.44 Special vs .44 Special Cowboy
I was shooting .44 Special Cowboy 24 grain in my .44 Triple Lock today. Sounded like a .38 and hardly any buck. Anyone know how much the Cowboy is downloaded compared to the standard .44 Special? I'm thinking of reaming one of my old S&W DA breakdowns to take the Special. .44 Russian is hard to find hereabouts. Any comments appreciated.
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If you want to preserve authenticity of your revolver, trim 44 special or magnum cases down to Russian size-no big deal and handload with 200 grain bullets in front of 5gr Bullseye. It's very cheap shooting of a very easily loaded cartridge.
Otherwise rechamber the DA topbreaks to 44 Spl. but only use the light loads.
I once borrowed a Spanish copy of a S&W top break in 44-40 to chronograph some black powder loads. The gun started off in as new condition but after six or so full black powder loads, the gun loosened up dangerously.
The triplelock was a favorite of Elmer Keith who shot some real high powered loads out of it.0 -
I have too many irons in the fire to get into reloading. I can make a nice chamber shoulder reamer in less time than to rework and load 100 rounds.
I have several old S&W 44s from 1881 to 1915. One is too nice to shoot. I have 2 TLs one first days of production and the other at the end. I shoot the later one. Same for the DAs. I assume the cowboy 44-40 ammo is also downloaded the same as the other cowboy near squib-level loadings. I wouldn't want to set off any 44-40 rifle rounds in my old pieces. As a kid I didn't know the difference and did that with 38-40s in my old SAA and my ears rang for weeks. Apparently didn't hurt the gun which I traded off level. Those were the 1930s and a good SAA went for $5 or so in those days. Those Spanish S&W DA copies were advertized in J.L.Galef's flyer ("Galef's Go-Getters" it was called) for $4.50 in the '30s.
Been there, Done that!0
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