jcs266
Member
Great looking stocks on that 624 Ulrich. I love wood stocks on revolvers.
A "Special" State of Mind (The .44 Kind)
- Thread starter Burnston
- Start date
I despaired of ever finding (or affording) a 24-3 or a 1950 Target model, so I bought the ruger gp100 in .44 spl when the 3 incher came out. I liked it so much I bought a flat top blackhawk. They are accurate revolvers and so much fun to shoot. If I didn't " roll my own" it'd be hard to find ammo for sure.
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jcs266
Member
I carry that 3" GP100 in .44 Special as a CCW quite often. It's one of my most-carried guns. I like it a lot.
The 4 5/8" flat-top Blackhawk in .44 Special is on my Wish List!
jcs266
Member
SGT ROCK 11B
Member
I agree with that but the thread should be in “Reloading” because the 44 Special is a Reloaders Dream.
Everyone who is a Gun Enthusiast should have a S&W DA revolver and a Colt SAA in 44 Special JMHO.
Gentlemen,
I first started getting interested in the .44 Special and the guns chambered for it when the articles and books by John Taffin which to more articles by Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, and Sherrif Jim Wilson. To date I have four handguns in that caliber. I also cast the bullets for the hand loads for these guns. Some of these loads I have chronographed for each gun and some I haven't yet.
The first is a Hamilton Bowen custom made from an old .357 Ruger old model 3-screw with a 4 1/2" barrel. It is very accurate with 7.5 grains of Universal Clays with an RCBS 44-250-K bullet mold cast of Wheel Weights. All of these loads use the same bullet but some use a softer 1-20 tin to lead mix for bullet obturation. I'm guessing it's a good 950 to 975 feet per second load.
Next is Ruger 5 1/2" Flat Top New Model. The Ruger barrels are getting much smoother inside. It uses the same Wheel Weight bullet with 8.8 grains of Power Pistol for 1051 FPS.
Next, we have the Ruger .44 Special 3" GP100 5-shot which is not being made any more. I put the Ruger Compact grips on mine and it uses the 200 grain Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point which chronoed at 809 FPS for a carry load. A hand load which shoots to the same point of aim as the Speer load at 7 to 10 yards is 6.8 grains of WW 231 with the RCBS bullet only cast of 1/20 tin to lead alloy. A hotter load is 7.7 grains of Universal Clays at 906 FPS.
Lastly is the S&W Model 624 4". The action on this gun is very smooth and I really like how it balances in the hand and packs very well on the hip. This gun uses 7.0 grains of Universal Clays with the RCBS bullet cast of 1/20 alloy. Again, I'm guessing I'm getting a good 950 to 975 FPS from this load from this gun.
The .44 Special is indeed a very special round and as John Taffin has said, it can take care of 95% of any thing we might need it for!
Jim Crites
I first started getting interested in the .44 Special and the guns chambered for it when the articles and books by John Taffin which to more articles by Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, and Sherrif Jim Wilson. To date I have four handguns in that caliber. I also cast the bullets for the hand loads for these guns. Some of these loads I have chronographed for each gun and some I haven't yet.
The first is a Hamilton Bowen custom made from an old .357 Ruger old model 3-screw with a 4 1/2" barrel. It is very accurate with 7.5 grains of Universal Clays with an RCBS 44-250-K bullet mold cast of Wheel Weights. All of these loads use the same bullet but some use a softer 1-20 tin to lead mix for bullet obturation. I'm guessing it's a good 950 to 975 feet per second load.
Next is Ruger 5 1/2" Flat Top New Model. The Ruger barrels are getting much smoother inside. It uses the same Wheel Weight bullet with 8.8 grains of Power Pistol for 1051 FPS.
Next, we have the Ruger .44 Special 3" GP100 5-shot which is not being made any more. I put the Ruger Compact grips on mine and it uses the 200 grain Speer Gold Dot Hollow Point which chronoed at 809 FPS for a carry load. A hand load which shoots to the same point of aim as the Speer load at 7 to 10 yards is 6.8 grains of WW 231 with the RCBS bullet only cast of 1/20 tin to lead alloy. A hotter load is 7.7 grains of Universal Clays at 906 FPS.
Lastly is the S&W Model 624 4". The action on this gun is very smooth and I really like how it balances in the hand and packs very well on the hip. This gun uses 7.0 grains of Universal Clays with the RCBS bullet cast of 1/20 alloy. Again, I'm guessing I'm getting a good 950 to 975 FPS from this load from this gun.
The .44 Special is indeed a very special round and as John Taffin has said, it can take care of 95% of any thing we might need it for!
Jim Crites
.45mtngun, good post and description of your four Specials. I have three .44 Specials. One of the 3" GP100's like yours, a Lipsey's 3 3/4" Vaquero Sheriff's, and, a not rare, but unusual, S&W 1923 .44 Hand Ejector, 6 3/8" barrel, factory nickel, that I discovered at Cabela's Library, of all places. I might shoot it this spring, finally, when I get some 1923 velocity 240gr lead handloads done. Not many rounds. I don't want to mess up the finish with too much dirt to clean without scarring the finish. I also have a .44 magnum Vaquero that I doubt that I'll ever shoot anything but Specials in. It likes the Skeeter .44 loads, fixed sights and all.
I love the .44 Special. A friend called it the .22 for the full grown man. LoL
I love the .44 Special. A friend called it the .22 for the full grown man. LoL
4" 24-3 with grips by Zane Thompson.
.44 Special conversion on a flattop .357 by John Gallagher.
.44 Special conversion on a flattop .357 by John Gallagher.
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jcs266
Member
Marksman
Member
Over the years I have had two 5" .44 Specials based on M27's, the first was a 27-2 built by Jim Stroh of Alpha Precision and the other based on a pre-27 built by Hamilton Bowen. The Hamilton Bowen Special I pulled out all the stops and had Mr. Bowen perform every service that he offered at the time. Both were really sweet shooting revolvers, I shot the Skeeter Skelton load exclusively in both. 7.5gr. of Unique with a 200gr. RNFP cowboy bullet.
If one were to want to build a 5" .44 Special on an N frame (27 or 28), what would one use for a barrel? Have to find a 6.5" .44 barrel and cut it down? This presuming one wanted a tapered barrel not a model 29 type heavy barrel.
OP
Burnston
Member
I bought a 5in blue m24 barrel off of a forum member for my m28 conversion.
I would think those are quite scarce...
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New photos added . See response #38
jcs266
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SAFireman
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jcs266
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jcs266 - Wow! That was in their gun case?
