Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .44 Russian Question

I know you can shoot .44 Specials in a .44 Magnum as the magnum is just a slightly longer version. I was thinking that since a .44 Special is just a slightly longer version of a .44 Russian, are .44 Russians OK to shoot in a magnum chambered pistol? Not that I see any particular need to do so, just curious.

Yes, of course you can. Just like using Shorts in your Single Six, or Longs, for that matter.

I usually gin-up a garden/pest load for whatever centerfire handgun I'm carrying. They invariably have fixed sights, so I'll tinker with powders and bullet weights until I get a 700-800 fps load that is good for a rabbit head at 10-15 paces. Having these put up in obviously short cases makes them easy to identify and using Russian in a 44 Special or Magnum, would be a perfect example. .

I put together some 44 Russian with a 250gr cast SWC, over 5.0 gr Unique. Shoots well from the Bisley 44 Mag.

Thanks to all for the replies. I might just have to get some .44 Russian brass to experiment with. I mainly load 240 gr. coated lead SWCs in my magnum and "+P" special loads. I load the magnums for woods use and the +P Specials for defense loads (7.7 gr. Universal & 240 gr. CLSWC). I kinda like the idea of maybe some Russian loads for small game, etc. loads.

I'm not sure if you can just use 44Spl or 44Mag dies. I bought a set of Lee 44 Russian dies myself. very inexpensive.

FWIW, I have found that if you mostly shoot .44 Special in a .44 Magnum, you can get a carbon build up ring ahead of the .44 Special case and that can make chambering .44 Magnum difficult. I did this with my S&W 329PD, so now I load .44 Magnum brass at .44 Special performance levels in order to eliminate that problem.

Works fine.
Bob

Yep. And NICE RGK !!!

Yes, of course. Just like you can shoot .32 S&W Long in a .32 H&R Magnum, and both those in a .327 Federal Magnum.

That's a show stealer...