I always liked the looks of the early model. I bought a new one around 1975. Being a cast bullet shooter with all handgun cartridges, I found the Ruger carbine not to be the best gun for such use. Heavy bullets had to be seated quite deeply to function reliably through the not-so-easy-to-load tube magazine.

Never did work up a really accurate cast bullet load. I seem to recall jacketed bullets were better in this regard. Sold that gun, and twenty years later there was another old model Ruger .44 carbine in with a batch of guns I purchased. Had to try cast all over again; same story and that one was also sold.

There have been rumors over the years that using cast bullets in these guns would gunk up the gas operating system. Possible, I suppose, but I never found any truth to it.

Stick with jacketed bullets and these carbines are probably fine, accurate guns.