I went to a gun show yesterday. I noticed a lot of guns seemed over priced but maybe that's just what they go for now a days. Some cool guns I saw was a Confederate Blockade Runner musket (I believe that's the name it used) , a cannon I think from the 1840s, a bunch of beautiful old Winchester and Marlin lever actions but all over a grand in price ane a Ruger Super Blackhawk in 30 carbine ! I settled on a Ruger Single Six 3 screw made in 1967 .22 mag with a 6 1/2" barrel with original box and manual for $400 out the door. She's a beauty!
44 special is my favorite revolver cartridge. I hand load for mine and cast bullets for it. I use Lee moulds because they are affordable and can make some great bullets once you get the hang of aluminum moulds. Something I picked up from watching Bill Jordan is to curl your thumb down on your grip hand and it makes you have better control and alignment for double action. It has helped me tremendously. Bill had larger hands also. My n frame model 21 wears a set of trooper Jordan stocks from herrets and they are great for double and single action work. I also load shot shell loads for snakes and close varmints. 44 special is especially handy in almost every situation.
Folks forget that .44 special is historically the last “Old West” caliber. It can be accurately described as .44 Russian +P since it has the same diameter. In the early 1900’s you could find nice single action revolvers chambered in .44 special. The reason that cartridge was used to develop the .44 magnum instead of .45 Colt was how low its pressure is with more steel in the cylinder. A mild .44 special loading can exceed hot .38 special performance with the same pressure as .380 acp. That means less recoil and less noise for superior performance. You can also hot load to do anything .357 magnum can do with a larger, heavier bullet. I carry hot .44 sp loads that will punch through a hog no problem. If I anticipate trekking through Grizzly country, I can push those loadings to 800 foot pounds no problem with hardcast wadcutters.
Just found your channel and have to say, Nice Video on the GP100. Love my 44 specials (GP100 3", 696 3", Taurus 431 3" and Bisley flattop 4 5/8"). I bought one of these when they first came out and is my go to fishing gun. Carried with two snake shot and three cast 205 handloads with a couple speed strips loaded with cast and a couple of speed loaders with Hornady Critical Defense. You are right about the versatility of the 44 spl, I use a 205 grain Bear Creek RNFP with Hodgdon Universal at 950fps or Trail Boss for 800fps out of the 3" barreled guns. Recently picked up both a 629 3" and an early 624 4" and want to try some of the heavier 240 grain Skeeter type loads for the GP100 and the 629. I can't believe the prices of the 696, the GP100 and even the Bisley flattop are going for now.
Ive always been impressed with Ruger GP's, I have a Super Blackhawk 44mag that i prefer shooting 44 special through. Thanks for the video, love your channel, have a greap day.😊
Very nice Garrett! I like that holster, too. 👍👍 It must be fine for in the saddle or long haul days, too. BTW/kinda off topic but, hey Ethan, did you see Revere0311's recent video on his mystery '77 Charleville? I was wondering if you could help him out?
That double action seems pretty smooth! In a defensive scenario unless you are setting up a long shot you will more than likely use double action and fast so it's best to train like that.
Big fan of both the 44 mag and 44 spl. Ruger? not so much. I think they use worn out tooling these days (undersized chambers rough bores etc) Owned more than a few bulldogs by CA but... their quality is as spotty as Ruger.. So where are we at with the 44 spl? huge heavy guns of spotty quality or smaller not too accurate guns of spotty quality. At this point I have a lot of 44 mag guns but I do not shoot spl loads out of mag guns. And I do not try to make a 44 spl into a mag. So where does that leave me? A cut down 44 mag gun (a 3" 629 would be about that size) or.... my only 44 spl gun....An Uberti SAA clone with 4.75" barrel that is not much bigger than that clunky Ruger and.... at least twice as accurate... maybe three times Will it shoot 300 grain loads at 1100 fps? no... who would want to? My load is a 250 grain cast and coated SWC at around 825 fps. it does sub 2" groups at 25 YARDS with no problem. Not sure they even make it anymore (I had to order mine years ago) I a still on the hunt for the SW gun which is half as clunky and no doubt twice as accurate at the Ruger one. Soooo... rather than hot rod a clunky crappy 44 spl gun I would rather chop down a 629 and shoot loaded down (250 cast swc coated) to around 1000-1100 fps I don't try to make my 38 spl loads into .357 and I don't try to make my 44 spl loads into 44 mag. Granted.. there is a small window in the 44 spl area to make rounds that are more + than factory 44 spl like my load for instance but....
I can concur with the older charter arms bulldog. Not pleasant to shoot. The 44 spec ruger looks good. How is the trigger? I have three rugers; a gp 100 4" 357, a 6" stainless gp100 357, and a 4" speed six in 38 spec. All three triggers are functional but a little heavy.
@@Real11BangBang watched your tribute to Paul Harrell and finally snagged a like new in the box 3" Ruger GP100 44 spl at original msrp(!) I Couldn't find your tribute anymore though? I re-watched/read Harrel's comments on his Ruger gp100 44 and how he said he started carrying it as his regular defensive carry handgun. I bought the Ruger compact grips and a couple of 5-shot speed loaders. Thanks for the video again; it led to this =D
Good work in that cold wind Ethan. - You reminded me of my 4 inch Ruger SP101 six shot 327 Fed Magnum .. always shot DA only. - Our anti-gun NZ Govt. forced me to sell them all last year so some lucky guy got a quarter priced bargain at auction. That's Life.
I've not shot a 44 special. But I like the concept. It's nice that with lower pressure you can use cast bullets. Also, as a BP shooter those slow-ish heavy bullets are my style.
@@Real11BangBang Cool I'm getting ready to reload .38 special with BP like Jake does. I really love the impulse and report I get with heavy (200+ gr) loads around 800 fps out of my cap n balls guns. It's hard to explain why. Feels powerful and controllable, almost familair.
People smack talk .44 special, but slow moving .44 rounds from revolvers like the 1860 Army put a lot of men six feet under in the civil war. Same with a whole assortment of .44's like the .44 Colt, .44 Russian and .44-40 back in the wild west period.
Paul Harrell made a video that Poo-pood .44 special as a weak, anemic round with factory ammunition only being 700 fps. Harrell went so far as to claim that .44 special revolvers were normally only carried by people who had inherited the revolver, and could not afford to upgrade to a .ore effective cartridge. That raised an eyebrow with me. I have read that factory loaded .44 special defense cartridges were roughly equivalent to .45 ACP in lethality and effectiveness.
Good Video Garrett. Your family is in my prayers. We may not know each other personally, but we are cut from the same cloth. That cloth being the Robe of Christ.
Plinking on Christmas Eve nothing wrong with that
lol no sir
Ruger makes a reliable firearm, that's for sure. Great one!
thankyou santee
I went to a gun show yesterday. I noticed a lot of guns seemed over priced but maybe that's just what they go for now a days. Some cool guns I saw was a Confederate Blockade Runner musket (I believe that's the name it used) , a cannon I think from the 1840s, a bunch of beautiful old Winchester and Marlin lever actions but all over a grand in price ane a Ruger Super Blackhawk in 30 carbine ! I settled on a Ruger Single Six 3 screw made in 1967 .22 mag with a 6 1/2" barrel with original box and manual for $400 out the door. She's a beauty!
That's a good deal on a nice single six. Yeah after covid it seems like anything even remotely "collectable" doubled in price! Ridiculous.
you got a great deal on that 3 screw
44 special is my favorite revolver cartridge. I hand load for mine and cast bullets for it. I use Lee moulds because they are affordable and can make some great bullets once you get the hang of aluminum moulds. Something I picked up from watching Bill Jordan is to curl your thumb down on your grip hand and it makes you have better control and alignment for double action. It has helped me tremendously. Bill had larger hands also. My n frame model 21 wears a set of trooper Jordan stocks from herrets and they are great for double and single action work. I also load shot shell loads for snakes and close varmints. 44 special is especially handy in almost every situation.
oh yes it is very underrated Thanks for the tip and thanks for the view
Kids now a days with their new fangled automatics.....
haha Yup getting too lazy to cock a hammer
Folks forget that .44 special is historically the last “Old West” caliber. It can be accurately described as .44 Russian +P since it has the same diameter. In the early 1900’s you could find nice single action revolvers chambered in .44 special. The reason that cartridge was used to develop the .44 magnum instead of .45 Colt was how low its pressure is with more steel in the cylinder. A mild .44 special loading can exceed hot .38 special performance with the same pressure as .380 acp. That means less recoil and less noise for superior performance. You can also hot load to do anything .357 magnum can do with a larger, heavier bullet. I carry hot .44 sp loads that will punch through a hog no problem. If I anticipate trekking through Grizzly country, I can push those loadings to 800 foot pounds no problem with hardcast wadcutters.
oh yes truly mild to wild
The .44 Special is the .44 S&W with the case lengthened .190". Shoots the same bullet at the same velocity.
Definitely looks like a great revolver. I can definitely see it becoming a very collectable gun some day.
That’s a fine looking pistol, wish it was a six shot though.
Love your revolver videos.
thankyou
Just found your channel and have to say, Nice Video on the GP100. Love my 44 specials (GP100 3", 696 3", Taurus 431 3" and Bisley flattop 4 5/8"). I bought one of these when they first came out and is my go to fishing gun. Carried with two snake shot and three cast 205 handloads with a couple speed strips loaded with cast and a couple of speed loaders with Hornady Critical Defense. You are right about the versatility of the 44 spl, I use a 205 grain Bear Creek RNFP with Hodgdon Universal at 950fps or Trail Boss for 800fps out of the 3" barreled guns. Recently picked up both a 629 3" and an early 624 4" and want to try some of the heavier 240 grain Skeeter type loads for the GP100 and the 629. I can't believe the prices of the 696, the GP100 and even the Bisley flattop are going for now.
yes they are getting really high
Ive always been impressed with Ruger GP's, I have a Super Blackhawk 44mag that i prefer shooting 44 special through.
Thanks for the video, love your channel, have a greap day.😊
thankyou verymuch
I'll say this for sure; you're not flinching!
lol mabye that will carry over to those heavy smoothbore loads but i doubt it
Very nice Garrett! I like that holster, too. 👍👍 It must be fine for in the saddle or long haul days, too. BTW/kinda off topic but, hey Ethan, did you see Revere0311's recent video on his mystery '77 Charleville? I was wondering if you could help him out?
Thank you we will sure look into it
@@Real11BangBang 👍
That double action seems pretty smooth! In a defensive scenario unless you are setting up a long shot you will more than likely use double action and fast so it's best to train like that.
That's a nice looking revolver. May you have a blessed Lord's day.
thankyou
Funny you said that about Jeff's video, I had just watched that before yours.
I just picked up a 5.5” Super Blackhawk for Christmas. You just inspired me to grab some 44 Special bullets and give’em a go. Great video.
Oh, yeah, from what I understand you can really supe them up if you're hand loading for that blackhawk
What is your holster??
Speed beez cross draw
man those lipseys are nice and clean.
They are!
Big fan of both the 44 mag and 44 spl. Ruger? not so much. I think they use worn out tooling these days (undersized chambers rough bores etc) Owned more than a few bulldogs by CA but... their quality is as spotty as Ruger.. So where are we at with the 44 spl? huge heavy guns of spotty quality or smaller not too accurate guns of spotty quality. At this point I have a lot of 44 mag guns but I do not shoot spl loads out of mag guns. And I do not try to make a 44 spl into a mag. So where does that leave me? A cut down 44 mag gun (a 3" 629 would be about that size) or.... my only 44 spl gun....An Uberti SAA clone with 4.75" barrel that is not much bigger than that clunky Ruger and.... at least twice as accurate... maybe three times Will it shoot 300 grain loads at 1100 fps? no... who would want to? My load is a 250 grain cast and coated SWC at around 825 fps. it does sub 2" groups at 25 YARDS with no problem. Not sure they even make it anymore (I had to order mine years ago) I a still on the hunt for the SW gun which is half as clunky and no doubt twice as accurate at the Ruger one. Soooo... rather than hot rod a clunky crappy 44 spl gun I would rather chop down a 629 and shoot loaded down (250 cast swc coated) to around 1000-1100 fps I don't try to make my 38 spl loads into .357 and I don't try to make my 44 spl loads into 44 mag. Granted.. there is a small window in the 44 spl area to make rounds that are more + than factory 44 spl like my load for instance but....
Garrett, That is a very nice revolver.
thankyou very much
I can concur with the older charter arms bulldog. Not pleasant to shoot. The 44 spec ruger looks good. How is the trigger? I have three rugers; a gp 100 4" 357, a 6" stainless gp100 357, and a 4" speed six in 38 spec. All three triggers are functional but a little heavy.
this one comes in right at 11 lbs
sounds about right ;) @@Real11BangBang
@@Real11BangBang watched your tribute to Paul Harrell and finally snagged a like new in the box 3" Ruger GP100 44 spl at original msrp(!) I Couldn't find your tribute anymore though? I re-watched/read Harrel's comments on his Ruger gp100 44 and how he said he started carrying it as his regular defensive carry handgun. I bought the Ruger compact grips and a couple of 5-shot speed loaders. Thanks for the video again; it led to this =D
@johnski4709 I hope you enjoy yours as much as I like mine
Makes a great pocket gun if you make it a "spurless hammer".
Good work in that cold wind Ethan. - You reminded me of my 4 inch Ruger SP101 six shot 327 Fed Magnum .. always shot DA only. - Our anti-gun NZ Govt. forced me to sell them all last year so some lucky guy got a quarter priced bargain at auction. That's Life.
that is very sad. Thanks for watching
Looks like a great carry gun. I carry skeeter loads in my model 29. They'll handle anout anything.
oh yeah i think there great for anything on the north american Continent outside of Kodiaks but I'm probably never gonna have to worry about that lol
👍
I would love a revolver. Unfortunately, canada banned all the handguns.
man that is sad
Good video
Glad you enjoyed
Cool,gun
thanks
I've not shot a 44 special. But I like the concept. It's nice that with lower pressure you can use cast bullets.
Also, as a BP shooter those slow-ish heavy bullets are my style.
yes and they work well with bp as well
@@Real11BangBang Cool I'm getting ready to reload .38 special with BP like Jake does. I really love the impulse and report I get with heavy (200+ gr) loads around 800 fps out of my cap n balls guns.
It's hard to explain why. Feels powerful and controllable, almost familair.
This specific model is a Buy On Sight gun for me because (as you correctly noted) it has been discontinued and is on the rarer side
People smack talk .44 special, but slow moving .44 rounds from revolvers like the 1860 Army put a lot of men six feet under in the civil war. Same with a whole assortment of .44's like the .44 Colt, .44 Russian and .44-40 back in the wild west period.
oh yes and to be honest 44 at 1000 fps is not that slow. with modern guns it can be pushed to close to the foot pounds produced by 357.
Paul Harrell made a video that Poo-pood .44 special as a weak, anemic round with factory ammunition only being 700 fps. Harrell went so far as to claim that .44 special revolvers were normally only carried by people who had inherited the revolver, and could not afford to upgrade to a .ore effective cartridge. That raised an eyebrow with me. I have read that factory loaded .44 special defense cartridges were roughly equivalent to .45 ACP in lethality and effectiveness.
Good Video Garrett. Your family is in my prayers. We may not know each other personally, but we are cut from the same cloth. That cloth being the Robe of Christ.
I appreciate that
The rubber grips with the wood.Insert looks so much nicer than those gigantic rubber ones.
i think so too
What state are you filming from?
kansas
@Real11BangBang wow, wouldn't have guessed. You have mule deer there?
I’ve got a 5” blued version in 44 spl.
thats the holy grail gp100