44 Mag 2.5 inch barrel

Permanently deleted user

December 05, 2011 01:24

What would this be equivalent to in power?

Thanks

Sage

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  tsr1965

  December 05, 2011 01:31

  A 44 Magnum with a 2 1/2" barrel, is what should be its equal. Depending on the load, you are looking at 400 FPE(44 Special loading), to near 1000 FPE, with very hostile heavy loads.
  
  Best

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  beantownshootah

  December 05, 2011 04:37

  quote:Originally posted by Sage1
  What would this be equivalent to in power?
  
  Thanks
  
  Sage
  
  This is going to depend highly on which exact load(s) you're asking about.
  
  In general, a 2.5 inch barrel really gimps the ballistics of a .44 magnum.
  
  The bullet leaves the barrel before much of the powder gets burned, and consequently, instead of propelling the bullet, that powder gets converted into a bomb-like muzzle flash. For just about every application short of Hollywood movies, that's a "bad" thing.
  
  See here for some good ballistic data, and be sure you click on the chart to see a good representation of barrel length vs velocity for .44 magnum:
  
  http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/44mag.html#RW
  
  If you check the graph, you'll see a lot of potential velocity is wasted below a 5" barrel.
  
  You can also compare the ballistics to any number of other calibers from actual real-world guns (rather than test barrels).
  
  From a short snubnose-type barrel a .44 magnum still does better than most of the other big conventional handgun calibers, though its arguable whether this ballistic advantage outweighs the disadvantages of increased bulk in the gun, ammo and cost, and muzzle flash. (EG say, in comparison to a 10mm auto).
  
  For example, extrapolating from the data above, a 2.5" barrel .44 magnum should deliver about 1020 fps muzzle velocity with a standard 240 grain bullet.
  
  That's roughly the same performance as a 240 grain .44 special load from a 6 inch barrel gun.
  
  As another frame of reference, its about 25% more velocity and 60% more energy than a standard 230 grain ball .45ACP from a full sized 5" barrel 1911.
  
  But if you take a look at the Corbon 165 grain .44 magnum load, it would only yield about the same 1050 fps from a 2.5" barrel.
  
  You'd get more or less the same exact muzzle velocity from a 2.5" .357 magnum revolver using a 158 grain bullet, meaning little ballistic advantage to using the light bullets from a snubnose .44.

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