Honoring .44 Caliber Cartridges Past and Present

Back in 2024 I wrote a piece about one of my favorite cartridges, the .44 Special. One reader responded that I should do a deep dive into the .44 Magnum. I liked his idea, but I decided to take a different tack and look at the various .44 caliber handgun cartridges.

It’s not all-inclusive; I skipped more obscure ones like the .44 Remington, for example. I tried to track down current guns, ammo and reloading supplies, but it’s likely some sources got missed or availability has changed.

.44 S&W American (1869-70)

Our Army’s first adopted metallic-cartridge handgun was a Smith & Wesson Model 3 top-break revolver chambered to this round, which was loaded with a .434-inch heeled bullet similar in design to a .22’s. The cartridge, also known as the .44/100, was itself a modification of the .44 Henry rimfire. It wasn’t powerful: a 205-grain bullet at under 700 fps for just over 200 ft.-lbs. of energy.

Besides the military claim to fame, a Model 3 in .44 American may have been the gun Wyatt Earp used at the OK Corral. But you’re welcome to go down that rabbit hole on your own. There are no current guns or ammo that I could find.

.44 Russian (1870)

When the Russian government wanted to place a large order for S&W Model 3s, it requested a change to the .44 American cartridge design—objecting to the American’s lubricated heeled bullet on the grounds that it would attract dirt and debris. In response, Smith & Wesson ditched the heel and changed the diameter to .429, which became the standard for .44 caliber handgun cartridges going forward.

The company also changed the standard load to a 246-grain bullet at 750 fps for more than 300 ft.-lbs. of energy. That boosted chamber pressure, and to avoid blowing up guns in ammo mixups, S&W also lengthened the Russian to .970 so it couldn’t be chambered in .44 Americans. The Model 3 chambers had to be modified to handle the Russian as well.

Cimarron and Taylor’s & Co. make reproductions in the caliber, and Black Hills and HSM load it. Lee Precision offers dies, and Starline sells brass.

.44 Colt (1871)

Developed for the Richards-Mason conversions that turned Colt cap-and-ball guns into cartridge guns, it used a .451-inch heeled bullet with a case length of 1.1 inches and an overall length of 1.5 inches. Some reports have it serving with the Army from 1871-73, and in that service it fired a 225-grain bullet powered by blackpowder to 640 fps and just over 200 ft.-lbs. of energy.

Buffalo Bore has a smokeless load: a 200-grain at 725 fps. Starline sells new brass for it, and according to an article in BlackpowderCartridge­ News.com, reloaders can use .44 Russian dies adjusted to .44 Colt length.

.44-40 (1873)

Introduced as a rifle cartridge for the Winchester 1873, Colt picked it up for some revolvers—including the Single Action Army in 1878—and it became popular among frontiersmen who wanted the same cartridge for both rifle and revolver.

The .44-40, also known as the .44 Winchester or .44 WCF, began life as a blackpowder round. In today’s smokeless form, it commonly pushes bullets in the 200-grain neighborhood. Hornady’s Cowboy load, for example, is a 205-grainer at 725 fps out of a 7.5-inch test barrel. That yields 239 ft.-lbs. of energy.

The .44-40 lasted in original Colt revolvers until the early 1940s, and it maintains a following today among Old West aficionados and Cowboy Action shooters. As such, a number of repros are available from Uberti, Cimarron and Taylor’s & Co. It’s still loaded in factory ammo from Black Hills, Hornady, Winchester, HSM, Buffalo Bore, Grizzly Cartridge and Choice. RCBS, Lee and Redding sell dies, and Lyman has a bullet mold.

.44 S&W Special (1907)

The .44 Russian is its parent, with the case being lengthened to 1.16 inches to handle the bulkier smokeless powders of its day and also likely to prevent chambering the Special in older .44 Russian top-breaks. While it never achieved the status of, say, the .45 Colt, the .44 Special has had its share of fans—including such notables as Skeeter Skelton and Elmer Keith.

The .44 Special is not widely chambered. Not counting historical repros, today only Ruger and Charter Arms offer new-production models. Smith & Wesson and Taurus have produced Specials in the past.

There’s no shortage of ammo, though, as most of the majors load it. Typical defensive ammo bullets range from 165 to 200 grains, with energies in the high 200s to mid 300s. You can also get hotter loads from some of the boutique makers. There are also plenty of options when it comes to load data, dies, brass and other components, making it a great handloader’s cartridge.

.44 Remington Magnum (1955)

Why are there so many .44 Special loads when there are hardly any .44 Special guns? Probably because it can be fired in revolvers chambered for the .44 Remington Magnum, the ne plus ultra of the .44 family. It’s the brainchild of Elmer Keith, who had been messing with hot loads for the .44 Special for years. He worked with (some sources say badgered) Remington to produce a “.44 Special Magnum” and Smith & Wesson to build a strong revolver to handle it. Both companies came on board, with Remington lengthening the .44 Special case to 1.285 inches and calling it the .44 Remington Magnum. Smith & Wesson designed an N-frame revolver that would become the Model 29.

While the .44 Magnum was already popular by the time Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” character called it (erroneously) “the most powerful handgun in the world,” that movie catapulted the cartridge and the Model 29 into the stratosphere. It remains a staple as a hunting tool and a defensive option in bear country.

The .44 Magnum’s initial ballistics were a 240-grain bullet at more than 1,500 fps for over 1,000 ft.-lbs. of energy—more powerful than previous .44s by several magnitudes. Today’s 240-grain loads are a bit more sedate—in the 1,300 fps neighborhood for less than 1,000 ft.-lbs.—but even so most people find it way too much gun for everyday self-defense.

That’s why folks like me primarily shoot Specials in our .44 Magnum guns. However, Federal introduced a new reduced load for self-defense, and I have some Garrett lower-recoil, hard-cast ammo designed as a controllable option for bear defense.

That’s one big selling point to the cartridge: there’s an immense variety of factory loads for every purpose. Handloaders also benefit from a broad universe of choices for loads and components. One benefit is the ability to download the .44 Magnum almost to .44 Special levels and not worry about the fouling buildup inside chambers that can occur with regular use of shorter .44 Specials.

.44 Auto Mag (1971)

The .44 Auto Mag or AMP is based on the .30-06 semi-rimmed case and was developed by Harry Sanford to put .44 Magnum power into a semiautomatic. That semiauto was the Auto Mag, which Sanford’s company produced for a few years. The gun and its cartridge had a star turn in another Dirty Harry movie, 1983’s “Sudden Impact.”

There have been attempts to resurrect the Auto Mag, but none has proven successful, although there are later-model guns out there as well as originals on the used market. USA Firearms is currently chambering the .44 Auto Mag in the Wildey Survivor semiauto. SBR Ammunition loads the .44 AMP with 240-grain Hornady XTPs, along with a 180- and 240-grain full metal jackets. Lee sells dies, and Starline is your brass source.

.445 Super Mag (1986)

Part of a family of “Super Mags” developed by Elgin Gates primarily for handgun silhouette competitions as well as for hunting, the .445 is simply an elongated .44 Magnum. But it is able to push similar-weight bullets faster and with more energy. The .445 Super Mag was briefly chambered by Dan Wesson, with the last guns coming off the line in 2007.

Buffalo Bore has two jacketed hollowpoint loads: a 180-grain at 2,050 fps for 1,679 ft.-lbs.; and a 240-grain at 1,700 fps for 1,540 ft.-lbs. Starline offers brass.

.440 Cor-Bon (1998)

This one pre-dates the .429 Desert Eagle and is essentially the same thing: a .50 Action Express necked down to .429. However, the two are not interchangeable. It was designed by Cor-Bon, and a few Desert Eagles were chambered to it. It pushed a 240-grain bullet to 1,825 fps for 1,775 ft.-lbs. of energy. It’s no longer loaded commercially, and I didn’t find any components or dies.

.429 Desert Eagle (2018)

Designed by Magnum Research’s Jim Tertin, the cartridge is a necked-down .50 Action Express. Like the .50 AE, the .429 Desert Eagle was developed for the semiautomatic Desert Eagle, and the round pushes a 240-grain bullet at more than 1,600 fps for a muzzle energy around 1,400 ft.-lbs.

I’ve shot the .429 Desert Eagle, and recoil is significant but not bone crushing. The round is currently chambered in the Desert Eagle. Underwood Ammo and Glacier Ridge sell ammunition. Starline is the source for brass, and Lee Precision has dies.

.44/.454 JDJ Woodswalker

I’m including this one because it was in my edition of Cartridges of the World. Even though its parent, SSK Industries, no longer chambers it, when it comes to wildcat handgun rounds you can’t really skip one that’s associated with famed wildcat developer J.D. Jones.

According to Cartridges, the .44/.454 JDJ Woodswalker is a necked-down .454 Casull that pushes a 300-grain bullet to 2,100 fps or a 240-grainer to 2,300 fps. That works out to 2,937 and 2,819 ft.-lbs. of energy, respectively.

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