Head to Head: .44 Russian vs. .44 Special vs. .44 Magnum

Have you ever wondered how the .44 Russian, .44 Special, and .44 Magnum compare?

Disclaimer

Ultimate Reloader LLC / Making with Metal Disclaimer: (by reading this article and/or watching video content you accept these terms). The content on this website (including videos, articles, ammunition reloading data, technical articles, gunsmithing and other information) is for demonstration purposes only. Do not attempt any of the processes or procedures shown or described on this website. All gunsmithing procedures should be carried out by a qualified and licensed gunsmith at their own risk. Do not attempt to repair or modify any firearms based on information on this website. Ultimate Reloader, LLC and Making With Metal can not be held liable for property or personal damage due to viewers/readers of this website performing activities, procedures, techniques, or practices described in whole or part on this website. By accepting these terms, you agree that you alone are solely responsible for your own safety and property as it pertains to activities, procedures, techniques, or practices described in whole or part on this website.

Some History on the .44’s

America’s much-loved .44 caliber handgun cartridges emerged in 1870 when Smith and Wesson took an order for a large number of revolvers from Russia. The Russians specified a new cartridge— the .44 Russian — which ushered in the .429” bore diameter we still use today.

In 1905, the longer .44 Special was introduced. The case is a bit longer than that of the Russian. I don’t understand why it was limited to the same power level as the earlier .44 Russian, but handloaders have taken it well beyond the factory 246 grain bullet at 750 fps. Skeeter Skelton found satisfaction with a 240 – 250 grain bullet at about 1,000 fps. He believed that with the right bullet, nearly any situation could be handled with this load. It should be noted that a flat-nose, hard-cast lead bullet produces excellent penetration on large, heavily muscled animals at around 1,000 fps.

L to R: .44 Russian, .44 Special, .44 Magnum

Elmer Keith was a prime mover behind the creation of the 44 magnum. He’d been handloading the 44 Special to heavy levels and wanted the factories to come out with a heavy load for it. Instead, they eventually came up with the 44 magnum, which was even more powerful than he’d requested. Elmer Keith turned to the .44 Special after severely damaging a .45 Colt revolver with his rather warm handloads. He saw the additional steel thickness in the cylinder as a benefit and eventually loaded the .44 Special up to about 1200 fps! In the years following, he urged ammunition manufacturers to produce .44 Special ammo loaded to that level. Remington and Smith & Wesson did something else instead. The pair teamed up to produce the .44 Magnum in 1955, delivering even more power than Elmer Keith had requested.

Few cartridges have inspired as many quotes or as many myths as the .44’s. I grew up reading Elmer Keith then graduated to Skeeter Skelton and John Taffin. In the 1970s, I was thrilled to watch Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry Callahan with his mighty .44 Magnum. Between all of them, I just had to have a .44 Magnum, and have had at least one such revolver on hand for the past 40 years.

I wasn’t alone. The Dirty Harry movies inspired others to buy revolvers, making it hard to even find a .44 Magnum revolver for sale for a while. Later, it became pretty common to buy a lightly-used .44 Magnum which had only been fired a few times before the owner decided it was just too much of a good thing!

Resources

Before starting the loading process, I researched the .44 Russian, for which I’d never loaded. I consulted an article by Brian Pearce in Handloader (Number 339, August 2022). I also consulted Lyman’s manual and Hodgdon’s online reloading data center. John Taffin’s admonition to not use smokeless powder in the 125-year-old break top S&W revolvers resonated with me. John has huge experience loading for and shooting revolvers and I trust his word. Based on his advice and a similar warning in the Lyman manual, I abandoned my idea of shooting my ancient S&W break top .44 Russian for this story. Perhaps someday I’ll load it with black powder and a lead bullet. Perhaps. Maybe I should buy one of the new reproduction models with modern steel. We shall see…

Skeeter Skelton is another .44 shooter who should not be ignored. He adopted the .44 Magnum when it was introduced, but soon returned to his much-appreciated .44 Special S&W revolver. The .44 Special revolver was a bit lighter than the .44 Magnum by virtue of the shorter cylinder, and Skeeter found that the .44 Special was quite capable of handling any chore he presented to it. His load is well above what’s recommended by modern load manuals, but many thousands of those rounds have been fired safely. I’ve read that Elmer Keith himself gave Skeeter that load info. Skeeter had a point— a good 250 grain hard-cast flat-nose bullet at about 1000 fps is very controllable, accurate, and powerful enough for most tasks. Penetration from that combination is excellent. My .44 Magnum load with 9.0 grains of HP-38 provides roughly the same velocity, but from a magnum case.

About the Loads

I decided to load the Berry’s 240 Grain Target Hollow Point in all three of the .44’s. For easy comparison I used Starline brass, CCI 300 primers, and Hodgdon HP-38. I also tried some CCI 350’s and H110 in the .44 Magnum.

There are several strong points in favor of using .44 Magnum cases and loading them at two different levels:

No “crud ring” develops in the chambers from shooting shorter cartridge cases.
Keeps the handloader’s inventory simple using only one .44 case.
The .44 Magnum can easily be downloaded to comfortable 44 Special levels or loaded up to full potential with a wide range of bullets.
The vast majority of .44 caliber revolvers made over the past 50 years have been 44 magnums, so there are many more from which to choose, new or used.

Over the past year, I’ve loaded and shot about 500 of these Berry’s Bullets from 500 fps to 1400+ fps with very good results. The vast majority of those were .44 Magnum cartridges that have helped me revive my big-bore revolver skills. These plated bullets are a very good substitute for either cast lead or jacketed bullets and far less expensive than most other .44 caliber bullets.

There is one thing to remember: watch your crimp! If you’re used to using a heavy crimp on jacketed or cast bullets, it’s best to lighten up the crimp with these bullets to avoid compromising the plating. Even when using a lighter crimp than normal, I didn’t notice any of the bullets budging from recoil with the heaviest loads. (This is still always something to watch for though.) I checked with Berry’s about the intended use for this bullet and they stressed that it was designed to be a target bullet, not as a hunting bullet.

From Berry’s:

Berry’s Superior Plated Bullets® are the finest bonded copper-jacketed bullets available today. Starting with a swaged lead core, they are electroplated with copper to their final weight, leaving no lead exposure. They are then re-struck to precise specifications, ensuring a solid bond and providing consistency with every round. Indoor range safe and unbelievably accurate, Berry’s Superior Plated Bullets® are the choice of shooters everywhere.

Bullet O.A.L.: .692″

Cartridge Name: 44 Special

Cartridge O.A.L.: 1.460″

Max Velocity: 1850 fps

Cartridge Name: 44 Magnum

Cartridge O.A.L.: 1.610″

Max Velocity: 1850 fps

- Load data for our Superior Plated Bullets® can be found in any manual or on any powder manufacturer’s website.
- Cast or jacketed data with the same grain weight and profile will work with our bullets.
- You can use a taper or a roll crimp.
- Don’t over crimp the brass after seating. This causes bullet core separation, leading to increased copper fouling and accuracy issues.
- Don’t exceed the recommended maximum velocities listed. This creates bullet core separation and accuracy issues.

HP-38 (also packaged as Winchester 231) is an excellent powder for light to moderate handgun loads. I’ve used one version or the other since the 1980s with excellent results. In the .44s, it produced easy-shooting loads with good accuracy. Even the light 9.0 grain magnum load, my favorite from this story, was very controllable but still retained plenty of punch for most chores. This load produced about the same velocity as Skeeter’s famous .44 Special load. I was pleased that HP-38 worked out well in all three of these cartridges.

H110 is the heavy hitter, burning slower than HP-38. It’s the same as Winchester 296. Both are outstanding in max and near max loads in the magnum revolver cartridges. Hodgdon recommends a tight window of powder charges for H110 and W296 from 23 to 24 grains with 240 grain bullets. Dropping below their listed minimum is not recommended and can be dangerous. A magnum primer is recommended with H110, so I used the CCI 350. These high-performance powders produce high velocities, excellent accuracy, a fair bit of recoil, and one heck of a fireball!

Loading Process

I started by loading .44 Russian on the single-stage RCBS Summit press. This robust press has excellent leverage and was seriously underworked sizing and expanding the short .44 Russian cases.

I used standard .44 Magnum dies and was able to resize, properly expand the case mouths, and seat bullets, but I was unable to get a decent crimp on the case mouths because the Russian cases were so much shorter. A turned to a set of .44 Russian RCBS Cowboy dies to solve the issue. I also loaded 50 rounds of .44 Special on the RCBS Summit press.

Needing to produce quite a few more .44 Magnum cartridges, I turned to the Lyman All-American 8 turret press to speed things up. This is a favorite of mine and I can produce handgun ammunition more quickly than I can with a single-stage press.

Both spherical powers, HP-38 and the H110 both flowed smoothly and accurately through Lyman’s powder measure. It didn’t take long to create a healthy supply of .44 Magnum cartridges for the video.

About Our .44’s

S&W 329 PD

The lightweight 329PD is excellent for packing and a bit light for comfortable shooting with powerful magnum ammunition. Note the easily visible fiber optic front sight.

Let’s start with the lightest. A common complaint about the .44 Magnum revolvers is that they’re bulky and heavy, difficult to carry while hiking. S&W addressed that with the 329PD, reducing the weight to a scant 26.3 ounces via an alloy frame and titanium cylinder. After shooting it with .44 Special-level loads, I concluded that I likely wouldn’t like it with full power .44 Magnums Keep in mind that a flat-nose hard cast bullet at about 1000 fps can penetrate very deeply into or even through large animals.

S&W 629 4”

Elmer Keith was fond of 4” .44 Magnum S&W 29’s. The 629 is the, handy-sized, stainless steel version of the 29. At 42.8 ounces, it’s only a bit heavier than a full size .45 1911 semi-auto. That gun felt really solid and well-balanced in hand. It also handled the powerful ammunition well. Personally, I preferred it over the lighter 329PD. Back in 2011, Gavin reported on how well it shot with his mild load of 5.2 grains of Winchester 231.

S&W 629 5”

I’ve owned several different .44 Magnum revolvers over the decades, getting my first one in the mid 1980s. Some time ago, I declared this 5” full-underlug 629 “Classic” my favorite. I’ve only taken one mule deer with it, but have carried it many times while hiking, hunting, fishing, or camping in “bear country.” The 5” Classic weighs 45.6 ounces and is a bit muzzle heavy which attenuates the recoil of full power magnum loads. Mine is set up with a Dawson Precision fiber optic front sight and Ahrends grips. The front sight on these “Classic” revolvers is very easily replaced with no tools necessary.

S&W 629 6.5”

Gavin had this one IONBONDED and set it up with a Bushnell red dot sight. At 49.3 ounces, it’s an absolute pleasure to shoot with enough weight out front to really tame the recoil even with stout .44 magnum loads. The famous S&W trigger pull just enhances the shootability of this fine revolver.

Ruger SBH Bisley Hunter 7.5”

The big Ruger Bisley Hunter is a bit large and heavy for a general purpose packing revolver, but is accurate, soaks up recoil well, and is intended for handgun hunting. Hundreds of Berry’s 240 grain bullets have been sent through it in practice sessions this past year.

Not long ago I was fortunate enough to acquire a lightly-customized Ruger Bisley Hunter .44 Magnum. The single-action revolver has a 7.5” barrel and weighs in at a whopping 52 ounces (without the Ultradot). It’s the Bisley version of Ruger’s Super Blackhawk, which means it has a different, larger grip somewhat reminiscent of Colt’s old Bisley revolvers. The hammer and the trigger guard are also shaped differently than those on the standard Super Blackhawk. Like the Smith and Wesson Classic series, the front sight of the Ruger can be quickly and easily changed.

S&W First Model Double Action 6” 44 Russian

I didn’t weigh the old revolver but it’s light enough to be quite a contrast to most of our more modern .44 caliber revolvers. The grip is considerably smaller and the crude sights are diminutive. Simultaneously ejecting all six cartridges allowed it to be reloaded much more rapidly than standard single-action revolvers. This gun was quite advanced “back the day.” The double action trigger is heavy, but works very well. This sort of revolver earned a reputation for excellent accuracy with the .44 Russian cartridge.

Results

All loads were tested from the 5” S&W 629 revolver. The temperature was hovering around 13 degrees, which could have contributed to some of the fairly wide SD figures. My favorite load of these was the .44 Magnum with 9.0 grains of HP-38 moving the 240 grain Berry’s bullet at just over 1,000 fps — about the same velocity as Skeeter’s famous ,44 Special load.

I laughed when I shot the very mild .44 Russian loads! Recoil and muzzle report were negligible. It could be loaded somewhat warmer, but it was fun shooting it at this very reduced level. These are the lightest and slowest revolver rounds I’ve loaded in a very long time.

The .44 Special load was more to my liking and only about 100 fps below factory specifications. It sounded and felt more businesslike and could be considered a rather mild .44 Special load. I found it very easy to shoot and accurate. 750 fps could be easily obtained with a bit more powder.

The light .44 Magnum load with 9.0 grains of HP-38 was terrific! That provided about the same velocity as Skeeter’s famous .44 Special load and is my pick for a general purpose .44 Magnum load. This load is easy to shoot, accurate, and powerful enough for most purposes.

For 40 years I’ve used a few different powders to build such .44 Magnum loads, using a 240 – 250 grain bullet at around 1000 fps. They’re plenty powerful, but far easier to shoot than full-strength magnum ammo. I prefer to use the magnum cases for this purpose rather than the shorter .44 Special cases. Using the shorter cases can result in the build up of a “crud ring” which can be difficult to remove.

The heavy 44 magnum load with 23.5 grains of H110 was classic .44 Magnum. BOOM! Thunder and lightning. These heavy loads deliver power at over 1200 fps from a 5” revolver, but also pound the shooter with a fair bit of recoil. They’re easier to shoot well from Ruger’s heavier 7.5” Bisley Hunter and pump up to about 1400 fps easily enough. This sort of load, with a different bullet, would be excellent for handgun hunting. With the Berry’s plated bullet it’s perfect for practice.

Conclusion

We can thank the Cowboy Action shooters for bringing back the cool, old .44 Russian. It is a fun and useful cartridge with a factory rating of a 246 grain bullet at 750 fps comparable to a .45 ACP with a 230 grain bullet at 850 fps. I highly recommend following John Taffin’s advice and only shooting the smokeless .44 Russian loads in modern reproductions, rather than in the original 125+ year old Smith and Wesson top break revolvers.

The wonderful .44 Special remains just that, special indeed. It can handle a wide range of loads from .44 Russian-level upwards towards .44 Magnum levels. S&W’s Model 24 and 624 are excellent in .44 Special and Lipsey’s is distributing Ruger Bisley Blackhawk revolvers in 44 Special as well.

HP-38 was a pleasure to work with. It had been a while since I’d used that powder or W231. Expect it to throw consistent powder charges and produce good to excellent accuracy. My favorite load of these four was the light .44 Magnum with 9.0 grains of HP-38 and Berry’s 240 grain Target Hollow Point at a tad over 1,000 fps. Powerful and accurate, but not at all painful to shoot.

H110 or W296 produce the sort of velocity, power, muzzle blast, and recoil the .44 Magnum is known for. It too produces excellent accuracy and is a great choice for maximum or near maximum level .44 Magnum hunting loads. Berry’s 240 grain plated Target Hollow Point is a fine bullet for target practice from any of these three 44 cartridges and is fully up to being used at carbine velocity if desired.

After decades of loading and shooting .44’s, my choice remains to load only the 44 magnum case at two different power levels: a 240-250 grain bullet at about 1,000 fps for general purposes and practice, and maximum or near maximum-level loads for hunting.