In Iowa we can hunt with straight walled and pistol cartridges the last 3 years. I ended up with 3 Ruger 44 carbines, a 444 Marling and a Marlin 336 44 rem mag. I was working on doing some bedding work on one of the Ruger 44. I had the action out and really studied it last night. What a piece of engineering. I have been using the Hornady 240 grains xtp and have good success. Bang flop. Most shots have been in the 75 to 50 range on bottomland deer.

I am glad that Ruger is not making these anymore. Keeps the value up on mine when I kicked the bucket and my estate cashes in. Better than my stock holdings post COVID

Any other Ruger 44 carbine owners out there?

Just curious, can you use .45-70 and the other BP cartridges?

I used a No1 in 45-70 for Iowa deer last December...450 Bushmaster as well.

45 70. 444marlin and 450 bushy only real rifle u can use

Most common 450 Bush. 45 70. 444 marlin. 350 legend. Not impressed with 350 legend. 44 rem mag and bigger handgun cals

I'm a recent Model 44 convert. My buddy died a year ago and I acquired his Ruger Model 44. I determined to hunt with it last year, and managed to bag a buck.



Story here:
Bob's Model 44 and The Buck

When I first got it, it was a Jam-O-Matic. Over the summer, it took two trips to the gunsmith to get it working right. It wasn't feeding the second round properly, and the action was locking up. When it did work, the brass was ejecting every-which-way. My guess is that the first owner did something to hose it up and then took it to a gun show to dump it. Bob acquired it cheap and never shot it and let it sit in the case for 40 years. Bob was more of a collector than a hunter. Once it got going, it was a joy to shoot. Bottom line: if you find one that jams, a good smith can fix it.

My load of choice is 240 grain XTP's over H110, just a tad hotter than a starting load. I started out with an 1st Generation Aimpoint, but that did not work so well in low-light conditions. It now sports a Bushnell Banner 1-4.5X; the Dusk to Dawn coatings are the Schizz!

After the buck, I took it along to Georgia for a hog hunt with Folically Challenged.



One word of caution: On my last evening hunt with FC, it was pitch dark when the truck picked us up, and I made the mistake of cupping my hand over the ejection port to catch the round. The round popped out, bounced off my hand and then back in, and it jammed up tight. It took removing the action from the stock and working a butter knife into the action to get the round sent back up into the magazine where it could be re-ejected. Just make sure you let loaded rounds eject freely as you're unloading it, and you won't have to suffer as I did.

Pros: Light, accurate, quick to point. Negligible recoil. Deadly on whitetails at close range.
Cons: It flings brass. Mine was flinging it all over the place when I got it. After the smith fixed it, it flings much more reliably to the 2 O'Clock position, but it still flings.

Just found one also, fun little banger though I'm not sure what practical use I have for it. My thumb bounces off my nose during recoil, I might get a pad to extend the LOP.

I've had a 44 International for more than 50 years.

It does what it was designed to do quite well, kill medium game at ranges out to 100 or so yards. If you still-hunt in tight cover it might be close to the perfect tool. It is short light, accurate enough, and the minimal recoil makes it easier to send multiple follow up shots at a moving target if necessary. When I moved from NH to NE in 1990 I didn't think that I would us it, but found that still-hunting in tight cover calls of the same skills and gear in Nebraska creek-bottoms as it did in the woods of ME, NH, and VT.

I have a picture somewhere of my Father and Bearrr264's Father with 2 big, over 200 lbs., NH whitetail bucks on top of an old green Jeep Wagoneer on Main Street in Colebrook, NH, in the late 1960's. They were standing next to the Jeep in falling snow, both dressed in green plaid wool and holding Ruger 44 Carbines. That was probably a common sight in that town, at that time, such nobody walking by would think that two guys holding guns on Main Street was out of the norm.

I've shot a couple of Iowa whitetails with Remington 870s, a 16 gauge shooting Brennekes and a 20 gauge rifled slug gun shooting sabots.

I have one manufactured in 1967. I have been wanting one since I was young, but never acquired one. My work buddy's Dad was selling a lot if his gun collection because he felt too old and broke down to hunt anymore. He was. Asking $600, but when he heard I was a police officer who worked with his son, he sold it to me for $450. It's in excellent shape. Only modification is a white line recoil pad that he had installed. I'll probably never let go of this one.

Ron

My late buddy had a Ruger 44 Carbine. He killed a truck load of whitetails with it in Wisconsin decades ago. It worked well for him on deer drives with ranges under 100 yards.

I shot my first buck with one when I was a kid...I was pretty young. Had a 2.5x scope on it in "see-through's". Homemade treestand, sitting on a board about 20 feet up in a cedar tree. Pouring rain....I actually had to use the iron sights as I couldn't see anything through the scope. I sat in the tree and waited on my dad to come get me after the shot. He was in a stand probably 100-150 yards down the mountain. I looked down and watched him running up the mountain....Dad running was not a common sight. When he got to me I climbed down and asked him why he was running....he answered that he was scared I had an accident and shot myself.

I started a thread once on another forum asking what cartridge killed out of proportion to it's paper ballistics. The .44 Magnum and the .257 Roberts tied for top honors.

In the early '90s my brother inherited one from our grandfather. After talk of selling it for beer money I bought it from him for $300. I have since cleaned it like it has never been cleaned before, lube it with dry film lube, and restocked it with a modified blank from Macon Gun Stocks. Mine has a monte-carlo cheek piece and a flat stock with a 1/2" recoil pad. The action moves around inside the stock a little bit but I'm able to maintain 3" groups at 100 yards so I'm not too worried about it. It WILL be the gun I carry this winter when I hunt bears with dogs again. I've killed deer and pigs with it and it never disappoints.

Thanks, Dinny

The first one I bought on GB and the post office broke the stock in half. They paid on the insurance for the full value and I kept the action. Found a stock through the Camp Fire but the guy would not sell it unless I bought another custom stocked 44 carbine from him. Since I had one free already I bought his custom gun and additional stock for $600. Now had 2 at $300 apiece. Was in LGS and there was one on the rack for $450 a year ago so I bought that one. That is how I ended with three All are set up differently. One has a 1.5x5 Vortex scope on it, One a redot and the last one was with the factory peep set-up. I really like the peep sights and shoot it ghost ring style. I have got greater knowledge of the guns. The custom gun was beautifully done and was bedded properly. I have followed that bedding pattern on the other 2 guns. The smith that did it is well know in Oregon but his name alludes me right now. The guy that had the gun before me owned a tool and die operation. He gave me the custom aluminum top rails he made. They are beautifully made and are exact fits to the stepped contour of the receiver and barrel base holes. They are a shoot. The scoped gun is an honest 1.5 inch 100 yard grouper with The Hornady 240 XTP.

If you ever need a Ruger 44 carbine worked on, the place to go is Rody's in Newport, NH.

Bill and Henry know more about those old Rugers than anyone else who I've met or talked to, so if it can be fixed, they can fix it.

Rody's Gun Shop
3 Chateau Drive
Newport, NH 03773

603-863-3356

Pops has a minty '66 fingergroove.
I shot a deer with it about a dozen years ago.
Last time it was shot.

Has big bead on front sight, and peep. Sucks past 75 yards.
Needs a low power scope.

Good buddy of mine, Tony, successfully used a Ruger 44 carbine for deer on our hunting property in central WI for years. Sadly, Tony passed from cancer a few years back. His son, Anthony, a cancer survivor himself, now uses the carbine. The first year Anthony used the carbine, after his dad's passing, turned out to be more emotional for us in camp than I had anticipated. I never used one of the Rugers, but the one of Tony's still keeps working and killing deer!

My wife's grandfather had a marina/sporting goods store in our hometown. He got one of the Ruger .44 carbines when they first came out. It was his Adirondack deer rifle the rest of his hunting days. My brother-in-law has it now.

My brother had one for a few years in the '70's, one of the newer ones with a "hardwood" stock. The guy he bought it from gave hime a bunch of homeloads with it, 180 grain bullets of some kind, I don't remember. It shot well, but he traded it off after a few years.

I got one while home on leave in 1968, used, like new, for $70. It has a walnut stock and a 4 digit serial number. I never did anything much with it until I got out of the Navy. It wasn't very accurate until I read an article in Rifle magazine about accurizing them by glass bedding the gas block and somewhere else (can't recall right now and the rifle is at my son's in Missouri.) After that, with a 240 grain XTP over a very healthy dose of H 110 it will shoot under an inch and a half at 100 yards. I killed two of my nicest buck with it, one a magazine-cover quality ten point and one that weighed 208 gutted and hung for a week before weighing. That one was way down in the swamps and it was a chore getting him out. It was before we had such things as quads. Dragging a deer that size uphill, over a freshly plowed field that's damp, not muddy, is an experience I will probably never repeat.

I want to find a Ruger 44 carbine too, but the 2 I am most interested in are the newer Deerfield auto or the M96 Lever action.
There is NOTHING I could do with either one of them I can't do as well with other guns, some of which I already own. I just like them.

My wife's uncle hunted with one of these in the heavy bush of northern Minnesota. He is an excellent shot-participated on an Army competition squad back in the 50's. To the best of my knowledge, he never had a deer get away from him that he shot with this rifle. I always thought this was an excellent choice for hunting in the reallky thick stuff where most shots were barely further than bayonet range. .

It appears to be the finger groove Sporter model . Cool . They are More sought after.

Yes, but I doubt it really matters. It was Bob's, and it is one of the few tangible things I have of his. It won't be going down the road anytime soon.

25 years ago, I remember the much-maligned Clay Harvey in The Hunting RIfle writing glowingly about the Ruger Model 44:

"For still-hunting-in dense brush, nothing is quite as good--all things considered--as a Ruger .44 Magnum semi-automatic carbine. . ."

In a photo caption, he added: "Author opines that the defunct Ruger.44 Carbine was the finest rig ever for rainy-day still hunting."


Up until this past fall, I'd shot deer at close range with 12 GA slug, 30-somethings like 30-30 and 30-06, and a .54 Hawken. This Ruger compared quite favorably at 60+ yards. It got the job done better than my 30-30 and it got it done without the recoil of a slug gun or '06.

As a general-purpose weapon, I'd look for something else-- especially for longer ranges. For close-in still-hunting and treestand work, I'd put it near the top. The one niche where I'd the Model 44 shining is places like Ohio with these blasted pistol caliber rifle rules. The Model 44 gets the job of the 12 GA smoothbore slug done with a lot less recoil.

A buddy gave me this one about 7 or 8 years ago, it had belonged to his uncle. I was advised to shoot 240 grain bullets through it, so that is all I have shot; use a 240 Grain Hornady XTP handload in it - been flawless with this load.

I have my Dad's in the gun cabinet, it was the "go to"gun for my uncles and grand father. Two things I've learned about them.

Low recoil loads - no good, not enough to eject cleanly.

CLEAN THEM. We have 4 in our hunting party, one uncle things "full cleaning" is running a rod down the barrel. His jammed. All the time, he was ready to toss it and his brother (other uncle) took it, ripped it apart, cleaned everything, reassembled and it didn't jam for 5 years after that.

Ruger did kind of a foot shot with that carbine introduction when one of their first advertising campaigns featured a hunter holding that .44 carbine with a human sized gorilla spread eagled next to him. With all the look alike 10/22's already in circulation, the .44 carbine was a natural. One does wonder why they stopped making not only the carbine, but other successful Ruger rifles and handguns?

I really wish I could find someone that can shorten the pre and over travel of these triggers. Lightening it would be icing on the cake.

Thanks, Dinny

The .44 Magnum was out way before the 10-22, the .44 carbine being Ruger's first rifle.

Back when those came out nobody gave a schitt whether somebody was shooting gorilla. People considered it a cool, adventurous thing to do, go off in the jungle and shoot a gorilla. Some of us still do.

Yeah, I caught that it’s a sentimental gun. I was just pointing out a fact . Thanks for sharing.

The 10/22 was based on the style of the Model 44, not the other way around.

Ruger discontinued the Model 44 in 1985 due to high production costs, and overall lack of interest.

The Model 96 died for lack of interest.In this world of new PCR laws, it probably would have survived.

The new and improved Deerfield that was introduced in the 2000's suffered from feeding problems. Too many were being sent back to the factory.

Right you are and I stand corrected. The Ruger .44 Carbine was introduced December 1961 and the 10/22 came out in 1964. First 10/22 that I ever saw was in 1968 and I traded off a Winchester M62A to get a new 10/22 Sporter that same year.

I actually just bought one this week, ruger model 44 carbine. I realized it's going to be my walking rifle for hunting this year.

It seems like it will be the perfect Michigan woods rifle. Sucker hits the targets hard but kicks like a .410, never been this excited about a rifle.

Always liked the idea of acquiring one of these for some variety aside from a 30-30 lever. But never really sought one out. Saw one a few years ago for $600, which was probably not a bad price. Some day when the stars align I'll scoop one up.

When I was pretty young(!) I read a mag piece, probably in an Argosy in the barbershop, on gorilla hunting. The hero of that one used a 1911, supposely because he thought the ape might grab a rifle by the barrel and brain him with it.

Hey, I don't make 'em up, I just tell 'em!

Always wanted one of the little Rugers, but tried a 77/44, and now have a Contender carbine under construction. The 20" MGM 1-20 twist barrel is sitting in the hall. Not sure when my dealer will be taking deliveries yet, so the frame is in limbo. The .44 is a little hammer, and I have some Barnes XPBs waiting to be assembled into ammo. Figure they ought to expand AND punch two holes.

I bought my third year carbine in 2004 for $275 at a pawn shop in Houston. It has been dead reliable and shoots the 270 gr Gold Dot and 250 gr Partition pretty well. I had hoped to bear hunt with this year at my place in Idaho but that has been cancelled.

If they'd make the Mini-14 in 350 Legend, we'd have a respectable heir to the .44.

Lol!

They are impossible to find in Alaska.

Great little rifle. I inherited one, tube fed, not sure what year...65-67, I think. Can't post picture - image too large.

I don’t know about the pre travel, but a decent smith or DIY’er should be able to add a set screw to the back of the trigger to adjust out excessive over travel.......

BT53

I think that Clay Harvey was a good story teller, the catch being that is has been alleged that many of his stories were embellished and/or borrowed from other people.

Add to that the allegations that he sold firearms that had been provided to him by manufacturers for testing and as the basis for articles. I have a couple of rifles that were purchased from gun writers, assuming that they had purchased them from the manufacturers. One is a pre-production prototype that went into production in a different configuration.

It has also been alleged that Peter Capstick embellished and/or borrowed other peoples' experience and claimed them as his own. Capstick is generally held in high regard while Harvey is a pariah.

You should talk to Bill or Henry at Rody's.