Revolvers44sp

Many of us like to carry a 38 or 357 snubbie in the pocket as a backup to a larger gun. Theyre not a bad selection either, with good loads, some of which (specifically, Buffalo Bore) put out 158-grain bullets at 1000 fps. However, some of us prefer bigger, heavier bullets for self-protection, and for that purpose, enter the Charter Arms Bulldog. For years that model was the only viable small 44 Special, but since the advent of the Bulldog around 1973, S&W came out with a similar five-shot revolver called the Model 296, now dropped from production. In more recent days, Taurus entered the fray with two small, light 44 Specials, blued and stainless. The Charter Arms website (www.CharterArms.com) today lists 11 varieties of the 44 Special Bulldog, as well as many other revolvers in 22 LR and 22 Mag., 32 H&R, 38 Spl., 357 Mag, a delightful rimless revolver in 40 S&W that doesnt need moon clips, and the 44 Specials. For this test we chose the model 14420 standard Bulldog with 2.5-inch barrel and matte-blue finish (MSRP $414), and put it against the Taurus glossy-blued 2-inch version, Model 445B2UL (MSRP $508).Both are five-shot conventional revolvers, with both SA and DA modes. Both guns had excellent DA and SA pulls, which was something of a surprise to our test crew. Each gun had rubber grips and external hammers and shrouded ejector rods. The frame on the Charter was blackened stainless, while that on the Taurus was aluminum. The guns were very similar in weight and balance, except that the Taurus grip was much larger. In light of our recent experiments with firelapping, we measured the guns inside and out and found some surprises and mistakes that were borne out on the targets.Because it was difficult to obtain factory-loaded 44 Special ammo, we tested with three handloads and three factory loads, one of which showed up on the UPS truck just as we were concluding our chronographing. The handloads were five grains of Bullseye behind a 250-grain Mt. Baldy (www.MTBaldyBullets.com) cast Keith bullet, the same powder behind a 240-grain Speer JHP, 7.5 grains of Unique behind the Keith bullet, Black Hills cowboy loads with a 210-grain cast RNFP bullet, Remington 246-grain lead RN, and the late-comer, Speer 200-grain Gold Dot Hollow Points. Heres what we found.

Some of the more useful handguns are those revolvers that take the .44 Special cartridge. They work well for hunting, self defense, and we know one shooter who used one to good effect in NRA matches. These revolvers include the .44 Magnum, but many .44 Mags are huge, heavy handguns designed to use the hottest loads in the longest barrels, for such efforts as hunting. While the big .44 is very good at that task, the other - probably more useful - side of the cartridge is as a general-purpose firearm for self defense or for the hiker or plinker who wants more power than the over-loud .357 Magnum. These outdoorsmen dont want a big, heavy gun, but want a lighter package that still throws a 250-grain bullet at useful speed. The .44 Special fills that bill very well.There have been a few small .44 Special revolvers on the market, perhaps none so obvious as the Charter Arms Bulldog. Charter was not alone. Taurus just informed us they recently discontinued a similar-size .44 revolver because of lack of sales. We suspect many shooters had no idea the small Taurus .44 existed, mores the pity. We just found out S&W made a short run of 5-shot revolvers on the L frame, and would love to get our hands on one. But Charters near-snubby-size, five-shot revolvers have been around a long time. Those who own them generally like them, though they are hardly target-grade revolvers. With suitable loads they can be excellent self-defense revolvers, but with really hot loads they can be a handful. Some shooters prefer a larger gun for the .44 Special cartridge, but there arent all that many available, so the obvious choice is a light .44 Magnum with mild loads.We gathered two relatively light .44 Magnums, one an older stainless S&W Mountain Gun, today offered in a blued special edition for about $1000. We also got a new five-shot, stainless Taurus Tracker, $584. And we acquired two .44 Specials, a stainless Charter Arms Bulldog Pug, $399, and S&Ws just-reissued 3-inch Model 24, another special-edition revolver, $1100. We also examined and shot an earlier blued Charter Bulldog, but did not include it in the final report. We wanted to see what changes were made over the years. We tried the four revolvers against each other for general outdoorsmens purposes, with an eye to easy carry, self defense, and overall usefulness. We tested all guns with .44 Special ammunition only, except as noted. We used Black Hills Cowboy Action loads, which feature a 210-grain cast-lead, flat-nose bullet. We also tested with CCI Blazer 200-grain GDHP, and with an unusual load from Black Hills we had not heard of before. This was the .44 Special "Thunder Ranch Special" ammunition, loaded with a 250-grain SWC cast Keith-style bullet. This ammo is available from Black Hills through any stocking dealer, in case you fall in love with it like we did. Any concealed-carry handgun is better off loaded with factory ammunition - not handloads - because of legal reasons. Keith-type cast SWC bullets have been outstanding performers ever since Elmer designed them in the early part of the last century. However, they are not commonly loaded by any large manufacturer, so this find from Black Hills was a revelation for us. Heres what we found.

In this article we evaluate three guns that make no excuses for their girth. The Smith & Wesson Model 21-4 is a straightforward, large-frame revolver chambered for .44 Special only. Its .45 Colt brother, the Smith & Wesson Model 25-13, is slightly more modern, adding adjustable sights. The Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan was fit with a longer cylinder, and together with its heavy frame, it is capable of firing .454 Casull as well as .45 Colt ammunition.

Our focus in this test was personal defense from humans and not bears, so we left the Casull rounds at home, but we did test an extra-heavy .45 Colt load from Atlanta Arms and Ammo formulated specifically for Ruger and Thompson Center firearms (). The intention was to split the difference between .454 Casull and more commonly available .45 Colt ammunition. This round featured a 328-grain lead truncated-cone bullet. Our other .45 Colt test rounds were Federal's 225-grain lead semi-wadcutter hollowpoints, Speer's 250-grain Gold Dot Hollowpoints, and another Atlanta Arms and Ammo product topped with a 275-grain lead truncated cone.

For our .44 Special rounds we chose 165-grain JHP rounds from Cor-Bon, Winchester's 200-grain Silvertip HP rounds, and 240-grain Truncated Cone Jacketed ammunition manufactured by Atlanta Arms and Ammo. Test distance was 25 yards from a sandbag rest. We fired single action only to collect hard data, but fired on steel targets double action only to evaluate rapid-fire capability. Limited to six-round capacity, we wanted to know which guns offered the right mix of power, accuracy, and speed. Here's what we learned:

Smith & Wesson's $833 Model 610 10mm/.40 S&W is a slick shooter, but the $1000 Colt Anaconda in .44 Special/.44 Magnum is better than ever, in our estimation.

We hate to admit it, but we've been had. All this time we thought that the revolvers from Magnum Research in the May issue were in fact the true BFRs — Biggest Finest Revolvers. These guns weighed in at 76 ounces and measured nearly 16 inches in length. But along comes two BFRs that are more than 2 inches longer and weigh almost a full pound more. Now we suppose that when it comes to the .45-70 and .450 Marlin guns reviewed last month, the "B" in BFR merely stands for bigger, not biggest.

But this month we step up to two rifle cartridges chambered in our test guns, the .30-30 Winchester and .444 Marlin. Besides being a well-known rifle cartridge, .30-30 ammunition is cheap and plentiful. If we numb our hands and wrists while shooting, at least we won't stun our wallets. In the .444 Marlin revolver, we wondered how gun, and shooter, would stand up to this big, straight-walled cartridge.

We got our guns from the Magnum Research Custom Shop, so there were variations in what we tested and what's available in factory production. The .444 Marlin BFR offered by Magnum research has a round, non-fluted cylinder. Our test .444 had fluting, but was otherwise a production model. The .30-30 Win. BFR (available from Magnum Research Custom Shop, Contract Mfg. Inc., 1594 College Rd., Baxter, MN 56425, telephone [218] 824-0080) is a custom chambering which costs $1,400. The Custom Shop has developed a number of custom calibers that are not available in production revolvers, such as the .218 Bee, .45/90 Win., .38-55 Win., and .375 Win. They are all $1,400. The guns are built to order with special caliber engraving on the frame. "Magnum's Custom Shop is newly created and seeks to fill a niche for shooters who want something other than the standard BFRs," said Jim Tertin of Contract Mfg. Inc.

We pit Taurus's small but weighty .45 ACP against S&W's bigger but lighter .44 Special and find two carryable revolvers with plenty of stopping power but surprisingly mild manners.

Faced with deciding which is the best handgun caliber or action design for self-defense, the traditional answer was once to carry the biggest gun you could handle. Then, in the age of concealed-carry permits, the answer increasingly has become carry the biggest gun you can conceal. Now enter downsizing. The conventional carry wisdom now reads the best gun is the one you have with you.

However, to take advantage of the latest philosophy, your carry gun needs to be wearable, and bearable at that. Reducing the weight of guns to make continuous carry livable is the reason ultra-light titanium has been adapted to handgun construction. Wheel guns built wholly or in part with titanium are now av...

[IMGCAP(1)] At Gun Tests we constantly seek ways to follow up on the service life of the guns we test. When possible, we track the very pistols and long guns that appear on these pages by keeping in touch with their owners, which in some cases are our testers but more often are readers who have bought actual test guns. Another way of tracking the reliability and satisfaction that a firearm can bring is to contact gunsmiths, retail outlets or the operators of public shooting ranges who add them to range rental-gun fleets.

We recently had occasion to test several revolvers previously reviewed and recommended in these pages with an eye toward gathering data about their longevity, a topic GT...

The .44 Magnum's baby brother round doesn't get a lot of attention, but the .44 Special has a lot to recommend it. We see how it performs in the Taurus 445ULT, Smith & Wesson 396, and Charter 2000's Bulldog revolvers