DGNY
Member
RCT has a good piece of this with the "mines bigger than yours ". I think there is more:
The cold war started in the late 40s and sorta ended about '91; but the United States of America was on a roll in the early to mid 50s during the development of the 44 magnum.
Ike was in office; we were out of Korea. The economy was good. The overhead valve V8 had come out for 1955 in the Chevy and Pontiac. (And made a splash far greater than the overhead valve V8 by Ford in 1954.)
Wages were good as I recall it, since this was before the recession of 1958.
There were a lot of fun-savvy World War II personnel who were in their 30s and 40s and could afford good gear. The Colt single action was coming back. TV was literally roaring with revolvers (albeit single actions!) left right and center of a dozen real or imagined western towns. Hunting was a fabulous pastime for millions of Americans. Firearms were commonplace and daily were carried up and down Main Street USA by youngsters and adults, going hunting after school, or on some other honest mission, with no eyebrows raised.
Combined with the demographic realities of that era, the movement toward the 44 magnum only makes sense. It is my supposition that, while Remington may have done some marketing studies, somebody in Ilion, NY, thought it was just a good idea (insert all the stories about Keith, Lachuk, The 44 Associates…) And ditto "somebody" at Smith and Wesson and Ruger. So, we had by 1956 two major companies pouring out 44 magnum revolvers.
Perfect storm?
Yes, for many, a perfect revolver - for hunting, display, plinking, "mine is bigger than yours…" bragging - in its countless iterations to date.
P.S. I have always found the extreme recoil indictment against the 44 magnum to be almost ludicrous. In my family, if you were 5- 9, 160 pounds, with customary hand and arm strength, it was always a piece of cake, from teenage years to the present.YMMV
The cold war started in the late 40s and sorta ended about '91; but the United States of America was on a roll in the early to mid 50s during the development of the 44 magnum.
Ike was in office; we were out of Korea. The economy was good. The overhead valve V8 had come out for 1955 in the Chevy and Pontiac. (And made a splash far greater than the overhead valve V8 by Ford in 1954.)
Wages were good as I recall it, since this was before the recession of 1958.
There were a lot of fun-savvy World War II personnel who were in their 30s and 40s and could afford good gear. The Colt single action was coming back. TV was literally roaring with revolvers (albeit single actions!) left right and center of a dozen real or imagined western towns. Hunting was a fabulous pastime for millions of Americans. Firearms were commonplace and daily were carried up and down Main Street USA by youngsters and adults, going hunting after school, or on some other honest mission, with no eyebrows raised.
Combined with the demographic realities of that era, the movement toward the 44 magnum only makes sense. It is my supposition that, while Remington may have done some marketing studies, somebody in Ilion, NY, thought it was just a good idea (insert all the stories about Keith, Lachuk, The 44 Associates…) And ditto "somebody" at Smith and Wesson and Ruger. So, we had by 1956 two major companies pouring out 44 magnum revolvers.
Perfect storm?
Yes, for many, a perfect revolver - for hunting, display, plinking, "mine is bigger than yours…" bragging - in its countless iterations to date.
P.S. I have always found the extreme recoil indictment against the 44 magnum to be almost ludicrous. In my family, if you were 5- 9, 160 pounds, with customary hand and arm strength, it was always a piece of cake, from teenage years to the present.YMMV
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