It’s Thursday morning and I just got a call from D&L confirming they’re going to the big(gish) town about 35 miles away for D’s regular doctor appointment. This means:
A) I need to go feed their horses a little before noon, and
B) There are a few hours when I can practice with my pistol with a fair degree of assurance that nobody will complain about the noise.
So I rummage around in my ammo drawer, empty the pistol and speedloaders and fill them with reloads, and just as I’m getting ready to grab my ears and head out to the target I get a load of what’s laying on my desk…
Yeah, it’s super overcast outside so I need a flashlight at mid-morning in my own cabin
That’s three entirely different – wildly different – sorts of ammunition, all for the same gun. Bottom to top: Very light .44 Special cowboy action loads, maybe 240 grain lead; mildly hot 225 grain Hornady Super ‘Splody FTX .44 Magnum; VERY hot 300 grain hardcast flatnose bear loads, painful on both ends of the gun, use only in damage-acceptable situations.
And that’s what I carry on normal days, for situations ranging from damn-that-stupid-jackrabbit to oh-my-god-a-bear. All for the same gun. 🙂 Can’t do that with a Glock.
An’ if you are worried about meeting Mr. No Shoulders, CCI also markets shot loads in this round as well. Even more .44 bore goodness exists. The large cases are easy to load and line up in the cylinder, nice when gloves in bitter cold are worn.
I have some.44 shot shells but expensively learned that you should load them one at a time, not a whole cylinder’s worth. Recoil pulls out the caps on all the unfired shells.
The .44 magnam/.44 special is great, especially where you are. As for me up here in the great white north, when I go off the hard surface, in my ruck is one of these* which I bought a year ago to replace a Turkish short barrel shotgun that was junk. With slugs, the recoil can be a little daunting but it works.
* https://dlaskarms.com/product/remington-870-shorty-8-5/
Buffalo bore does make a 147gr nine mm hardcast that I have seen writen up with pictures of the grizzly hide of a bear some fishing guide shot with it! Took the whole magazine. I’ll take the 44mag thank you. I load 265 gr hornadys that give excellent penetration. In my Marlin carbine, last year I filled both of my caribou tags with one shot from this round.
Mike, if we could buy 870’s like that in this country I might rethink my firearm choices. Before I clicked on the link I expected to see a PGO shottie but that is seriously cool.
Years ago I shot a lot of .44 mag in an old, 10 inch, octagon barreled Contender. Wasn’t too bad after I took off the stock grip and put on a Pachmayer rubber one. Got a bug up my ass to add a .44 wheelgun to the collection about 4 years ago. Bought a Ruger Super Blackhawk Standard with a 5.5 inch barrel. Finally got around to shooting it a couple months ago. Loaded up the cylinder with .44 Specials to adjust the sights and get it close to dead on at 50 yards for a start. Very pleasant to shoot. Then I went with my old standard .44 mag hunting loads to see how it shot them. 21 grains of Alliant 2400 powder behind a hard cast 240 grain hard cast SWC at about 1350 fps. SWEET FANCY MOSES!!!!!!! Flames coming out everywhere and some hellacious recoil. They group good, though. It’s gonna take a while to get my ancient, arthritic hands used to those………
Same reasons I like my Ruger 45 LC. Because it’s a Ruger, it can handle a very hot load. Or you can use normal factory loads to practice with
😀 Yeah, I’m not quite that sanguine about my Taurus…
you lot need some younger blood out there; South Africa is just getting worse every day – anyone wanna adopt a mid-30s long-lost-daughter who is very good with the cold, animals, and guns??