Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Those GP100 44 specials

Does anyone use these? Im on an SP101 kick and have the GP100 357 but I've yet to find an 44spl in the wild. What do you think of them? A bit better than Charter Arms?

The Charter Arms .44 and Taurus 445 .44 are compact light weight revolvers for ccw. The GP100 5-shot .44 is camping wilderness revolver (open carry 🤠 style) which is about 10oz lighter than Redhawk 6-shot .44 Magnum. To most knowledgeable gun guys alternative to these Rugers would buy S&W Model 69 .44 Magnum to use .44 Special cartridges in it. That is very well conceived hard to beat product.
Basically Charter Arms is urbanite defensive gun and Ruger product is open range country-style defensive revolver, worlds apart.

If I recall the Flave has or had one. If memory serves me right, he liked it.


He should be around soon.

I own three 29's, a Lew Horton .44 Special, a Ruger Flattop in .44 Special, a 396 NightGuard and the GP100 in .44 Special.

The Ruger is far and away my favorite .44 to shoot. I cannot say enough good about them. I would never sell it.

Is that the standard Ruger grip that comes on these? I like it much more than the finger groove ones they often use.

Yes.

I just picked one up and posted about it here. No field report yet, but planning on fixing that soon. To me, it feels good in the hand and points nicely.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/17693377/44-special#Post17693377

I saw a 5" half-lug blued gun with a gold-bead front sight in a pawn shop around here a couple of years ago. Interesting but not my cup of tea.


Okie John

Your cup of tea must taste like dog piss.

It is just Houge monogrip made for Ruger. You can buy from Hogue or dealer that carries their oroducts if your gun does not come with one. I use it, very comfortable and good recoil dampening effect.

I have two 44 Specials and a couple 44 Magnums. The 44 Specials - one is a 1873 Clone and the other is a S&W, neither is as light as the Ruger, I suppose. But I shoot the S&W a lot and carry the 1873 a lot.

I could use another 44 Special. I have been looking at the Ruger for a long time. I probably should be selling instead of buying at me age.

No reason not to do a bit of both if there's stuff you don't want anymore and stuff you still want to try out. I've done it for 40 years and I can hope to do it for another 40 more.

My GP100 44 Special will be one the last handguns I would ever get rid of. It is my carry gun when I don’t want a semi-auto. I changed out the Houge grips for a set of the compact GP 100 grips with the wood grain panels. I like everything about mine. As Deflave said, I have others. Three RedHawks in 44 mag, an S&W Lew Horton 44 special, and two Ruger Flattops that I really like, but the GP 100 3” 44 special is my favorite!

I'll have to be on the lookout for them. Today I seen an Charter Arms 44spl with an full underlug barrel and another with an half shroud. The half one looked nifty but sadly no Rugers. I did see an like new S&W 40 Shield for $195 but that's about it. I'll keep searching.

I bought one of the GP 100 44's based on flave's endorsement. I also have a Ruger flat top 44 Spl and prefer the GP 100...

Unfortunately the only 44 Special I have is the flat top Bisley 5.5”. I have fallen in love with it as shooter but I’d like to have several more. The thunder ranch version or equivalent would be a nice addition. The Ruger would be next on the want list and more likely to be found at a price I can live with. This round can be loaded up or down to anything I’d need done with a revolver.

Maybe???

Maybe not...

For myself, I'd like to play with the GP100 .44, but I'd have a hard time letting it replace a .45 cal 8 shot 1911 5 " at nearly the same weight.

Even the Rossi 720 amd Taurus 441/431 are better than the Charter Arms revolvers chambered in .44 Special, at least IMO.

Uhhh, OK.

LOL

New Coke is better than a Charter Arms .44 Special.

Yes, if you end up with a good sample in the first place. They do not seem to have good reputation when it comes to product service.

That was legendary bug of 1970s and 1980s. Let's face it it's not a Ruger that can be shot thousands of rounds at the range.

A Smith and Wesson M69 is the way to go
Fine guns

Jason and his dumbest sockpuppets.
LOL

A S&W 44 Spl collector as a 'sweet spot'. From 1910 vintage Triple Lock Target to a Lew Horton N frame short barrel of the eighties. And some nice ones in between!'. It's a great chambering and more than most folks need.
Congrats to folks here of good taste!
Best!
John

NGAF about what you post anymore in case you haven't noticed.
Or your other sockpuppet Slavek aka: slave to cock.Cock..

You have been reduced to irrelevance on here.
And it started 2 yrs ago when I fuuuked you up about your bullschit tgts per your 50 yd offhand big bore revolver "prowess".
Go cry to your "therapist"


Poor little Masar Cardonez...

I been fuuuking you up all over this site.


And you can't do a fuuuuking thing about it....



🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

This will generate a slew of PM,s from this mental giant to me.

Been getting 2 or3 a day from him since I started messing with his dumb azz down here.

All deleted unread ad nauseum.


Just figured a select few of you down here who fell for these 2 Masar sockpuppets might get some peer pressure from those who seen thru his bullschitt long ago.

You rubes know who the fuuuk you are.
Own it.....

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

If you want a 3” GP100 in 44 special, try Whittaker Guns. I think I saw one in their display cabinets.

I've had 44Mag shooters from Smith and Ruger but never picked up a 44Special shooter of any brand .....yet.

I like reloading for the 44Mags that I had from bunny loads to those famous nuclear loads. Seems like I may have overlooked this caliber.

Tell me more about why you like this caliber and some of the loads for it that are your favorites. Also interested in knowing why this Ruger GP
model seems to be held in high regard. Accuracy, weight, flexibility in ammo, etc.

I haven't got into the Ruger double action shooters yet but this post is intriguing.

Following with interest. I have two 44 mags, a m69 and a sbh hunter plus a gp 100 44 special. The gp100 fits me the best.
I load for them but for some reason I can't quite turn the corner from favoring a gp100 357 I have.

Lurking to learn.

I've nothing but love for the .44 Special for a number of reasons but the biggest is that when loaded proper it covers the widest range of use while giving very little compromise in any of the respective uses.

My favorite loads are 250-260 SWC (depending how they drop) at around 900fps. I have always loaded the RCBS Keith type but I think any SWC in that weight range does just fine. They will punch the cleanest little holes through critters ranging from deer to turkey and will do so with just enough oomph and bullet diameter to make things leak (die) quickly. And they will do all this without excessive recoil as long as the handgun is of adequate design and weight. A well thought out .44 Special can be shot at beer cans for two hours just as easily as your favorite .22LR.

However, if you reduce the weight or reduce the size of the handgun too much, it will go from the handgun you love, to "fugking ouch" very quickly.

And that is why the GP100 (to me) is nirvana in the .44 Special. It's not a massive frame like the N or the Redhawk because you don't need that massive frame as you do for the longer cartridges like the 45LC or 44 Magnum. It is Ruger's version of the L-frame but with one very big difference. The GP100 frame is a fugking tank. That tank like construction allows for the abbreviated barrel and cylinder length but still enough weight to keep the .44 Special, special. Not to mention the action design allows for one of the slickest shooting DA's ever produced. A new set of springs and five minutes with a stone will have your Ruger outshining others very quickly.

And that takes us to the other reason I love it. It's a double-action revolver. I much prefer double-action revolvers to single-action revolvers. But if that's not important to a person, I would steer folks toward the Ruger Flattop. It's a very close 2nd in the .44 Special world.

Good read, Deflave.

The people asking probably have me on ignore.

LOL

I own several Taurus 441 and 431 models in 44 Special. Much better than the Bulldog. Very accurate and a pleasure to shoot if you keep your loads around 1000 fps. Some here throw stones at anything Taurus, but if you have one of these for sale shoot me a PM.

Not me. It was defiantly a good read and it has me tooling up for some more load testing.

I have the 3" GP 100 in 44 Special. I love it. It is what I carry when I go rifle hunting, because I can get in and out of a vehicle without having the barrel push up my belt and sit down out in the woods without worrying about the bottom of the holster pumping into what I sit on. The trigger is very good for a Ruger Double Action but not as good as my old S&Ws.

One of these days there will probably be a Campfire thread about GP100s where no one compares it to a tank. But not yet.

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I only have one 44 Special. It's to big for an everyday carry, but it's about perfect for a backup carry on a hunt.
Don't reload for it, as it shoot very good with factory stuff.
Also, who doesn't like a real COLT SAA !!!

Have a Taurus 431 stainless that I trimmed the grip on and liked it so much I bought a 441 stainless several years later. Loaded with Keith 429451's over 15 gr. 2400 it carries like a model 66 with the punch of a model 29. At half the cost. Of course, they haven't been made for almost 20 years, so the old fashioned quality is there. I had a Charter Undercover once and think I threw it in the trashcan. No comparison.

A few of those are on GunBroker currently, but the owners are proud of them.

I've got a little 4.2 match champion in 10mm. It takes the little star clips but it's one of those guns that just feels right. I sold my first one and regretted it but later picked up another. Another gp100 I regret selling was my 4.2" 7 shot 327 mag. The GPS 100s are all just good working guns. I picked up a clean used 6" 357 last year for $499. I wish it was a 4.2" but the price seemed good.

Bb

Pretty nice one in the classifieds right now...