The .44 Best?

I’ll stay consistent by telling you the .45 Colt is still my favorite cartridge, for many reasons. But for pure universal effectiveness, versatility, shooting fun and handiness, the .44 Special gets the nod. When an all-day affair of shooting steel, or long-range plinking is called for, the .44 Special answers up, having few peers.

For the past 15 years, I’ve traveled to Raton, New Mexico, to visit and shoot with like-minded people. Sixguns chambered in .44 Special are by far the most popular, with 99% of those shooting cast handloads. My allotted ammo weight for checked luggage consists almost entirely of such ammunition.

This is because the .44 Special always exhibits good manners by being comfortable to shoot with minimal recoil and a tendency for its bullets to fly true. There’s certainly a correlation there!

The Slugs

I cast the bullets for my handloads, usually from an MP-Molds 6-cavity aluminum mold. I started with a brass 2- cavity hollow point (HP) mold, soon progressing to a 4-banger after being so impressed by the quality. When Mihac Previc, owner of MP Molds, offered an aluminum 6-cavity mold, I quickly jumped on board. The molds are a direct copy of Elmer Keith’s Hensley & Gibbs 503. Bullets cast from it usually run 15 grains heavier than Elmer’s other design, the Lyman 429421.

I’d venture to say my 6-banger has birthed a thousand-plus pounds of lead over the years. My slugs are then powder coated with a polymer coating and baked at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. These PC coated projectiles are then seated over a charge of Alliant Unique powder in a Starline Brass cartridge case.

Since this isn’t YouTube, I will divulge the powder charge of 7.5 grains of Unique, but most diehards know this. The load is nostalgically referred to as the “Skeeter Load” from the millions of Skeeter fans who know a good thing when they see it. Loved for its balance of power, bullet diameter and acceptable recoiling characteristics, Skeeter Skelton’s popularity and warm writing style did more to promote this load and cartridge than anything. This charge weight provides a fuel-efficient 933 loads per pound of precious Unique powder.

The interesting thing is, Skeeter didn’t develop the load at all. No, he obtained it from Elmer Keith while inquiring about a good .44 Special load through a series of letters. His popularity, along with redundantly repeating the load, made it popular, hence earning his name.

True .44 Special aficionados know the recipe by heart, being a secret handshake of sorts to an exclusive club. These members know this load will take care of 90% of anything asked of it without punishing your hand, greatly contributing to its ability to be shot accurately.

Raton, New Mexico

During the days I shoot in Raton, my designated .44 Special gun will digest several hundred rounds of ammo. I haven’t cleaned the barrels of these guns after accumulating thousands of rounds, simply because there’s no need. The polymer PC keeps the barrel bright, shiny and lead-free. I simply wipe the gun’s cylinder and frame free of powder residue and return it to my range bag. This is the big reason why the .44 Special is Best for me and those special shooting days.

When the new Smith & Wesson Night Guard was released this year in a 7-shot .357 Magnum and 5-shot .44 Special, the .44 Special sold out first because true sixgunners know a big bore cartridge is more efficient at destroying tissue with a larger permanent wound channel.

Skeeter

When the .44 Magnum was released, Skeeter Skelton followed what most did, trading in his .44 Special for the .44 Magnum. After shooting the Magnum a few times, he deemed it too powerful for police work, stating the heavy recoil and muzzle blast slowed any needed follow-up shots. He kept the Magnum for field use and started looking for another .44 Special.

Besides, .44 Specials carry more comfortably, generally being lighter in weight than the magnums. About 10 years after the release of the .44 Magnum, S&W dropped Skeeter’s beloved Model 24 from the line. People figured if they had a .44 Magnum, they could also shoot .44 Specials in the same gun. Many people today still follow this philosophy. But die-hard .44 Special fans knew a designated .44 Special is smaller and lighter to carry.

.44 Special Roots

Smith & Wesson introduced the .44 Special in their New Century revolver. The sixgun went by other names such as the Model of 1908, the .44 Hand Ejector 1st Model, or simply Triple-Lock. When Elmer Keith blew up his .45 Colt SAA on that fateful July Fourth, he switched to the .44 Special because he thought its thicker cylinder walls would be stronger for his hotly loaded handloads. Soon, a group of fellow .44 Special experimenters started a group known as the .44 Associates, where they exchanged information via letter of their handloads. Elmer Keith was a member of this group. His hotly loaded .44 Specials planted the seed for the .44 Magnum.

Fast forward a few decades, and Skeeter Skelton started writing about the virtues of the .44 Special. He made his first .44 Special by buying a Colt SAA, swapping the barrel and cylinder, and returning the gun with his GI money when discharged from the Marines.

When S&W quite making model 24s, Skelton wrote about converting Ruger flat tops and S&W .357s into .44 Specials, showing where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Skelton carried the banner for the .44 Special so long, he finally convinced S&W to bring back the Model 24, in both blued and stainless steel runs.

Final Wrap

So, when taking all this information and letting it twist and turn in your brain until it becomes ingrained, the history, stories, bullets, loads, and guns all start making sense as to why so many dedicated sixgunners hold the .44 Special so highly. Most things refusing to die are still around because so many consider them still worthy. I always thought if you could round up all the .44 “Keith” bullets fired over the past 100 years, you could probably fill the Grand Canyon with them. And that says a lot!