Lou45
R.I.P.
One more quick question for anyone who has carried a .44 Special revolver??
Is the cylinder a behemoth and uncomfortable, or a liability for CCW?
The 5 shot cylinder definately has some bulk.
One more quick question for anyone who has carried a .44 Special revolver??
Is the cylinder a behemoth and uncomfortable, or a liability for CCW?
Look at the number of shootings documented with each caliber.
There have been far more documented shootings with the .45acp than the .44 special...
Then look at the ballistics per inch and you will see that out of a 5 inch barrel (typical for a 1911 type pistol) and you will see almost identical performance in an identical bullet weight with a slight edge given to the .44 special.
The majority of ammo available for the .44 special commercially will be either cast lead SWC or JSP where the .45acp is available not only in Ball or FMJ form but most manufacturers also offer some form of JHP or other defensive ammo.
You will not find a semi-auto chambered in .44 special and because revolvers are no longer as popular as they once were there is not as much effort put into load development as you will find with with any of the auto-loading calibers. Hell I think they make a .25 now that will damn near kill a moose, (I jest of course) but do look at just the development of 9mm ammo over the last 20 years.
There was a time when the 9mm was thought of as inadequate as a defensive round but I will take 15 rounds Speer Gold Dot 9mm over 8 rounds of .45 ACP ball ammo any day.
No one wants to believe this, everyone needs to put a number on it, it's the American Way.Stopping power is a myth. There are simply too many variables to statistically evaluate the so called "stopping power" of any round, the biggest of which being shot placement...
Agreed, and I run SilverTips in mine too........OR, just the opposite, in 2" barrell revolvers. Inch for inch (barrel length), .44 special delivers just as good performance as the .45acp in same design projectiles. The .44 special is definately a hugely overlooked cartridge.
Sad, but true.First off, the charts that those "stopping power" links came from has been debunked thoroughly, the book that contained them has also been rightly ridiculed as junk science at best, being pretty much every factor except for anecdotal evidence of "one shot stops" listed by caliber and ammo brand are thrown out. Clothing, barricades, shot placement, barel length etc.. are not considered. Kinda like saying 22 has a 100% "one shot stopping rating" and 9mm only 10%. What isn't mentioned is that the 22 data was from 3 mafia executions where someone was shot in the back of the head at contact distance, and the 9mm data was from 10 incidents where police fired on suspects with MP5 SMGs, 9 were hit multiple times, and stopped effectively, however not by a single round, 1 was hit only in the hand, before stopping and surrendering, and counting as a "1 shot stop"...
Aye. They are essentially the same cartridge in different platforms when compared to the importance ANY of the other variables, particularly placement. Of course, delivery is rather important too, and so all of this takes a back seat to training....external ballistics between 44spl and 45ACP are very close, with a decent bullet, and good shot placement, I would say they are realistically about equal, perhaps with a slight edge to 44spl on paper, slightly higher sectional density, and slightly higher velocities, but in reality there are dozens or hundreds of factors that will come into play before any minor difference in terminal ballistics.
I'm thin and carried a 2" 5-shot BullDog crossdraw (10 o'clock) off and on a couple years and it wasn't bad if you can tolerate crossdraw. It was much lighter and a little shorter than my 4" .357, but about the same thickness. On the hip (4 o'clock), it printed pretty badly for me. I actually had about as much trouble hiding the speedloaders as I did the gun ("Is that a bunch of .44 speedloaders in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"). If it's worn IWB between 4 and 8 o'clock, I found it uncomfortable, but I'd also point out that IWB holsters have come a LONG way since then. I eventually finally got a 4" 1911, which was much flatter and easier to hide for me, especially the mags.One more quick question for anyone who has carried a .44 Special revolver??
Is the cylinder a behemoth and uncomfortable, or a liability for CCW?
Quality varies with production period. Regardless of initial fit & finish, they are not meant to be "shooters" (long hours at the range), they're basically lightweight belly guns that will get loose with too much shooting.All this talk of .44 special's has me interested. If I wanted to get a good cheap revolver to shoot .44 special, what would I get? I've been eying the Charter Arms Bulldog. Are they cheap fun guns or crap best to be avoided?
Quality varies with production period. Regardless of initial fit & finish, they are not meant to be "shooters" (long hours at the range), they're basically lightweight belly guns that will get loose with too much shooting.
Quality varies with production period. Regardless of initial fit & finish, they are not meant to be "shooters" (long hours at the range), they're basically lightweight belly guns that will get loose with too much shooting.