I just picked this up at my favorite LGS:



The shop was nice enough to hold it for a day while i did some research---I was a bit surprised at how much these are going for (+/- $1200) but money/value wasn't the primary point of interest; I've never owned or shot one in 40+ years of shooting/collecting and I'm now at the point where different guns are interesting to me.

Anyway, the condition was very good, no cracks in the stock (a few dings and a fair amount of light scratches on the off-side) and the piston slides freely. Bore was clean and shiny, so it came home with me.

What do you think? Have one? Shot one? Reliability?

S/N is 102-81XXX, any idea of the year of manufacture?

I've always liked the idea of these. I've handled one, but never shot one.

I have a .44 Carbine and a .44 International. Cool little guns!

The Carbine is scoped with a 1.5-5X Leupold and shoots one ragged hole at 50 yards. It functions just fine with 240 grain jacked soft points.

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"I also cook."

I have had two in my lifetime and I regrettably let them both slip away. You have a very clean one and I know you will be very happy with it.

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.

1980



Serial Number Lookup

It's tricky to find. Enter the serial number and it will say they were unable to locate that number. Below that message you'll see a checkbox for approximate starting serial numbers. Click on the box and select ".44 Carbine Rifles".

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"I also cook."

Have owned three and regret parting with all three. Handy, light and a joy to shoot. Found that 240 grain bullets work the best. Yes they are pricy now days but what isn’t! Those made before 76 were the best. The early 60s models rock.

I bought one new in the mid-late 1970s and later bought a used early gun. They will shoot cast bullets as well as jacketed ones. Cast cause no problem with the gas port, at least that was my experience. Some who say otherwise may have no experience here, repeating only what they have heard.

Regarding cast bullets... as I recall (got rid of these guns years ago so memory may be a little lacking on some aspects), I had to seat bullets considerably deeper than I did for my handguns; the longer-seated cartridges would not function through the Ruger's magazine. Having to use two different seating lengths for different guns was a definite disadvantage for me.

As I recall, the Rugers were reasonably accurate, but were, at best, 75-100 yard hunting carbines. This is a limiting factor for some users, but adequate for others.

I never used my carbines on game, but there is little question the cartridge would be plenty effective for deer-sized animals regardless of the bullet type or weight.

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

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Uvidíme se později, aligátore.

I owned one back in the late 70s and early 80s. I used to load 180gr hot loads that made big holes in Whitetails.

I bought one of the original Deerstalkers dated to 1965. Seller used to hunt with it in Adirondack Mt region of NY. It had a fixed 6x Nikon on it which I promptly removed and installed a Skinner Peep Sight and taller front blade. I’ve shot a few doe with it and my son shot a destructive Muskrat with it. I have to hide it from my son because he keeps saying what a great hog gun it would be. He lives in Texas, and he hog hunts lol. The clogged gas port is a “thing” when shooting lead bullets. But you simply run a pipe cleaner in port and it’s good to go. Mine has never failed because of it. But port does collect gunk. Before taking scope off I could get 2” groups at 100yds. They’re a little bigger with peep sight. Mine likes good old fashioned Winchester white box ammo.

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I had an International years ago. 68 or so. Friend had a standard model. Both shot well. Like a Desert Eagle, they both had a lower limit and an upper limit to handloads.

Be aware that the "Achilles Heel" of the Ruger .44 Carbine. The trigger housing has a tab for the magazine which is known to frequently crack.
Parts are long depleted. Attempts to devise repairs are generally considered to be not satisfactory.

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

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I've still got it made.

The two I had worked fine with reloaded ammo; no jamming or other trouble and they worked well with cast bullets. In fact, I don't recall shooting factory ammo through either of my guns, though I think I used a very few jacketed bullets in my handloads. What were the problems you experienced with reloaded ammo?

Have one mine is from the mid 80's later models (like mine ) have a button in the loading port so you can unload the magazine without working every round through the Chamber,Avoid Lead Bullet loads they can clog the gas system & stick with bullet weights around 240 grain I know the 180 grains are not accurate something to do with the rifling twist rate,Zero operational issues in mine ever as long as the right ammo is used.

That's about all I use in Mine but no lead bullets they can shave lead as the bullet passes the gas ports & eventually can clog the ports,I use 240 grain Hornady JHP & #2400 Powder in My Loads

I was given a early 70s model about 20 years ago. It belonged to my lifetime best friend and hunting companion. His wife gave it to me after he died.

It has a low powered scope on a pivot mount and that gun accounted for a lot of deer. Bill was a excellent shot and he had a good locking scope mount, up to about a 125 yards he made it look easy.

Rest in peace buddy!

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

I used to hunt with one when I was a teenager. Shot great, and was reliable. I had a fixed 4x scope on mine. Dropped whitetails very well…

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NRA Life Member

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)

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

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

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Life NRA, Life TSRA, C&R FFL

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.

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.

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.

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

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

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.

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

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

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.

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S&W Accumulator

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.

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No baby we aint

Yep. What a PCC should be.

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I've still got it made.

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
[IMG][/IMG]

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.

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.

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.

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

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Front sight and squeeze

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,,,

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Has anyone ever noticed the bbl. band sliding forward on theirs from recoil?

Have had a Ruger .44 Carbine since the mid-80's and have taken truckloads of deer with it.
Got a great trade deal on it - the carbine had been used with soft cast/swaged bullets and was malfunctioning due to the gas ports being mucked up. I gave a buddy a very worn Ruger Security Six for it - even.

Did a deep clean and cleared gas ports. After that, it was 100%.
Most of my deer hunting has nearly always been fairly thick cover.
Handloads using a max charge of WW296 and a Hornady 240 gr. XTP prints easily into palm-size groups at 100 yards.
I've stayed with that load for a very long time and most deer are either DRT or found within 15-20 yards.
Scope is an early '80's Weaver 1-3x, made back when all scopes were shiny-black.


Longest shot was in the early 90's when I spotted an Albino 6 pt, Buck across a very large creek bottom. May not have ever even seen a 'normal' colored deer. 135 yards - boiler room hit, 50 yard dash and done.

Have too many deer carbines and rifles, and still using them pretty hard now even at 65, well 66 this Fall. The Ruger is not done yet.

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Ret'd LEO
SWCA #2275

I'm a little surprised that a Ruger .44 carbine out of production for almost 40 years would generate 42 comments in 24 hours.
Just goes to show we appreciate quality niche firearms, especially ones in old school revolver calibers!

I have three in the way back deep part of the safe, two are older (60's) versions with the sour dough front site insert, one is a late 70's version with the 10-22 style fs blade.
Btw The "Deerfield carbine" is a totally different gun in the same caliber, almost bought one way back when they were $450 but foolishly passed.
Those are really more like the Mini 14 with rotating M1 style bolt .
I recall going to Sears with my folks in the early to mid 70's , they'd be buying house stuff and I went straight to the gun displays, ( back then u could pick rifles up off the rack and point them around , btw right underneath the guns there was usually ammo, sometimes it was in a glass case behind the register.....(I was saving for a 10-22 because it resembled an M1 carbine and had a real detachable magazine), so I'm looking at the 10-22 wondering why the bore was so HUGE? Yep it was actually a 44 that I had no idea existed.
One last note there are other differences between the 60's and 70's guns, IIRC the biggest one is the older versions have screws on the top of the receiver that hold some sorta ejection plate thingy, the later versions have that plate riveted to the receiver through the old screw holes.

More of a mortar than a gun.

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I've still got it made.

Same here. 99% of all I shot in mine was reloads.....Cast and jacketed.......Only factory 44's I shot were Super-Vels........I loved that ammo!

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S&W Accumulator

A pic of the white 6pt would be cool. A pic of a pic will do. I’ve only seen one when I was actually hunting. And it was a piebald doe in PA. Probably 70% white.

My Dad bought one in..I believe...1963 or 1964...The mail man delivered it to the house. Seems like I remember it costing like $100 at the time. It was my first ever deer rifle and I killed my first deer with it in 1965..I traded it off years ago..I wish I hadn't..

I had an early one. Loved to carry it deer hunting on my place in South Carolina and killed a couple of deer with it before letting it go during a bout of the dreaded "traders fever".
I'll try do locate some pictures.

Congrats on your purchase.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

How many remember the gun rag article of the guy hunting gorillas with this gun, ~1970?

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I've still got it made.

Barely. It was a full-page ad as I recall. Maybe there was an article as well but I don't remember that. Was the guy in the ad gun writer/ gunsmith Tommy Bish or someone else?