Ruger 44 Carbine

I have a Ruger .44 mag carbine also, but mine is the later "Deerfield" version that uses an M1 carbine-like rotating bolt and a removable magazine. Still new in the box. Not many realize there are actually two versions!

John


(Click for larger image)

One of these was my very first semi auto center fire rifle, 1977, I was 16. One of my favorite targets was fence posts on the farm, Dad was not happy about that, 240 grain 44 Magnums would do a job on them

PALADIN85020 said:

I have a Ruger .44 mag carbine also, but mine is the later "Deerfield" version that uses an M1 carbine-like rotating bolt and a removable magazine. Still new in the box. Not many realize there are actually two versions!

John


(Click for larger image)

Click to expand...

Yes 2 versions and 3 names. Deer Stalker changed to just Carbine after Ithaca accused Ruger of infringing on Deer Slayer name. Then the Deerfield came out for a few years.

PALADIN85020 said:

I have a Ruger .44 mag carbine also, but mine is the later "Deerfield" version that uses an M1 carbine-like rotating bolt and a removable magazine. Still new in the box. Not many realize there are actually two versions!

John


(Click for larger image)

Click to expand...

Seems like most posts about the .44 carbine are in reference to the original model. Seldom do you see anything about the later guns. Are these decent carbines? Are they accurate? I've seen photos only, never a gun.

PALADIN85020 said:

I have a Ruger .44 mag carbine also, but mine is the later "Deerfield" version that uses an M1 carbine-like rotating bolt and a removable magazine. Still new in the box. Not many realize there are actually two versions!

John


(Click for larger image)

Click to expand...

I have one of those too, I have about 150 rds through it.

They're based off of the Mini-14 action, you can see the DNA carry over when you look at a Mini-14. I wish Ruger (or someone) had made an optional larger capacity magazines, like 10 rds. The factory 4 round one seem too limiting, and they are now expensive and difficult to find.

There once was a video on Youtube from a guy in Australia showing how he adapted a Desert Eagle .44 Magnum magazine for use in the Deerfield. I wish I had copied it off, as it's no longer posted. Would have loved to have tried it myself.

Gunhacker you are right. That 4 rd mag is a PITA!!!! You should sell me that rifle and just be done with it

rockquarry said:

Seems like most posts about the .44 carbine are in reference to the original model. Seldom do you see anything about the later guns. Are these decent carbines? Are they accurate? I've seen photos only, never a gun.

Click to expand...

They are pretty good... accurate enough for a 100 yrd. "woods gun". They are a bit temperamental with ammo, needs to be full boat stuff for reliable cycling. One big gripe is the shell ejection, with a scope mounted. The casings eject upwards and deflect off of the scope... Ruger's "cure", was to furnish a strip of leather to put on the scope above the ejection port.

Gamecock said:

Factory ammo only. No reloads. They don't like reloads.

Click to expand...

I shoot reloads in mine with no problems. I have used jacketed as well as coated lead. Accuracy is better with 180 than 240gr.

TJm15.38 said:

That's a great find. I was a fool to get rid of mine in the late 90's. The Ruger .44 Carbine I owned would shoot 1.5 to 2.0 MOA at 100 yards with a fixed 2.5X Lyman scope. These are quality guns using a similar gas system as a M-1 Carbine (short gas piston/operating rod). The receiver was machined from a solid block of 4140 steel, and the gun was not cheap to build. Probably why they ceased production. The only thing that will screw these guns up is shooting pure lead bullets which tend to lead up the gas port. I shot heavy bullets; 240 grain jacketed hollow point or soft nose (usally Remington). Enjoy. Give us a range report when you can.

Click to expand...

I shot a lot of my cast lead bullets in my Ruger 44 carbine.......NEVER clogged a gas port........Now I shoot a lot of cast bullets in my M1 carbines and Garands......NEVER clogged a gas port and never will.......Name one for real instance in which lead bullets clogged a gas port? In over 50 years of shooting it's never happened to me or anyone I know.......IT's an old wive's tale unproven by FACT and needs to die.

Mike said:

I shot a lot of my cast lead bullets in my Ruger 44 carbine.......NEVER clogged a gas port........Now I shoot a lot of cast bullets in my M1 carbines and Garands......NEVER clogged a gas port and never will.......Name one for real instance in which lead bullets clogged a gas port? In over 50 years of shooting it's never happened to me or anyone I know.......IT's an old wive's tale unproven by FACT and needs to die.

Click to expand...

You're right. My experience with the Ruger carbines and cast bullets was the same as yours.

Never had one but always thought they were really cool.

Rudi said:

Never had one but always thought they were really cool.

Click to expand...

Yep. What a PCC should be.

Back in '65, bought a 1022, which I still have, countless rounds fired. Now my 8y year old grandson is learning to shoot it, with a youth stock. And ever since back then I wanted its Big Brother, the 44 carbine. Just something I "wanted", even though I don't hunt deer or the like.

About two years ago, decided it was time to "scratch that itch", and began the search for an earlier 44 carbine. There is a gun store back in my wife's small home town in Nebraska, Bedlans in Fairbury, and he had a new one, but wasn't interested in selling it, but when I told him to name his price, there was no way I could get that past my wife.

So checked with the Cabela's Gun Library guy at the store just south of Charlotte, and he found one at a Cabela's way up north, and had it shipped down, and after an inspection, I bought it. I think $1100 or so as I recall. Nice rifle, just a little "patina", and per someone's advice here, checked for a cracked stock just behind the receiver. Watched some Utube video's on now to field strip, and cleaned and lubed it. I bought the dies and cases and Hornady bullets, and have about a hundred rounds of my reloads thru it. I wanted to just keep it stock, but my aging eyes just couldn't work with the iron sights, so put on an unused low power scope, and sighted it in for 75 yards.

The 44 Ruger are just svelte carbines, with a little kick off a sandbag. I like my firearms to shoot well, reliably, but it is nice when they are just handsome and proper looking too. Here is mine after a scope.

All the best, SF VET
[/url][/IMG]

Gamecock said:

Factory ammo only. No reloads. They don't like reloads.

Click to expand...

Mine grew legs and walked away a few years ago after a visit from our son. It was an early one.
I shot reloads exclusively, a favorite being a 180 grain Sierra hollow cavity, a heavy dose of H-110 and a CCI 350 magnum primer.
The last deer I shot dressed at 185 lbs, dropped from a single shot at about 30 yards.
Never had any problems with my reloads. Always full length resized, used jacket bullets with heavy rolled crimps.
I know each gun can be different, but this was the experience with my gun.
As always, the above load was taken from an article in a well known gun magazine and WAS SAFE IN MY GUN. Practice safe reloading methods.

Mike said:

I shot a lot of my cast lead bullets in my Ruger 44 carbine.......NEVER clogged a gas port........Now I shoot a lot of cast bullets in my M1 carbines and Garands......NEVER clogged a gas port and never will.......Name one for real instance in which lead bullets clogged a gas port? In over 50 years of shooting it's never happened to me or anyone I know.......IT's an old wive's tale unproven by FACT and needs to die.

Click to expand...

I shot a lot of cast bullets in my first M1 carbine back in the day (late 1980s, early 1990s.

It depended on the alloy and the powder, but I did have gas port issues with 90 gr cast bullets. They were plain base Lyman 308244 round nose bullets intended for the .30 Luger. Given the pressure and velocity, and my then limited knowledge of cast bullet nuances I used water quenched wheel weight alloy, and got leading bad enough that I’d have to remove the tappet every few hundred rounds to access and clean the gas port.

Leading was worse with 2400, than with H-110/Win 296, or IMR-4227 and it was an artifact of gas cutting of the overly hard allow in a bullet that didn’t obturate into the bore quickly enough.

With softer no 2 alloy or unquenched wheel weights it stopped being a problem.

——

Interestingly, around the same time I was able to get 110 gr FMJ projectiles through DCM and hand loaded them for my M1 Carbine. I noted with 2400 and those bullets I’d get an occasional stoppage due to a small ring of jacket metal left in the front of the chamber. It appeared to be the bit of jacket metal rolled over the base of the FMJ bullets. For what ever reason a load of 2400 powder would occasionally cause it to separate. It didn’t happen with H110 and it didn’t happen with other commercial sourced 110 gr FMJs.

—-

The point here is that over a 46 year career handloading for a very wide range of cartridges I’ve learned not to automatically discount things other people regard as myths. There is usually at least a grain of truth in those myths, even if in the legend and lore making process it’s drifted a long way from where it started out.

In this case, you clearly have to work at it to get the gas port in an M1 carbine to lead up, but it’s also clearly possible, and it’s also readily understandable/explainable.

Consequently, I’m not inclined to doubt any of the numerous reports of gas port leading with cast bullets in the Ruger .44 Carbines - and I’m certainly not arrogant enough to discount all of those reports taken together.

I'd love to have one, but when they were available people didn't like them because of the poor trajectory.

mikerjf said:

This would be a huge hit in 357… dunno why they never did.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Like the 10/22, the .44 Carbine was inspired by the very popular at the time M1 carbine. But I suspect Ruger shied away from .357 Mag for a couple reasons:

- Ruger, and Bill Ruger in particular, saw it as a short range semi auto deer rifle, where .44 Magnum was perceived as a better choice than .357 Mag. They never really saw it as a plinking rifle, or of they did they felt they’d be competing with the much less expensive surplus and commercial M1 carbines.

- While the .357 Mag is better than the .30 carbine in many respects, the .357 Magnum performance in a carbine isn’t that far above the .30 carbine. The .357 Mag launches a 158 gr bullet at similar velocities to the 110 gr .30 carbine, so it wins on bullet weight, energy, momentum, and unexpanded diameter (as well as expanded diameter particularly given the limited expanding bu,let options for the .30 carbine). However, the .357 Mag doesn’t shoot quite as flat or quite as far as the .30 carbine with its higher BC bullets, was never going to compete in terms of magazine capacity, and ammunition was a lot more expensive when you could find Lake City surplus .30 carbine ball ammo for $5 or less per box.


Living in the big high plains states out west, I didn’t have any need for a 100 yard deer rifle in .44 Mag, and I already had an M1 carbine and 10/22. However, I’d have bought a Ruger carbine in .357 Mag in a heart beat as it was IMHO just right as a powerful but not overboard, flatter shooting 100-150 yard mid bore round with much better expanding bullet choices for hunting purposes than the .30 carbine.

While they had reasons that probably made sense at the time it was introduced, I still think Ruger missed the boat, and a major market niche, by not offering it in .357 Mag.

Today, you can find a number of lever action rifles in .357 Magnum as well as .44 Mag and .45 Colt, and the .357 Magnum is the most popular of the bunch as it’s again a right sized mid bore round with a great deal of flexibility.

Mike said:

I shot a lot of my cast lead bullets in my Ruger 44 carbine.......NEVER clogged a gas port........Now I shoot a lot of cast bullets in my M1 carbines and Garands......NEVER clogged a gas port and never will.......Name one for real instance in which lead bullets clogged a gas port? In over 50 years of shooting it's never happened to me or anyone I know.......IT's an old wive's tale unproven by FACT and needs to die.

Click to expand...

I always thought that was put out for the soft swedged lead bullets for sale by Speer at the time.

I had one back in 60s, bought new and packed on out of state deer hunts as emergency gun. Just 6 or 7 years ago I had two nice used ones. Got deals on them because they had problems. The problem was they had never had been deep cleaned. They are not suppose to be used with cast bullets. That’s because most guys don’t want to get into deep cleaning the gas system. They are trouble free as a 10/22 if you do reasonable maintenance on them. I’ve had several over the years and I don’t think any had ever been out of stock. Since Ohio got limited rifle season the price of any 44 carbine has went crazy.

I thought EVERYONE had one of these in the back of the gun safe??

Mine has not been shot in over 20 years,,
I bought it as a companion to my 629, since the 629 is my "Woods Carry" handgun.

Well,, I never found a need for a companion gun,, I usually carry a 10-22 rifle for our ferocious squirrels,,

The Ruger 44 does shoot real nice, never a jam in the few hundred rounds that I have fired it,,
WAY - BACK - WHEN,,,