I know.....but I just happen to like it.

I love mine.....Ruger Bisley Blackhawk.

It's just a plinker but if push came to shove I wouldn't hesitate to shoot med sized game with my load.

6.3 grains of Unique behind Acme's Hard Cast 240 grain SWC per Alliant's web site.

http://www.alliantpowder.com/reload...;shellid=32&bulletid=46&bdid=799

Holster's a Bianchi 1L Lawman.

[quote=FieldGrade]I love mine.....Ruger Bisley Blackhawk.

It's just a plinker but if push came to shove I wouldn't hesitate to shoot med sized game with my load.

6.3 grains of Unique behind Acme's Hard Cast 240 grain SWC per Alliant's web site.

http://www.alliantpowder.com/reload...;shellid=32&bulletid=46&bdid=799

Holster's a Bianchi 1L Lawman.



[/quote
Looks like a handy little rig.

Yes sir....very handy.

Surprisingly accurate too.....like I said..."I love it".

Edit.....I'm sure it would go from surprisingly accurate to very accurate if someone else was pulling the trigger.

I'm a fan, but no pet loads or stories.

I carried the Charter Arms Bulldog .44 for a few years back in the middle 1980s.

I realy like my Taurus Titanium 44 special, short ported barrel, 5 shot. it gos with me alot in the woods! and doesnt feel like its there, on my side or in my back pocket!

Don't own a special, but I load the 200gr Gold Dot with 11.0 grains of HS-6 in a magnum case for about 1000 fps. A lot like shooting a special and I have the option of full house magnums.

4 5/8s Flattop. One of the most accurate sixguns I’ve owned. Milled a slot in the front ramp so could add a post style blade. Shoots a 250 Keith under an inch at 1150. Carry it in a Lawrence 120 I bought new in my teens.

Very underrated cartridge IMO.

Going by original loading for old time frail revolvers its a popgun (but accurate by all accounts) and took a definite backseat to 45 Colt.

Loaded to its potential its pretty serious.

Two modern aspects - as a defense round, you can shoot 200 jackets grain hollowpoints in the 1000 fps range. And .44 fits in small revolvers that .45s can't.
As a field round you can push 255 grain hard lead in the 1000/1100 fps range. Not the equal of .44 Magnum but pretty effective just as it is.

I've carried a S&W 696 5 shot L frame with factory Gold Dot 200's for self defense, and a S&W 624 N frame with hard cast 275's over 17 grains of 2400 in the woods. Thats a hot load BTW - I am NOT recommending it to anyone. Again, IMO both were good choices for their relative purposes.

Funny story - many years ago I bought an odd Super Blackhawk. It was very nicely factory polished blue like the old models but new enough to be transfer bar. I think of it as some sort of transition model. Some fool had filed a sloppy "dovetail" notch in the front sight and squeezed a piece of plastic rod into it. Maybe weed wacker cord. I took it home, trued up the notch and hand fit a piece of brass, which in the end came out pretty nice.
The gun rewarded me by spraying .44 magnum ammo all over the place. And I mean pretty badly - my best groups with any ammo were probably no better than 8" at 25 yards. Rested. And I have no problems shooting my other Ruger .44s so I'm confident it wasn't me.
I checked the throats, slugged the bore, etc. Couldn't find the problem.
One day I threw a broken box of PMC .44 Specials into my range bag just for the he'll of it... Those 11 rounds went into a hole the size of my thumbnail at 50 feet. We all know that the gun tells you what it likes, but I have NEVER seen such a dramatic difference due to ammo. I still don't know of a factory Magnum load it likes but I don't care - its a dedicated .44 Special gun to me and I'm damn lucky to have it.

It doesn't mean that .44 Special is magic (well, OK, it is for that gun...) but all of mine shoot well, and I'm sure others will agree. Maybe its the proportions of the powder space in the cartridge case during ignition, or the typical velocity range, or who knows what but over the years I've gotten nothing but thumbs up from people who use it. And seen it dismissed as junk by a few people who don't. Which is cool - they can keep passing them by in the stores until I get there....

I think that its just as flexible and nearly as capable as .45 Colt (especially if you handload) with less recoil and has the sneaky advantage of fitting into medium frame revolvers.
The only real downside is that factory ammo is expensive and becoming uncommon. No extra cost to handload though.

I have one of the Lipsey's 5.5 inch Bisleys. If limited to one revolver the rest of my life I believe it would be the one I'd chose. I an very fond of all my Bisleys and Powermags but the Bisley 44 Special would be the last to go.

As for loads, I haven't strayed from Keith's three standard 44 Special loads; a 429421 ahead of either 5 grains of Bullseye, 7.5 grain of Unique, or 17.5 grains of 2400. All three shoot nice tight little clusters at 25 yards and even the 2400 load is easy on the wrists while still having enough horsepower to do some good work.

I couldn't think of a more fitting shuck for my Bisley than the Barranti EK#5, correctly handed of course. A nice set of grips and it will be perfect.

Colt 3rd gen SAA. This one is a superb shooter with factory ammo (I don't reload), looks great and has a slick action. Holster by Vic Perez in CA.
Bob

I too have the Lipsey's Flattop special. Only .44 Special I have.

If I were to ever buy a Colt SAA it would most definitely be a .44 Special to take advantage of the thicker cylinder wall.

A few years back after seeing my first bowling pin shoot, I decided I needed a bigger bore revolver. I started looking for a S&W .45 but could not find one. I did run across a S&W 624 and compared the ballistics of a .45 and .44 and bought the 624. I love this gun and I can hit better with it than any revolver that I ever shot. Lot of difference in power between my hand loads and over the counter bullets that I have shot, which is not many. And no, I am not hot rodding my hand loading. miles

I have a Colt New Frontier 7 1/2” I just bought, found a load it likes with the Keith bullet and 2400. That took a bit as it has .434 throats and a .428 groove diameter. But it shoots well, but doesn’t get used often. I also have a custom flat top Blackhawk that I had Dave Clements make off of a Ruger 50th anniversary .357. Wonderful gun, beautiful, almost too nice to use but I have killed deer with it. I use an LBT 260 gr. WFN over 4756 for about 900 out of that gun. Since it’s too nice to use, I just bought a Ruger flattop stainless 4 5/8 to take out when it’s less than pleasant out. Still working loads for this one. It’s on target with the rear sight all the way right, so I’ll keep trying to make it shoot to my satisfaction. You could say I like the special, by numbers, it’s my third favorite chambering for a handgun after the 45 ACP and .22.

Old70

While at Maryland Gun Works, in the 80's, we took in a local LEO agency's trade ins on new Ruger revolvers. The trade ins were 4" S&W M28 revolvers. Lou converted 3 of these to 44 Spl. by reaming the cylinders, boring and sleeving the barrel with SS Apex barrels, and rounding the butt to "K" frame round-butt dimensions. I was fortunate enough to trade a customer out of his and have had it ever since. It has never had anything but Lyman 232 Gr. Keith bullets and 7.5 Gr. of Unique. My absolute favorite revolver.

From some of you professors of knowledge? Wonder what the Skeeter Skelton load would give from a M69 Smith from a 2.75 inch barrel?

i have a number of 44magnums, but never liked that round particularly for some reason. on the other hand, i really do like the 44special.
i think the favorite is a "skeeter" conversion, a s&w model 28 rebarreled to 44special, with an action job thrown in.
it was up for grabs in a local auction a few years ago, and i don't think anyone bidding knew what it was except me.
I think i paid about 350 for the gun, without checking the records.
six inch barrel, it's easy to shoot and accurate. the only thing i have ran in it is the keith 429421, which i should change.
i do have some of the factory 200grain golddots which are awesom to look at that hollowpoint.
i have a 696, the only negative if it is one is the five shot round capacity and the thin forcing cone.

The Lipsey's Flattops may be the best Blackhawks ever. I use two loads, 8.0 of Unique with a 250 Keith for a field load, and 5.5 W231 with a 240 SWC for range use, though the 231 number could be a field load too I guess.

I went the 1/2 grain higher on the Skeeter load as it really tightened it up in my gun, plus it's solidly on the high side of 1000 f/s.

5.5 grs of 231 has been my summer time load in my Lipsey's 44 every since I got the first one, using the Keith bullet. I've taken 4-5 Montana white tails using that load with all 3 of my flat tops using the Skeeter load of 7.5 grs of Unique with Elmers bullet, all one shot kills. These guns were made right & shot great, especially the 7.5" gun.

Dick