.44 special any good?

[jw83]

I have been looking for a revolver for concealed carry/home defense and have been trying to decide on caliber. Have a friend who carries .44 special and says it's one of the best pistol rounds ever made. I know next to nothing about the .44 special round or its availability. Was wondering if anybody could give me any thoughts on the .44 special.

[Old Griz]

Fantastic cartridge. The .44 Special, .45 ACP, and .45 Colt all have a nice big chunk of lead moving at about the same speed. They make nice big holes and have great stopping power. Unfortunately, you choice of guns is quite limited. Which one are you looking at?

[jw83]

I was kind of thinking about charter arms bulldog, like you said I haven't seen a whole lot of pistols chambered in .44 special. any opinions on charter arms?

[Old Griz]

I've never had one, but there seems to be a lot of Bulldog fans around here. My dealer said they've had up and down years depending on the ownership, but right now they are supposed to be pretty good. I think 44Man is the local expert. I'd go with his recommendation.

I'm going the much more expensive route. I want the 3" S&W .44 mag. N-frame and basically use it as a .44 Special.
www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=53942&langId=-1&isFirearm=Y

[jw83]

Yeah I like the smith any idea how much they usually go for?

[Old Griz]

Not yet. Gotta make sure I have fresh batteries in my pacemaker when I find out.

[jw83]

yeah i hear ya thanks for the info griz

[canon6]

I bought my first Charter Arms 44 spec in 1976 and have  had one ever  since.They have served me well, and the 44 spec has been one of the better self defense/target rounds.    hth   Doug

[Wolfgang]

JW,

I have a couple of 44 specials, one old Taurus 431 2 1/2" with fixed sights, one Taurus 441 with a 4" barrel and adjustable sights and a Charter arms Bulldog.  The Charter is one of the new ones and I did have an old one many years ago.  The Charter, when it came into my dealer after I ordered it, was not acceptable.  I sent off and E-mail to the distributor and voiced my complaint and the fact that I felt bad for my dealer as I would not accept the gun due to all of its flaws.  I had not expected to hear anything else but to my surprise, I was contacted by the distributor who took down all of my complaints then had the gun returned to them and agreed that it should not have left the factory the way it was.  I then got another phone call from Nick Eker, the president of the Charter arms company!  He told me that he would make things right if I were willing to give them a chance to and when the gun came back to the dealer it was 100%.  Now I will tell you that it is no Smith and Wesson but neither is the price tag.  What it is, is a good solid, accurate, light weight, large bore defensive revolver that is very comforting to have with you.  It is a great shooter and was well worth the investment.  All of the above E-Mail and calls took place first within a matter of hours and then a couple of days of phone tag and within a couple of weeks the gun was returned.  This in and of itself is incredible in todays world.  As has been stated the caliber is on par with 45 ACP, 45 Colt and so on.
By the way, both of the Taurus revolvers have been great too but you would have to search them out on the used market and they are starting to command pretty substantial prices.  I don't thind Taurus has anything similar in production now and from what I have heard the quality is spotty now at best and I have heard the customer service is almost non existent.  I attached a couple of pictures of the small Taurus I don't have any of the Charter right now but if you want a closer look I'll take a few.

Hope this helps,
Wolfgang

[tc scout]

Sounds like someone had the same problems with charter that i did. The one I ordered came in such a mess i  just told them to keep it. Bought a S&W 396 in 44 special, great shooter and carry gun. It is a light gun and little sharp on recoil but is still very manageable with 180 or 200 gr bullets and medium loads. Shoots factory Gold Dots very well if you Don't reload. I do own a charter 38 special undercover, is a good gun with no problems,but it is a older model. Recent bulldogs I don't know what their problem is. Since I got the Smith my wife took over the 38 special, she loves shooting it. Good luck in whatever you choose.

[Old Griz]

CDNN Sports has the S&W 21 Thunder Ranch model for $499.99 (Why don't they just say $500?!?), AND they also have the 21 Classic without the Thunder Ranch logo for $499.99. Oh, this is tempting. I'm starting to shake. . . .

[while99]

I have a stainless S&W 696-2 in .44 Special with a 3" barrel.  It is a 5-shot, L-frame revolver.  It is my favorite carry gun.  I use W-W 200 grain Silvertip hollowpoints in it and it shoots dead on at 25 yards.  I don't know how many of these Smith made but you sure don't see them very often.

[jw83]

Thank you all for the info you have been really helpful.

[papajohn428]

I didn't hear about the Smith 696 unless they'd quit making them, and those that have them love them.  The last one I saw for sale was used, and they wanted $900 for it!     But I still wanted a 44 for CCW, and my perseverence finally paid off.  I'm picking up a Rossi 3" this week, I offered the guy $375 for it, and he shook his head and said no.................then offered it to me for $225.  He said that's what he had in it, he only shot it rarely, and has other toys to play with.  He also griped about the price of factory 44 Spl ammo, but I think he was talking about Cowboy ammo, and he doesn't handload.  I've been loading the 44 for ten years or better, another reason I wanted this gun. 

As a defensive caliber the 44 is hard to beat, and while there are some cheap guns chambered for it, most will serve well in a CCW role.  The Rossi is nothing fancy, but this is a stainless model, so I don't have to worry about ruining it by carrying it and sweating on it.  The newer Charter guns I've seen look well-made, but I wish they'd kept the 3" barrel like the older guns, or at least offered it as an option.  Just my humble opinions.........

Papajohn

[coyotejoe]

I really like the size, weight, appearance and handling of the .44 Bulldog, that is why I've had brief affairs with three of them over the years. The affairs were brief because I never was satisfied with the performance of any of them. After shooting and tinkering with them I've finally concluded the problem is as much in the design as in the quality of workmanship. As a range plinker you can have fun with a Bulldog but the reliability is not up to my requirements for a carry gun. Reliablity is the absolute MUST in a carry gun. All of them gave acceptable accuracy in single action mode but all tended to misfire in double action mode. I also don't believe it is possible to obtain a really good, or even fair, double action trigger pull. I finally settled on a Ruger SP101 in .357 magnum, which I believe is a better cartridge anyhow. With the .357 I can run inexpensive .38 special loads for plinking and 125 grain Gold Dot .357s for serious work. The Ruger is in every way a much better gun.

[gt40]

If I remember correctly way back when "The Son of Sam" shot a few people with the 44 Bulldog and didn't kill them the manufactureer put out all kinds of excuses. They thought that people would stop buying them.

"Aim small miss small",

gt40

[Mohawk]

 My grandfather was a Dallas Detective Seargent and carried a S&W Model 21 .44 Special for a service revolver around the days of Bonnie and Clyde(He was on morgue duty when they were brought in). I can honestly say that I am in the world today due to assistance from that revolver. My father owns it and it is nickle plated, buckhorn grips, and the barrel is about a smootbore due to decay but it did its job when required but it was used to eliminate a deadly threat. On a side note, we also have his S&W M&P .32-20 revolver he carried as a uniformed beat walker.

[glshop20]

I would look into a good .44 magnum.  You have the flexibility to shoot .44special or if you need more power magnum loads. 

[AtlLaw]

I would look into a good .44 magnum.  You have the flexibility to shoot .44special or if you need more power magnum loads. 

+1

I just ordered a Taurus 44 Mag. yesterday.  As I've said in other threads, I've been looking for an L frame S&W M-696 for a long time.  They are hard to find.  Of course S&W came out with a 44 Spl. this year, but they are around $900!  I wanted a medium (S&W "L") frame because they fit my hand better and are more concealable then the "N" frame.  I found a medium frame, 5 shot, 2 inch ported barrel, 44 Mag. Taurus and bought it.  Also, I'd rather load DOWN a 44 Mag then load UP a 44 Spl.  Especially if I'm working with a 2 " barrel!