My Smith 36-6 has spoiled me. Because of it, I have developed a fondness for 3" round butt revolvers. I am waiting to pick up my 686+ Deluxe 3", and would love one in 41, but that is not in the cards. However, with my pending Social Security COLA, I could do a new 629 3" on layaway. This is a revolver that would be used for CCW duty.

Having fired full power 357s and 41s before I became disabled, I would be hesitant to fire 44 Magnums weak handed. (The majority of my torso injuries are muscular-skeletal to the left side.) I know that my 41 Magnum plinking rounds are comparable to 44 Specials.

If I were to go with the 629/44Magnum, but went with Specials, what abilities of the revolver would I be giving up?

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Judge control not gun control!

Dirty Harry explains this in one of the movies as I recall. Lol

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Recoil and muzzel blast for starters. Hunting power would be reduced. But accuracy and the pleasure of shooting low to mderate big bore round would be all yours to enjoy.

[QUOTE=rollingthunder;140202829]Dirty Harry explains this in one of the movies as I recall. Lol

YouTube

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Put a big flat nose slug of lead in it and it won't lack for knock down power at low velocity with anything short of grizzly bears.

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Become a reloader, load max 44 special loads in 44 magnum cases, and recoil is very tame. Performance is excellent. 240 grain bullet at 950 fps or 1,250 fps is still a stopper. 950 fps is far more pleasant to shoot.

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S&WHF 366

Engineer, I have been reloading for over 40 years. About 99% of the centerfire ammo that I have shot since I turned 18 has been my reloads.I enjoy tailoring my ammo to my needs.

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Judge control not gun control!

44 spl Pros versus 44 magnum.
less muzzle blast, way less recoil, way less deafening DB sound, can shoot 100 rounds target shooting practice without hand pains. 44 spl +P hp for a carry round will not let you down for protection. In my opinion the 44 spl +P still will have the pros listed above. Cons...may not be as sufficient as a 44 magnum for stopping a huge bear.

Since I got my 44 special I have put the 38 and 357 revolvers in the safe.
Like Dundee said " you call that a knife.....this is a knife" The 44 spl is no slouch of a gun and fills the purpose for it.

As the .38 Special is to the L Frame 686.

I've shot specials and magnums out of the 686 and .44 Special are very pleasant to shoot out of the bigger gun.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Where does the 44 Special fall short of the 44 Magnum?
1. Recoil, the 44 Magnum has a lot more of it.
2. Muzzle blast, the 44 Magnum has a lot more of it.
3. Velocity, the 44 Magnum has a lot more of it.
4. Cost per round, the 44 Magnum has a little more it.

Honestly, unless you are expecting to encounter a bear, wild boar, or are using your handgun for hunting, the 44 Special is likely all you will need.

Op, the .44Special and .44Magnum are my 2 favorite all time handgun cartridges/loads! A 255 grain "Keith" bullet running at 975fps will take down anything from Black Bear to any 2 legged threat on the planet with the exact same recoil as a .45acp+P (moderate recoil) from a 40oz 3" barreled M629-6.

The .44Magnum with a 305 grain "Keith" moving @ 1250fps will take down anything in North America, including Sasquatches. The recoil of a .44Mag doesn't bother me especially when using a nice pair of svelte, quality leather, cop-gloves I like to call them. I regularly shoot 100 rounds per session and the impulse just pleasant and less than a .357magnum is to me. I've tried to make .357 my go to round for 20+ years before admitting I just don't shoot it well (it's the only handgun caliber I don't shoot well), and 2 years ago the .44Special/Mag has been my Woods and CCW carry caliber(s) since. I too carry 3" barreled versions because they balance so well, are easy to present upon the draw, and are the most versatile handguns I own.

My new, (new to me) EDC for the suburbs with 200gr Gold Dot Specials. For the woods its the aforementioned 305gr "Keith's" rated @ 1300fps but they consistently push well north of 1,200fps out of this nicely timed, tight chamber throats, and .005 cylinder gap(s)...

The M69 w/2 3/4 in.bbl.,loaded with 44Spl. is a great CCW revolver and will carry just as easy as a 686 and is a pleasure to shoot.I have now changed to 44Spl./44Mag. in place of 38/357.

If you are shooting 44 special only, consider the Model 69 2.75". L frame portability if you can make do with 5 shot capacity.

Possibly your first, but definitely your follow-up shots, will probably be more accurate with lower pressure ammo and well placed lower velocity shots will likely prove more effective than scattered spray-n-pray howitzer holes. YMMV

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On the whistle draw and fire 6

You would be giving up about 400 fps and a lot of recoil.
A 44 cal. 250 grain cast SWC @ 800 to 825 fps is nothing to sneeze at.
The 44 special is known for it's accuracy...and as we all know , only hits count . Me thinks a Hit with a 44 Special beats a Miss with a 44 Magnum seven ways to Sunday !
Gary

1. My research indicates attacks by "19 shopping center ninjas" are rather rare.

2. If you pissed off both the Jets and the Sharks, retreat seems a better option than figjting.

3. If you missed 5 times, the likelihood of shot six being a hit is minimal.

4. If you hit the Bear 5 times with a .44, and it's still after you, it must be a radioactive, mutant, zombie bear from outer space. Maybe try some Brazillian ju-jit-su?

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Certified Curmudgeon

I think that ends the discussion. Buy a 44Magnum firearm and load to your preference.

Fondness for round butt, three inch revolvers:

Consider a Charter Arms .44spl Bulldog with a three inch barrel.
Less weight for CCW compared to a S&W Model 29 plus less cost.

My CA .44 is a older model three inch barrel with the exposed ejector rod. I load a 240 grain LSWC with 5 grains Unique.

I've gotta replace an M629-6 "Talo" that I sold to my brother to keep the safe inventory number a nice even number. It will be with an M69, 2 3/4" barrel when I can locate one locally!

I still love .38Special with my 1 7/8" J frames and 2" Colt; it's an effective caliber with the right projectile. When a bit more pop are the +P loadings that I have zero problems controlling in my M36's and do carry them at times with the +P's depending on what I'm doing. As to .357, great caliber, sure footed man stopper, venerable, etc... But its the only handgun caliber I don't shoot well and in 20 years I cannot put my finger as to the reason as I'm a darned good shot with .38Special, 9mm, 40cal, .45ACP, .45Super, .44Special, & .44Magnums. I too have swapped over fully to .44Special/Mags for my Woods-Gun and CCW piece for cruising and walking around the Suburbs of North Atlanta. Sometimes the answer really is: Just Because...

Both the .44Special and .44Magnum are highly & inherently accurate calibers. You can do just about the same accuracy wise with either caliber/loading if I steadily let the hammer fall without flinching/anticipating recoil. I certainly favor the heavy for caliber loadings.

Like you said in so many words... a good .44Special, 250grain "Keith" at 825fps... I agree is a devastating projectile upon both bone and soft tissue with the recoil of a .45acp.

My favorite .44Special load is a 255 grain Keith from Underwood Ammo that is rated at 1,000fps but chrono's to be pushing about 935fps out of my 3" M29 and M629. My brother and I recently got a couple used progressive presses with all the fixin's and are getting ready to try and duplicate both the above .44Special load and my 2nd favorite load, Underwoods 305 grain .44Mag "Keith" rated at 1300fps but again, pushes a solid/respectable 1,225fps there-about from my guns.

Matt's Bullets has all the great "Keith" style bullets in just about every desirable weight one could want.

OP, I believe I read you've been reloading for a long time. .44Mag/Special make up about 80% of my handgun training/shooting at the club because the caliber is just that great and addicting. I know of no other more versatile handgun caliber! YMMV...

....that beside blast, recoil and shooting comfort I would NOT want to be shot by one. If you confront grizzlies, the .44 magnum is required. Anything less, the ..44 Special is fine. That answers the question "How much do you lose with .44 Special". Not much.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

My M69 is the 4.25 in. bbl.I carry 44Spl.I am comfortable(as I have posted before) with only 5 rds. in the revolver and if I have to reload,I know I am in trouble.I find it hard to believe that someone shot with a 44 will still want to fight.But,I have been wrong many times before.

I agree with you JungleFighter.

90% of handgun engagements and/or most attacks happen inside of 21 feet (7 yards)... I feel more than comfortable with my 3" N-frame and 200grain .44Specials with 2 speed strips. I can beat the living hell out of someone with my 3" N-frame if I had to but just so I don't have to: I practice with it... and all my handguns at 10 yards, rarely, if ever, any closer than that at the indoor club. And we practice at 25-35 yards when doing silhouette gong shoots/training at the farm. Do those distances enough and it translates into even better accuracy at the typical 21 feet attack distance and/or shorter.

If we are talking about 4 legged ambush predators it's best to pair your .44Special/Mag "Woods-Revolver" with an alert dog; I like my back-up gun to be a "J" frame loaded with BB 150grain Hard Cast, full-wads for their deep penetration and ability to bust bone(s). A dog can alert you to trouble much farther in advance that one could imagine and mine certainly acts strange/alerts me when something is amiss. I'm in Appalachia for my woods retreats and the below pics are of my carry rigs/loads with aforementioned dog, "Ripley", when we hike, kayak, fish, & Off-Road in the Nantahla National Forest. YMMV...

Straight ears,excellent posture,wide leather collar to protect the neck and alert eyes.Great dog and an excellent companion to match your S&W's.

I almost never fire full-power .44 Mag loads in any of my .44 Mag revolvers as I am averse to all that muzzle blast and recoil. About all I shoot are lightly loaded .44 Mags or .44 Specials. Unless you need bear protection or are hunting, you give up nothing in practical performance by shooting .44 Special-level reloads.

Thanks JungleFighter! We get a lot of complements on her while on walks from people, "in the know" of German Shepherds. You seem to be one of those as well. Her most notable attribute is her strait back. She's only 15 months old now but has all the ingrained natural senses and instincts of an older female. She comes from a long line of service, police, and rescue dogs from "Appleridge Farms" in Griffin GA. Her daddy is "Shockwave" and is a beefy 125+lbs Obedience/Show champ, & her mama is "Jade", a 95lbs beauty. I think Ripley will be somewhere around 105lbs. She's the fastest and most agile dog I've ever had. Below is a link to the breeder and about her daddy Shockwave...

Appleridge Obedience Family German Shepherd Dogs Pup GSD Breeder Ocala Florida Behaviorist Atlanta Georgia Purebred Full Blooded AKC Train For Sale USA Canada akc ckc reg - Shockwave (Juliet & Lincoln)

With Ripley along for the walk, I think you could downgrade your carry weapon to a sharp stick!

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Some collect art; I shoot it!

Just the "macho" "blow your head clean off" stuff. .44 Special, as it's predecessor, .44 Russian is an exceptionally accurate caliber(and so is the .44 Mag for that matter) and a pleasure to shoot.

PS. If you carry it in "bear country" all bets are off. As you can find out searching for all the "bear gun" threads on this forum.

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Expect the unexpected

I own several .44 caliber revolvers including Model 29 (4", 6.5") and 629 (3"). It has been about 20 years since I fired .44 magnum ammunition. I just don't see the need, with the .44 Special providing excellent performance without the added muzzle blast and recoil. My preferred load is a 240-grain cast SWC at around 850FPS which I know will drop just about anything that walks in Colorado.

Several years ago I found myself low on .44 Special ammo and without the time to reload my own, so I purchased a 500-round case of Underwood 240-JHP .44 Specials, which Underwood quoted as providing 1000-plus FPS. Excellent quality, very accurate in all of my revolvers, and not unpleasant to shoot. Probably a step up from my usual ammo, performance-wise. Still have 250 rounds on hand, if I ever feel the need.

For those intent upon taking large and dangerous critters at short range the .44 magnum is probably a better choice. For everything else the .44 Special provides plenty of power.

HamHands: What a terrific and impressive pedigree history.I know you are proud.Thank you for sharing the link,what an impressive linage.

Hahahaha, thanks! She certainly will make an ill willed "ne'er-do-well" pick a softer target. When something is off she'll pace left to the right frantically while staying directly in front of me. This is my first personal GSD but my family has had them forever. Their loyalty, level of discernment, and instincts are uncanny all the while loving children and the immediately family... almost to a fault even. She's certainly a family member in her own right around here!

Thanks JF! I'm glad you enjoyed the link. Ann Sackrider-Miller "the breeder" has focused on the original traits of how the breed was say 50-60 years ago as opposed to today, "show breed standards" that are purely for looks instead of performance. So they are healthier, bigger, live longer, and have great temperament and are super eager to please.

I have a 7 year old daughter and a wife I love dearly. I wanted to make sure the temperament was A+ solid all the while still being protective of them of us. She certainly is everything we wanted in a dog. The best part about going thru this particular breeder is that hip dysplasia is linked to a specific set of genes and Ripley has no way of getting it because it's been bred out of this particular lineage as well as a couple other common ailments for the last decade or more.

I don't want to even imagine what life would be around the house without her.

The dog will discourage most miscreants, and as to those not discouraged, you have what I would call real evidence that they are really dangerous to you/yours.

As for self-defense use of a .44/.45 caliber revolver against human assailants, I'd bet a lot that the performance of any load of crudely 240-250 to about 270 grain SWC at 800-900 fps will be pretty good and the round will be within the capability limits you have described yourself as having. It will surely better better than strong language and a punch.

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NHI, 10-8.

I've had this college friend of nearly 20 years come by one afternoon I invited to go shooting at my club. Ripley wouldn't let him in the house and her hair from mid shoulders and nearly all the way to her butt was raised like a Mohawk, all teeth, full on not welcomed here business. She's never done that to anyone before or after that to anyone else like she did to him that day. It was eye opening and started my mind to thinking about things I've heard about him in the past with women, some things that me and the the rest of our mutual friends gave him a pass/break on, etc... Needless to say I've deleted him out of my phone and we are no longer friends. Good dogs know malcontent when they smell it! I bought her a Porterhouse Steak the next night, grilled it up just for her and fed it to her as a thank you, Ol' Girl!

Always liked German Shepherd Dogs(and they like me back ), even if I never owned one. I have been fortunate enough, all my life, to have had good friends that owned them, to a point that the dogs acted to me like I was family. But the funny thing is. Whenever I see one out in the street and I try to make friends with it, I always end up with a new friend. Did I say they liked me?

PS. As a matter of fact, all dogs like me. Go figure.

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Expect the unexpected

Always pay attention to a good dog(i.e.-Ripley).When they say "a dog is a man's best friend",it is said with sincerity.A good dog will not only keep you and yours out of trouble,but will save your life.Good call listening to Ripley.

Dogs, especially German Shepherd Dogs are really good judges of character. GSD's are notorious for being very discriminating in who they allow to get close to them and do not easily lend their friendship to just anyone. You must have a very good and trusting nature about you Kurusu! Because if you didn't those GSD's would not like you one little bit!

The day we drove 150 miles round trip to go get Ripley from the Breeder... It was more like a 3 hour interview of Ann the Breeder of feeling us out before she would let Ripley go home with us to make sure we were good people... She explicitly said on her site when we made the down-payment she reserves the right to refund and cancel the sales contract for any reason...

Near the end of our visit/pick-up Ann told us a story about Ripley's father, Shockwave... He is her #1 stud dog but also her personal pet GSD and he goes everywhere with her as a service dog. Appleridge is a working farm as well and they have hired hands to do farm and tractor work. Ann the breeder has twin girls that were about 5 years old at the time. And there was one particular farm hand that "Shockwave" wouldn't let get within 20 feet of those children, acted the same way Ripley did to my so called "friend" and went at him once. Ann and her husband thought that was very strange considering all the other farm hands had never had this problem. Ann ran a background check on said "farm-hand" only to find he's a registered child molester/sex offender. He came off as and unsuspecting, super nice, and as a "Good ol' Boy"... He was a wolf in sheep's clothing in reality! Shockwave was just doing what he was born to do, love and protect his family/sheep!

Absolutely, solid advice. The decision to end the friendship was hard. Everybody loves this guy, life of the party, ladies like him, hysterically funny, etc... I'm ashamed to admit it now but he was the best man in my wedding. I'm not easily fooled either by anyone but nobody is perfect especially me! But Ripley's reaction to him made me wrestle with a lot of things from the last 20 years; both the good times and the questionable stuff. Lastly, being that I have a 7 year old daughter and a lovely wife... and how Ripley would get in between them and my friend and how uncomfortable he was with Ripley really put it all in perspective. Ripley saw thru him and his vale was off and he wasn't used to that. I made the right decision and we 3 all love Ripley the more for it!

To get back on the thread topic,I have a question.Has anyone compared the new Winchester 210 gr. Silvertip in both 44 Spl. and 44 Mag.? I read somewhere that the new production is better(?) and was curious if anyone has tried the new ammo.Thanks.

I have two new to me 20 round boxes of the 200grain .44Special ammo dated from 2001'. I bought a bunch of ammo from "OldEnough" when he sold me his last Smith .44 Mag. I plan to get 2 boxes of the new Winni Silvertip .44Special ammo and compare the two's groupings, velocity, and muzzle flash.

I've not seen any 210grain .44Special Silver-Tip though.

Depending on the range trip results the .210 Silver-Tip Winchester might just replace my current CCW .44Special loads, the Blazer cased 200grain Gold Dots. They group nice but consistently shoot one inch low and one inch to the right at 12 yards in both my 629-5 and 29-3. Weird...

SGAmmo has both on their web site. Silvertip has had a good following and the new improved(?) is supposed to be better and I have not spoken to anyone who has fired/tested it.The new ammo is 210 gr. in both calibers.








I was incorrect in stating Win. Silvertip was 210 gr. in both calibers. Spl. is 200 and Mag. is 210.

Not that weird. I'd expect that from something going at least 100 fps faster than the loads the gun is sighted for.

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Expect the unexpected

The only 44 I own is a M69,4.25" bbl. I am currently using Sig 200 gr. 44 Spl. as my carry round.It shoots well and just thought the Silvertip might be better.I also bought some Speer Gold Dot for SB revolvers in 44 Mag.I am new to revolver carry after so many years of semi's.Still in the learning stage.

...velocity...

...44 Magnum is a 44 Special +P+ ...

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A Country Boy Can Survive

I haven't seen anyone mention this, but the trade off is you lose the capability of firing light magnums. I personally like to load my 44 MAGs hotter than a 44 SPL, but lighter than full strength. A 180gr bullet at 1100fps is a nice stout load without being abusive to shoot.

I guess since you are shooting the SPLs in a 629 you could just overload them, but MAG brass is much easier to find and if you discuss your hot SPL loads online you are certain to have a know-it-all calling you suicidal for exceeding published load data.

BTW, I love my 3" 629 Deluxe and highly recommend it to all revolver enthusiasts. After I got a 44 and started loading for it, my only question is why I waited almost 30 years to get one.

I'd tend to agree except for one caveat... Both the M29 and M629 are sighted in for Full-House Mags that are significantly hotter than the .44special GD's. Of my first range trip with both of them I took a 50 caliber ammo can slap full of 15 different kinds of ammo, 60% .44Mag, 40%w/ .44Specials, all different weights and pressures loaded to. The only ammo that shot a different POA to POI was the CCI Blazer Gold Dots, different lots each gun but same results. Now that I think about it, the 629-6 "Talo" that I sold to my little brother did the same thing.