Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters And I Can't Get it Out of My Head

This is in regards to my latest weblog entry:

44 Magnum-- It won't leave me alone!

Look, I'm not trying to throw shade on 44 Magnum in a deer rifle. I've used it. For the brief time I had a working Model 44, it did a fine job. It's just that:

1) That Model 44 is not going to work again, and it was a jamomatic while it was working.
2) It might be over $1K to get a 44 Mag rifle and close to $2K to get a Ruger. I can get a nice new 1 MOA deer rifle for under $400.
3) There are a lot better deer rifles for my needs. I've got a rack full and I don't really need another.

The problem is that my mind keeps wandering back. There's nothing worse than an itch that only got partly scratched. The rational side of me tells me to walk away.

Yes, I have a problem and I need help. I Googled the location of the local meeting of Rifles Anonymous and it pointed me here.

How much have you really used the 44 magnum? At close range, it's fine, but it has a rainbow trajectory that I'd not trust on a rabbit hunt past 100 yards. YMMV. Do as you wish, but that has been my experience.

I had the Model 44 sighted in 2 inches high at 100 yards. The one buck I shot with it showed up at 120 yards, but I was in a treestand and he was at the bottom of a steep ravine. You're absolutely right about shooting rainbows.

By contrast, the next rifle I picked for close-in work was a 7mm-08. It is a laser beam by comparison. I didn't have time to really get the rig properly shaken out that first year, so I kept my shots close. I put a doe down like a sack of cement at 100 yards.

This 44 Mag idea is like a freaking earworm.

I hear ya, I have the same for a 30-30 single shot. I have an encore, but already have a 6.5 CM barrel from MGM that I got cheap and is very accurate with my handloads. I just can’t justify another barrel that won’t do as much, but it does have a hold of me!

Always take a rifle ANYWHERE there’s a shooting scheduled over a handgun. Or a handgun cartridge. The only good use for a handgun is to fight your way to a proper rifle or delay the intended target.

Can’t you get one in a Henry single shot pretty reasonably?

Had a SS 77/44 for quite a few years. Perfectly boring rifle when properly fed. Killed stuff dead on the spot.

There is a condition, loosely referred to as the scratch response. I learned of it in my work life dealing with both chigger and mosquito bites. It seems that if you can resist scratching a bite entirely, you may see a reduced urge to scratch. But if you scratch it once, the itching sensation increases and you need to scratch the itch again, and again. I suspect, like most of use you have scatched this bite before.
As the Borg said on Star Trek, "Resistance is futile!"
Just sayin'
Bfly

See, this is the kind of help a fellow needs. He says he's hitting rock bottom and powerless and somebody says, "Have you thought about switching to beer?"

Truth is, I could buy a single-shot Henry for $650. Or for the same money get a Savage, Mossberg, or Ruger bolt gun in a much more effective cartridge with a nice scope thrown in. However, I really don't "NEED" another deer rifle.

My problem is this: How do I stop trying to scratch this itch, short of acquiring a new rifle? This is when the grips of addiction really start to eat at a man's soul.

The one thing that might get me to change my mind is if Ruger/Marlin comes out with an offering in 44 Mag and the word on the street is positive.

. . . but even then, I've got to ask myself: Is this something I really even want? It's kind of heavy for a plinker. I've got closets full of deer rifles and I can't think of what else I'd use it for around here.

Honestly, the 400 Legend was just announced and it looks reasonable for a PCR deer cartridge. However, there's no good reason for me to be hunting in Ohio anymore. I haven't done it in over 20 years.

Ach! There I go again.

Unless it’ll financially strain you, get what is in your mind. I’ve had my Henry probably 6 or 7 years. It doesn’t get shot a great amount but I like it a lot. Have no doubt it would be fine to deer hunt with here, shots are typically close. I keep the magazine full and chamber empty for home defense. No question of its effectiveness there.

You’re most welcome! That’s what friends are for.

You’re overthinking this. It’s a 44, and you’re not proposing marriage. Buy it, play with it, write a couple of stories about it and then trade it for 2- 22’s….

My deer rifles are grouped by caliber and cartridge. (Many .25s, so a couple groups there.) They're on a six year rotation for hunting. As to what's needed... Obviously, I've scratched too many itches, but my family can make a few bucks when I kick off. Unless my wife just donates to the Salvation Army or American Rescue Workers.

If you have an itch, you need to scratch it!

I already scratched that itch, and fortunately it has not come back. I had one of the Ruger Deer Hunter models, the older style. Played with it a bit and sent it down the road. It shot fine and functioned with no issues.

You're looking at this issue all wrong.

You've got to let a little light into a closet to actually see what's in there.

It's a wonderful thing to have been blessed with such a desire. To lust after another rifle, or any other type of firearm, is to dream the dreams of the innocent and pure of heart.

Logic, reason, and needs only serve to confuse the issue.

It's been called an affliction by those living in the dark. Don't listen to them, for they are blind and can not see.

There is one, blessed with great wisdom and knowledge, who was the first to properly identify this 'affliction ' and put a name to it.

He first wrote of it many years ago and promptly received great praise from those of us living with this 'affliction' and cursed by those still living in the dark.

Thanks to the great works of John Barsness, those of us living in the light are now known as Rifle Loonies.

Listen not to his detractors, for they know not the wherefore of which they speak.

Be proud of it. Step out of the dark closet and into the blessed light of day. Embrace it. Live the life you were meant to live and scratch that itch.

It's a wonderful thing!

Go on G/broker or Gunsinternational and start looking through all the guns. Pretty soon you’ll have a new itch 😁

If you would go for a single shot in .44 mag, CVA has a Scout for slightly under $400 msrp. The discontinued Hunter was considerably less, but supply has dried up.

You all remind me of my sponsor, Big Bob. I'd get some hair-brained scheme for a new rifle, and I'd call him up and he'd talk me through it.

As I reported on Shooters.com many years ago:




Bob was never a good sponsor, but he had one hell of a gun collection. I guess that is how Rifles Anonymous works. As it turned out, I spent the next 20 years backing up the lies he'd tell Esther on why a new gun had showed up. Gawd, how I miss him.

Get a 444 Marlin. The pain should instantly displace the 44mag itch as soon as you pull the trigger.

Save the money, buy the .44 you want! Unless it keeps you from paying necessay bills, buy it and enjoy!

There are a number of flaws in your thinking, Shaman, but I'll only address a couple:

The original Ruger .44 carbine had a few shortcomings. Reliability was not one as long as it was properly maintained and fed right. Ruger was still in the throes of learning how to make really good rifles and the .44 carbine had to be kept clean and fed the right ammunition. Also, in the early days (and still a bit today) there were a lot of people somewhat uninformed about what constitutes proper lubrication for a gas-operated self-loader in cold weather. The through-bolt had to be kept tight in the stock to keep the action and barrel under control and not spraying bullets in a buckshot-like pattern. (it didn't hurt, either, to glass-bed the gas block, but that wasn't entirely necessary.) "Jammamatic was a term I first heard up on the NY/Vermont/Quebec border region, coined by paper mill boys who didn't understand how to maintain, lubricate or feed them properly.

The second flaw in your thinking (and I may be reading this wrong) seems to be that, when you get another deer rifle, you have to get rid of the original one. That is a bizarre construct. As an example, when I got my (four digit, walnut stock) .44 carbine for $70, slightly used, in 1968 while home on leave from Navy "A" school, I certainly didn't get rid of my .222. Likewise, when I started hunting the open country and moved into a 7mm RM Model 77 in 1987, I didn't get rid of the .44 carbine. In fact, I've still got all three of my original "deer rifles" as well as (ahem) a few more.



The original Ruger carbine (the six pound carbine that would drive it's bullet through a six in pine and still kill a deer, or somesuch) is an absolute delight to carry and shoot. Ruger claimed it had about the same recoil as a 20 gauge shotgun, but I think less.

My wife's grandfather (who was kind of my surrogate grandfather when I was a young teenager, before she was born) had one of the very early ones (he had a sporting goods shop and always liked "new" stuff). It made him happy enough, killing a number of Adirondack bucks and at least one bear, that he used it the rest of his life. My wife's brother now has it. I knew I had to have one like it some day.

Mine fit me like a shotgun should: when I would throw it up in a hurry the sights would be on whatever I was looking at. The deer whose antlers are in a pack I carry into the woods for rattling purposes and the most impressive rack I've ever collected (a 150 class, calendar perfect 10 point) were a result of nothing but the speed, ease and accuracy that carbine could deliver on walked-up, jumped and shot at close range, bucks. The biggest bodied buck I ever killed was the victim of that carbine's ability to hit (with a significant amount of practice) at 200 yards.