44 Special vs 44 Special

[357smallbore]

I have a Rossi 720. I love the gun. Love the caliber. I load my own to shoot. Use Blazer 200 grn GDHP for defense. I am thinking of getting a box of Buffalo Bore 200 grn full wadcutters to carry. Anyone every carry or shoot these. They aren't cheap. I feel that a fully expanded 44 Special already would be bad news if it came in contact with a bad guy. I would carry a full load of them, and speed strip a set of GDHP.
Any thoughts?

 

[GBExpat]

Two Things :
1- I would stick with the Gold Dots.
2- I wish I had a 720.

 

[Tallball]

I love my 720 also. I liked it so much I even bought one of the 357 magnum versions. I think they are called the 711, 712, and 713, though I have a poor memory for details. I have the 6 inch version. There is also a four inch and a 2.5 inch. If your hammer nose breaks, I discovered that a S&W one can be modified to fit. Here is my 720.

 

[Tallball]

Here is the same frame, but a six shot 357 instead of a five shot 44, and a six inch barrel instead of three. It is a model 712. Its accuracy is excellent. The 357 versions are even harder to find than the 44's.

 

[Tallball]

This is the 720 with a S&W hammer nose installed. They can break sometimes, and I was not able to find one for sale. Luckily the S&W one is just a little larger in a few areas, so my FiL was able to file it down very carefully here and there until it was very nearly a duplicate of the original. It works just fine.

 

[eastbank]

i too have a soft spot for the .44 special and it took me two years to pry this S&W 624 from a friend. eastbank.

 

[Panzerschwein]

A .44 starts off as big as a 9mm expanded, so if you ask me a full wadcutter hard cast .44 special loaded warm is about tops. It will cut a cookie cutter wound through flesh and deliver massive knock down power.

 

[horsemen61]

I like wadcutters in all calibers so I say yeah go for it.

 

[bannockburn]

357smallbore

I also share everyone's love of the .44 Special though mine is of the single action variety; a Ruger Blackhawk Flattop.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I would use one or the other but not change ammo in a SD situation. Both will produce different felt recoil and both will probably have a different POI.

Since you are willing to pay up for your SD ammo why not change over to the original Speer GDHP ammo instead of the Blazer offering using a GDHP bullet? Speer Gold Dot ammo is a high quality product as I'm sure you know.

 

[the Black Spot]

Two Things :
1- I would stick with the Gold Dots.
2- I wish I had a 720.

X2 on both!

Those hardcast wadcutters are likely to bust through and could injure a bystander

 

[Barry the Bear]

I prefer the Federal loading LSWCHP.

 

[philbo]

I am fond of the 44 special and have several revolvers chambered for it including a Rossi 720. I generally carried the gold dot's myself, but I ordered the wadcutters used by Buffal Bore from Rim Rock and loaded my own. Since you reload, you can pick up 500 cast bullets to develop your own load for the price of 20 rounds from BB. They've been accurate in my S&W, Rossi, Colt, and Ruger.

http://rimrockbullets.net/top-shelf...t-lead-bullets/44-200-gr-dewc-fb-per-500.html

 

[Drail]

Friends don't let friends use Buffalo Bore. There is no reason to beat the gun to an early death when standard pressure .44 Spl. loads work just fine. If you can place the round where it needs to go standard loads have plenty of power. If you cannot do that then using Buffalo Bore ammo isn't going to help. People were slaughtering each other for many years using black powder loads. When smokeless powder was first introduced the loads were limited so as not to beat the older guns to an early death. If you really think you need more power than a standard 44 Spl. provides - buy a .44 Mag. I have been handloading full wadcutter ammo in .44 Spl. for many years and even when loaded to moderate velocities - they do terrible damage to living things. I have an old Charter Arms Bulldog from 1987 that is still as tight as the day I bought it because it has never been fed "high performance" loads. It has been fed thousands of moderate loads and I still carry it today. The very best factory load for .44 Spl. is the CCI/Speer 200 gr. Gold Dot load.

 

[CraigC]

The 200gr wadcutter at 1000fps should be a standard pressure load.

I don't know why people assume Buffalo Bore loads are going to beat a gun up. In fact, there are very few of their offerings that exceed standard pressures and it says so right on the box. In reality, due to their more meticulous loading practices and carefully blended powders, they are simply able to toe the line closer than the big manufacturers. They also don't cut corners with their components and use strictly premium bullets and Starline brass. That is why they are so expensive.

 

[Michael Tinker Pearce]

I love the .44 Special, but I don't reload yet and prices of factory ammo are out of sight. Still, If I could get my hands on a 720 I wouldn't pas it up...

 

[mavracer]

I use golddots loaded by Georgia Arms, have used Blazer golddots in the past. I'll shoot my carry ammo too much for Buffalo Bore ammo.

 

[357smallbore]

I am fond of the 44 special and have several revolvers chambered for it including a Rossi 720. I generally carried the gold dot's myself, but I ordered the wadcutters used by Buffal Bore from Rim Rock and loaded my own. Since you reload, you can pick up 500 cast bullets to develop your own load for the price of 20 rounds from BB. They've been accurate in my S&W, Rossi, Colt, and Ruger.

http://rimrockbullets.net/top-shelf...t-lead-bullets/44-200-gr-dewc-fb-per-500.html

thank you

 

[LoneGoose]

Here's my .44 Special. I must say, it's a honey.

 

[Michael Tinker Pearce]

Here's my .44 Special. I must say, it's a honey.

Nice- is that an 1860 conversion or an open-top? A little blurry, hard to tell...

 

[the Black Spot]

View attachment 224397 Here's my .44 Special. I must say, it's a honey.

Indeed it is!

 

[CraigC]

Nice- is that an 1860 conversion or an open-top? A little blurry, hard to tell...

Looks like the Richards-Mason, it has the rebated cylinder. The Open Top is straight.

 

[Steve Cover]

At 44 Special velocities, I doubt that a full wadcutter would over penetrate.
Also, at those velocities, I believe that a hollow point would not reliably upset.
It seems more likely that the cavity would simply fill with clothing and punch on like a round nose soft point.
Therefore, the full watcutter would be the most disruptive to tissue and be more effective.

My choice would be the wadcutters.

Steve

 

[Hanshi]

My .44 spl is an S&W M24-2 with a 6-1/2" barrel. I also have 6 rounds of - don't know what they're called - factory rounds that are filled with shot. Here's a pic; the .22 somehow sneaked into the pic.

 

[Rodentman]

I like my Mountain Lite: