Bulldog bite

[coyotejoe]

I tried out some new loads in my Charter Arms .44 Bulldog the other day. I found one I'm sure would be devastating on the receiving end but it was not at all comfortable on the shooter's end. Those big fat walnut grips took the recoil in the web of the hand with no great pain, they are much better than the thin rubber grips new Bulldogs now carry which have rubbed skin off the web. The pain and skin loss was to my trigger finger. It seems that as the gun rises in recoil the trigger guard smacks my finger with a hard, sharp blow.
 The load was a 180 grain wadcutter from Western Bullet Co. loaded over 9 grains of Unique. They clocked 1051 fps average for five from the 3" Bulldog. Accuracy was nothing to brag on, 4 1/2" at 25 yards. But that is actually well within the military acceptance standard for the original 1911 .45 ACP, and far better than I would ever shoot if I needed to defend my life with this gun. It's a warm .44 Special load for sure but empties dropped from the chambers very easily so I wouldn't call it hot.
 My previous defensive load was also a full wadcutter, a 210 grain cast from a Lee mold, over 7.0 grains of Unique and that also barks and bucks pretty good at about 900 fps.
These are the culprits and the result. I added the tape to the triggerguard after the damage was done.

[S.S.]

One of the most under-appreciated handguns there is.
I really like those bulldogs. One of my officers used to carry
an old model Bulldog "Pug" as his backup weapon.

[Mikey]

"4 1/2" at 25 yards. But that is actually well within the military acceptance standard for the original 1911 .45 ACP, and far better than I would ever shoot if I needed to defend my life with this gun".

Where on earth did you ever come up with this 'standard'?  This might be what the well worn 1911s still in service currently provide but it is hardly the standard by which the original 1911 was designed for military service, which was 2-2.5" at 25 yd with a maximum effective range to 50 yds with sufficient power to fault a mount or de-horse the rider. 

While most of your current 'combat designs' for the new gendre of polymer pistols might provide 3-4" patterns at 15m, most of us prefer the 1911s for their accuracy and proven field capability.  And I seriously doubt I would own a pistol or revolver that would not shoot any better than 4" at 25m and call it adequate for self defense.  jmtcw.

[coyotejoe]

The "acceptance standard", what a pistol had to do in testing before being accepted for issue, was not a "group" as we commonly use today. It was expressed as a standard deviation or average distance from center for each of a series shots. That can't be exactly converted to "group size" because one or two shots could be well out of the group and still be an acceptable standard deviation. The military has never used the extreme spread of shots, as a standard. But roughly speaking, a 6" group would pass. And that was for brand new pistols, not the worn out clunkers we were issued in the sixties. But actually, before gunsmiths began accurizing 1911's and before the makers began incorporating some of those accuracy tricks into factory guns, a 6" group at 25 yards was probably better than average for an out of the box Colt pistol with ball ammo. That's why revolvers ruled the bullseye ranges well into the 1960's and why accurizing 1911's became a lucrative profession for many gunsmiths.
 As for the accuracy requirement of handguns for self defence, the idea of precision shooting is Hollywood crap.  Cops may rarely have to swap shots at relatively long handgun range but that has nothing to do with personal defence for the ordinary citizen. Real personal defence is up close and personal, shots are almost never aimed at all and if the bullet just comes out the front end of the gun it is pretty much accurate enough. You may have some fantasy of making head shots at 50 yards and I guess we all have our fantasies but I won't worry about making my gun fit your fantasy.

[Old Griz]

I wouldn't worry about the hot loads. The standard 900 FPS loads are more than capable of doing the job on a human or even a deer. Check out Reed's Ammo http://www.reedsammo.com/ and see what .44 Special loads he has available. Good stuff at a good price. Great caliber.

[coyotejoe]

Here's an interesting read by Mike Venturino, a writer I really appreciate because he writes from personal experience, not quoting other writers or repeating rumors heard at the gun shop. Certainly the standard 246 grain roundnose factory load has rated very poorly in one shot stops, about like the .38 special 158 roundnose.  But most handgun cartridges can be improved by handloading with better bullets.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BTT/is_4_33/ai_n31877378/?tag=content;col1