What Happened to the .44 Special's Popularity?

[IamOzzy]

I was watching a Hickok45 video where he mentioned the .44 Special was a very popular carry firearm in the 1980's. What led to the decline in popularity? The .38 and the .357 still maintain popularity in the market, but the .44 Special looks like it is more of a collector's gun these days.

[borekfk]

I'm assuming it was the .44 Mag Ruger Super Redhawk.

[Pilot321]

A lot of people want the flexibility of shooting the .44 Mag, but many shoot .44 Special out of their .44 Mags.

[Don Quixote]

44 spl has similair ballistics to a .45 ACP., but the guns are far bigger and heavier an fatter. If you want a revolver for SD, a 357 is hard to beat in a smaller gun formthe same round count. I see 44 spc priced higher than 44 mag.

Too bad, it's a very accurate rounf and fun to shoot at least he range but carrying a 357 is a lot easier.

[rkrcpa]

Funny, I thought this was going to be about the rise in the 44Spl's popularity. There is a larger variety of 44Spl revolvers available today than there ever were, the most popular of which are indeed built on 357 size frames.

[American1776]

It's gotten costly as heck to shoot. In many situations, the 44 special is MORE expensive, per round, than the 44 magnum. Go figure that one out.

Personally I love the .44 special, especially in the heavy 255 gr. Keith style slug. It's got MORE punch than the venerable .45 auto, yet has less blast and recoil than the .44 mag.

[Pistol Packin Preacher]

A friend of mine has a small gun shop in Sullivan County.

He knew I was looking for a .44 Mag in a snub nose (half for hiking and half as a niche/unusual gun).

Had a Rossi R441 2 inch barreled revolver come in.

Got it at a great price.

Shooting .44 Specials out of it is like shooting a .357 Mag.

Shooting .44 Mag is a tad more aggressive (but FUN!)

It is a five shot and the frame overall is a little larger than a solid .357.

It is built on the Taurus Tracker frame and grip (ribber).

Honestly, I love the grip.

I have a Tracker in .357 and .22 and so I am aware of the quality (and Python wannabe looks.)

Interesting story on the production of this model since you cannot import a two inch barreled gun into the states.

They are imported as three inch and Taurus cuts an inch off the barrel and re-crowns down at their Miami plant.

This was a special request gun for Sports Academy if I recall correctly.

Cartridge prices are up there so reloading is highly recommended.

But I love the gun and the cartridge and this one is a keeper.

I just wish they would have kept the three inch barrel to maximize the cartridge a little more.

Any other manufacturer has prices three times what the Rossi can be had for (when it can be had.)

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/201...isfy-atf-regs/

Some thoughts.

God bless!!

PPP

[bamboomaster]

I'm assuming it was the .44 Mag Ruger Super Redhawk.

This ^^^^^^^^^. And there are more Redhawks in mint or "seldom fired" condition on the auction market these days. Most septuagenarians after only a box or two of ammo finally figured out they weren't on the same planet as Detective Callaghan.

It's gotten costly as heck to shoot. In many situations, the 44 special is MORE expensive, per round, than the 44 magnum. Go figure that one out.

Personally I love the .44 special, especially in the heavy 255 gr. Keith style slug. It's got MORE punch than the venerable .45 auto, yet has less blast and recoil than the .44 mag.

Once you have the brass you can easily reload these (and .44 mag's) for around $.18 - $.20 per round. Since they're loaded to lower pressures, the brass from the first two boxes of 50 may last you a lifetime. Or you can order larger quantities of .44 spl brass from here: https://www.starlinebrass.com/order-...fm/caliber/44/

[MT1]

OP... I came into my interest of firearms in the 1980s and I don't recall any large popularity in the .44 Special. Yes, there were those that carried it just like there are now but it was just another option. The .44 crowd at the time was grossly overshadowed by the .357 and even more so by the movement toward semi autos. I like Hickock45 but if he is claiming there was a large popular following of .44 Special carry, this is incorrect.

The .44 Special has, and will continue to be, a niche market. It's just like the Thompson Contender crowd where those that own them (like me) love the gun but the rest of the world barely knows they exist.

As to the question "what happened?", well the round of discussion limits the carrier to a wheel gun and the major manufacturers don't offer much of a selection. They don't offer a wide selection because their marketing research shows the level of demand is very lacking.

[Noah_Zark]

The 44 S&W Special traces its roots to the 44 Russian cartridge. For decades the 44 Special was immensely popular, but befell the uniquely American practice of "seeking more." It was loaded hotter and hotter, and the gun prophet behind that movement was Elmer Keith. Keith magnumized the 44 Special, and because he was a prolific gun writer in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, Remington and S&W listened to Keith and brought out the 44 Remington Magnum cartridge chambered in the S&W N frame revolver, which later became the Model 29 when S&W went to model numbers from verbal names. Ruger followed suit with the Super Blackhawk soon after. The 44 Special fell along the wayside, because of the "more is better" mindset of American shooters who suffer from testosterone poisoning.

The 44 Special still had its supporters, chief among them was Charles F "Skeeter" Skelton, another gun writer and somewhat contemporary of Elmer Keith. Skelton made no bones about the 44 Special being his favorite cartridge, and he bemoaned that S&W stopped offering the Model 24 (N frame 44 Special). Skelton began the practice of rebuilding S&W Model 27 and 28 357 Magnums using NOS Model 24 parts which were still available from S&W in the 60s and 70s, and then after the parts were gone, he did articles on rechambering 357 cylinders and reboring 357 barrels to make 44 Special conversions.

Skelton widely wrote about the virtues of the 44 Special, chief among them its inherent accuracy. His standard load of 7.5 gr of Unique under a cast 240 gr "Keith" semiwadcutter (Lyman 429421) was and still is famous for accuracy and as a game-getter. It is not uncommon for this load to shoot under 1" at 25 feet offhand, and 50 ft from a rest. It does for me, repeatedly, and somewhat boringly -- time and again. The late Col. Tonsend Whelen is often quoted, "Only accurate rifles are interesting." Well, that applies to handguns, too, and the 44 Special is right up there with the intrinsically most accurate handgun cartridges.

The 44 Special saw a resurgence in interest and demand in the 80s, and S&W reintroduced the Model 24 in blue and stainless, and offered an L-frame five-shot, the Model 696, which has achieved cult status among shooters and S&W collectors alike. Back in the day Ruger chambered its flat top Blackhawk in 44 Special, and several years ago was asked by distributors to reintroduce the 44 Special in a New Model Blackhawk. These get snapped up fairly quickly by 44 Special fans. Of course, Charter Arms has made the Bulldog in 44 Special since the 1960s and still offers it today.

In my own experience with a Ruger New Model Flattop Bisley, a S&W 696, and a Charter Bulldog Pug, the Skelton load with the powder charge ranging from 7.0 to 7.5 gr does indeed generate 1" groups or less, often ORH groups if I do my part. 240 grains of flat-pointed semiwadcutter hitting a live target at ~ 850 to 925 FPS is going to do more than just leave a mark. Just last summer I took a coyote with that load from the Ruger NMF Bisley, one shot and down.

The 44 Special is economical to shoot. Simply buy 500 cases from Starline, 240 gr SWC cast bullets from your provider of choice, a can of Unique, and 44 Special / Magnum dies and you're in business. Cost works out to about $0.15-$0.16 per round, or ~ $8.00 a box of 50, not counting your time. Speaking of time, with a Dillon SDB press I can crank out about 250 per hr.

In summary, the 44 Special fell victim to the same mindset that stuffed 440 and 426 Hemi engines in Dodge Darts in the 60s and 70s, 327s and 350s in CJ5 Jeeps, and etc. -- the uniquely American tradition of "more is better," an offshoot of "mine is bigger - faster - louder - more powerful than yours."

Those of us who own 44 Specials and can shoot them accurately know better.

Noah