Ruger 44 Carbine

[LongTom.44]

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

 

[Old Corp]

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.

 

[Engine49guy]

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.

 

[Gamecock]

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

More of a mortar than a gun.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

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.

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!

 

[Bald1]

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.

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.

 

[kingrj]

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..

 

[bill.meek.391]

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

 

[Gamecock]

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

 

[rockquarry]

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

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?

 

[Shooter-2]

What do you think? Have one? Shot one? Reliability?[/QUOTE]

Had two, still have the one I got my first deer with.(the one with a scope) The other one was just for goofing around shooting cans and stuff. Both of them from the late 60's. GREAT guns! Your post has me digging mine out of the safe. Now i gotta go shoot it a little!! Thanks.

 

[Old Corp]

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.

Pic as follows. Had very many mounted deer until we moved to the coast. Not really the right 'look'. The Albino is the only one I kept.

 

[Bald1]

Bill Ruger himself took the gun on a safari. He shot all kinds of dangerous game with it. That's when the gorilla was shot. But I'm not positive Bill Ruger was the shooter

 

[Bald1]

Pic as follows. Had very many mounted deer until we moved to the coast. Not really the right 'look'. The Albino is the only one I kept.

Pretty cool.

 

[Bald1]

Here's the pic of gorilla and gun. It was not Bill Ruger.

 

[rockquarry]

I was mistaken; that's not gunwriter Tommy Bish.

 

[rockquarry]

Bill Ruger himself took the gun on a safari. He shot all kinds of dangerous game with it. That's when the gorilla was shot. But I'm not positive Bill Ruger was the shooter

That was written up in an early '60s GUN DIGEST. I have a copy but haven't read it in years.

 

[ajgunner]

Perhaps this is part of the reason behind these always being called a great hog gun. Yes this is Mr. Ruger himself.



Sorry but this one is definitely NOT Mr. Ruger. It is Frank Delano.

 

[Engine49guy]

It was a picture of Bill Ruger himself with a silver back gorilla strung up behind him that he took with his .44 Magnum carbine.
I did a quick search this morning but think it's been scrubbed in this politically correct world.
Suddenly the pic is viewable lol..

 

[rockquarry]

It was a picture of Bill Ruger himself with a silver back gorilla strung up behind him that he took with his .44 Magnum carbine.
I did a quick search this morning but think it's been scrubbed in this politically correct world.

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect.