.44 Magnum might not be the “most powerful handgun in the world” anymore, but it’s still one of the cartridges we get the most questions about. So today we’re gonna answer some of them. There’s also a quick dive into the history of how America’s favorite big bore got started.
Details are in the video below or keep scrolling for the transcript… but you’re gonna have to watch the video if you want to see the visit from Uncle Manny at the end.
.44 Magnum is not just a cartridge. It’s an icon of unrelenting power, over-the-top aggression… and sometimes, unrestrained masculine confidence. It’s also the subject of more myths, misconceptions, and questions than any other cartridge – and that’s where we come in.
Hey everybody, I am Chris Baker from LuckyGunner.com and we have scoured the internet for the most frequently asked questions about .44 Magnum. Today, I’m going to tackle them for you.
Now, while I am an avid fan of revolvers, I don’t claim to be the foremost authority on .44 Magnum—there are folks out there with decades of experience shooting, handloading, and hunting with this cartridge. I’m just here to separate fact from fiction and help get you started if you’re .44-curious.
We’ll dive into those questions in just a minute, but first, let’s take a quick look at how this legendary cartridge came to be.
History of .44 Magnum
Elmer Keith, one of the most influential gun writers of the 20th century, was well known for his experimental handloads. His favorite cartridge, .44 Special, tolerated his high-pressure recipes, often pushing velocities 50% higher than factory loads.
Keith’s old Smith & Wesson triple lock revolvers could, for the most part, hold up to these pressures, but it wasn’t ideal. So over a period of 30 years, Keith repeatedly badgered Remington and Smith & Wesson to develop Magnum versions of their .44 ammo and revolvers. In 1955, they finally relented. Smith & Wesson shipped prototypes of an N-frame revolver, later named the Model 29, and paired it with Remington’s new .44 Magnum cartridge.
The round was essentially a .44 Special loaded to maximum pressures. Remington added a tenth of an inch to the case length so it could not be loaded in .44 Special revolvers. Keith wanted a 250 grain semi-wadcutter at 1200 feet per second. Remington went above and beyond with the initial factory loads which were 240 grain bullets at 1540 feet per second.
Smith & Wesson also spared no effort when they designed the new gun. The first .44 Magnums that shipped in early 1956 were considered the finest revolvers money could buy. A new heat treating process strengthened the metal to handle Magnum-level pressures. They lengthened the cylinder and beefed up the barrel to help tame the recoil. The guns were offered with 4, 6 ½, or 8 ⅜-inch barrels with a beautiful deep blued finish. The original list price was $135, more than double what most other revolvers cost at the time.
.44 Magnum was originally developed with hunters in mind and that’s where most of the early sales went. Ruger also supported the cartridge with the single action Blackhawk at a more accessible price and in the 60s, Marlin and Ruger offered .44 Magnum rifles. Even so, .44 quickly developed a reputation as a hard-recoiling expensive hunting cartridge that was beyond the needs of the average outdoorsman.
By the early 70s, demand for the Model 29 had dwindled enough that Smith & Wesson only made occasional production runs. So when film director Don Siegel contacted Smith about using a 4-inch Model 29 for an upcoming movie, all they had on hand was long barreled models. That’s how Clint Eastwood ended up with his iconic 6.5-inch hand cannon in the 1971 debut of Dirty Harry.
It’s hard to overstate the impact the Dirty Harry movies had on the popularity of .44 Magnum and the Smith & Wesson Model 29. No other movie gun comes even close. Sure, James Bond has sold a lot of Walther PPKs, but he never made a quotable speech declaring it the “most powerful handgun in the world.”
Smith & Wesson was caught off guard. They didn’t have any Model 29s ready to ship, and it took them several years to catch up with the new demand. In the 70s, it wasn’t uncommon to find Model 29s selling for two or three times the MSRP. According to industry legend, when they could be found, they were often lightly used with a box of ammo missing only six rounds. Apparently, movie fans were not quite prepared for the .44 Magnum recoil.
In the 70s and 80s, handguns gained wider acceptance among hunters with .44 Magnum as the cartridge of choice for many. It was also embraced in the briefly-popular sport of handgun metallic silhouette shooting. Dan Wesson and Ruger finally gave Smith & Wesson some competition when they released their own double action .44 Magnums in the 80s. Colt eventually joined in with the .44 Anaconda in 1990.
While revolver sales took a nose-dive in the 90s and 2000s in the great semi-auto migration, .44 Magnum remained the first choice when you needed a handgun with sheer power above all other considerations.
And now, on to the questions!
1: How Powerful is .44 Magnum?
The short answer is that it’s a lot more powerful than common handgun rounds like 9mm or .45 ACP, but with a pistol-length barrel, it doesn’t quite reach the level of intermediate rifle cartridges like 5.56 NATO.
But the word “power” can mean different things. In terms of kinetic energy, a .44 Magnum revolver delivers roughly 800 to 1200 foot pounds at the muzzle, depending on the load and barrel length. Most self-defense calibers range from 200 to 700 foot pounds. Intermediate rifle cartridges start at about 1200 and climb to 2000 or so. From a rifle, .44 Magnum gains quite a bit of velocity, raising its kinetic energy into rifle territory.
But muzzle energy alone is a misleading measure of effectiveness. Energy does not drop a deer or stop a violent threat. What really matters is how the energy is used, which depends on the bullet’s shape and the materials it’s made of.
Non-expanding bullets, like hard cast lead, penetrate extremely well. That’s why they’re often recommended for bear defense. These bullets typically don’t deform or deflect – they plow straight through the target.
On the other hand, an expanding .44 Magnum can sometimes deliver rifle-like performance. In case you missed my video on handgun vs. rifle ballistics, most pistol calibers cause tissue damage by simply making holes, while high-velocity rifle bullets and large projectiles like shotgun slugs often create severe tearing around the bullet’s path.
.44 Magnum is not quite fast or large enough to be in that rifle ballistics category. But it’s close. A well-designed expanding .44 Magnum bullet can sometimes cause rifle-like damage on impact and still penetrate 20 or more inches of ballistic gel.
There are more powerful handgun cartridges like .454 Casull and .500 S&W Magnum, but they’re really more like rifle cartridges that happen to fit in a revolver. However you want to measure power, .44 Magnum sits in that gap between what we traditionally think of as pistol and rifle ballistics.
2: How Much Recoil Does .44 Magnum Have?
.44 Magnum is the benchmark for heavy handgun recoil. But is it really that bad?
Yes. But also, it depends. Felt recoil is subjective and it varies depending on the load, the gun, and your personal tolerance for harsh recoil.
Heavy revolvers like the Smith & Wesson Performance Center Hunter or the 8-inch Taurus Raging Hunter with ported barrels and ergonomic rubber grips can tame even the hottest .44 Magnum loads. And then there’s the lightweight Smith & Wesson 329PD with hardwood grips which can be punishing with any Magnum ammo.
In the company armory, we’ve got a 6 ½-inch Model 29 and a 4-inch Model 629. With full power loads – 240-grains at 1100-1400 feet per second – I find the recoil exceptionally harsh, especially with the shorter barrel.
Grips make a big difference. The rubber Hogue grips are a major improvement over the original wood grips on the Model 29. The forward-swooping flare on the wood grips is really bad for recoil control. Even with decent grips, I am only good for about 50 rounds spaced out over a couple of hours before my hand starts begging for mercy.
But everyone experiences recoil differently. I have bony hands with little natural cushioning in my palms, so that doesn’t help. Technique also plays a big role. If you don’t have a tight grip on the gun, you’ll feel it accelerate into your hand and it will not be pleasant.
Felt recoil aside, substantial muzzle rise is inevitable with most of these guns. It’s possible to get rapid follow up shots like Jerry, but only with serious practice. And most of us are just not into that kind of punishment.
Fortunately, .44 Special offers a far more pleasant shooting experience. In these heavy revolvers, it’s comparable to shooting a full-size 9mm or .38 Special. Even hot .44 Special loads are easy to manage.
Another option is low-recoil Magnum ammo that falls somewhere between .44 Special and full-power magnum. Blazer Aluminum is a good example. It’s pretty tame for a magnum, although the cases don’t extract properly out of some revolvers.
In rifles, .44 Magnum is mild – even full-power loads. It’s not quite as soft-shooting as an AR-15. It’s more like an AK in 7.62×39. With .44 Special in a lever action, recoil is virtually non-existent.
3: Is .44 Magnum Good for Self-Defense?
Let’s break this one down into three categories: concealed carry, home defense, and wilderness protection.
Concealed carry is a flat no. That’s just silly. The guns are massive and you don’t want to haul around something like that all the time. There are much better options.
For home defense, a .44 Magnum lever action is actually one of the better options available if you can’t use a semi-auto.
A .44 Magnum revolver for home defense… not ideal. If you’re going to do it, use .44 Special ammo. If you miss with a .44 Magnum in the close confines of a home, the recoil and possibly the muzzle flash and noise will make it really challenging to make follow-up shots.
In the wilderness, bears are the big concern, although fatal attacks are rare – about three per year in all of North America. In my video about handguns for bear defense from a couple of months ago, we looked at 162 documented cases and in all but four of them, a handgun successfully stopped or deterred the bear.
.44 Magnum is a popular choice for bear defense and it has a very solid track record. But it also looks like pretty much any centerfire caliber can be effective as long as you get hits. The recoil issue still applies here. If you shoot at a charging bear and miss, quick follow-up shots are not easy. 10mm is rapidly gaining popularity for bear defense because it’s a good pen`etrator but far more controllable, and I can’t argue with that logic.
4: Can .44 Magnum be used for Hunting?
Depending on what you’re hunting and where you live, probably. In terms of legality, some states have odd and convoluted laws about calibers and what game you can take with them, so always check your local regulations.
I hunt occasionally, but I have not hunted with .44 Magnum. It was designed specifically to take medium-sized game and has proven to be effective for that task. But remember, it’s still a handgun cartridge. Range is limited and shot placement has to be more precise than with a true rifle cartridge.
Conventional wisdom is to keep your shots within 100 yards with a rifle and 50 yards with a revolver. That seems reasonable based on the range testing I’ve done with .44 Mag. The trajectory and velocity drop off pretty sharply after about 125 yards.
5: How Much does .44 Magnum Ammo Cost?
Easy. Just head over to our website and look. I could just tell you, but ammo prices are always fluctuating, so that information would be obsolete in about five minutes. Generally speaking, when the ammo market is stable, the cost per round of .44 Magnum is about twice the cost of .38 Special and four times the cost of 9mm. It’s expensive for a pistol cartridge, but more affordable than most rifle ammo.
6: How does barrel length affect the performance of .44 Magnum?
Let’s take a look at the excellent velocity measurements from Ballistics by the Inch. Here’s their .44 Magnum data that we’ve plotted on a fancy line chart. They only did four loads for this caliber, but that’s enough to see a pretty clear trend.
Velocity climbs sharply from two to four inches, increasing about 30%. From four to five inches, the jump is smaller – about 7.5 percent. From there on out each inch of barrel only adds one or two percent velocity. That means you don’t have to use a super long barrel to get good performance out of this cartridge.
By 15 or 16 inches all the powder is burned and the velocity peaks. So a 20-inch lever action may actually lose velocity compared to a 16-inch.
Based on my own velocity testing, the 6 ½-inch Smith & Wesson gets 2.5 to 10% more velocity than the 4-inch, depending on the load.
With a rifle barrel, all of those small increases add up. Our 16-inch Marlin 1894 adds an average of 400 feet per second over the 4-inch revolver. The rifle flings those bullets 25 to 50% faster depending on the load.
So .44 Magnum is great with a 4-inch barrel. It’s a little better with a 6-inch. And a 16-inch rifle takes it into the realm of intermediate rifle cartridge performance.
7: What are the best guns chambered in .44 Magnum?
The best gun chambered for .44 Magnum is the Callahan from the German company Korth, imported by Nighthawk Customs. It’s named after Dirty Harry himself with a 7.5-inch barrel, a high polished black DLC finish, and Turkish walnut grips all for just $9000.
Honestly, I don’t know if it’s actually the best .44, but at that price it should be, and Korth is known for making exceptional revolvers.
Assuming that’s not in your budget, there are plenty of other good options, but I can’t tell you which one is the best.
Smith & Wesson was the original and they probably have the widest variety, including the iconic Model 29. Rugers are the toughest, least by reputation. They’ve got a couple of double actions and a ton of single actions. Taurus offers the best value. And Colts are… I don’t know, the shiniest?
If you’re shopping for a .44 Magnum, start with deciding how you want to balance weight and recoil. If it’s a range gun only, a heavier model or a ported barrel will make shooting it more enjoyable. For hunting or bear defense, it seems like people who do it a lot always end up with a 4-inch gun, even if they started out with something bigger. Anything more than about 40 or 45 ounces gets really annoying to carry after a while. If you’re going to do it, you may want to consider a chest rig rather than a belt holster.
As far as .44 Magnum rifles, there are a lot of great lever actions to choose from. And Ruger makes a bolt action. I’m partial to the Marlin 1894. The newer Marlins since Ruger took over seem really solid. We just got this 1894 Trapper and I’m very impressed with it so far. The action is sometimes smoother on Winchester-based models, but the Marlins are easier to accessorize and more flexible for mounting sights and optics.
8: Are there semi-automatic firearms chambered in .44 Magnum?
Yes, there are. This video would not be complete without mentioning the Magnum Research Desert Eagle. It’s best known for the .50AE cartridge, but the Desert Eagle is also available in .44 and .357 Magnum.
I have fired a .44 Desert Eagle and it’s surprisingly soft-shooting, assuming you can get your hands around the grip. The gun is absolutely massive. When you first pick it up, it almost seems like a practical joke. The one I shot was not reliable. That’s pretty much standard for the Desert Eagle, unfortunately.
Ruger has offered two different semi-automatic .44 Magnum rifles in the past. The Model 44 Deerstalker was made from 1961 to 1985. It had a 4-round tubular magazine. The Ruger 10/22 was actually based on the Model 44 design.
Then from 2000-2006 they made the 99/44 Deerfield. It was a completely different design. That one fed from a 4-shot detachable rotary magazine and there were 10-round aftermarket mags available. Both guns were expensive to make and discontinued because of low sales.
I think it’s time for Ruger to give it another try. I’d love to see a semi-auto .44 Magnum styled after an M1 Carbine with some tasteful modern touches.
Okay, that’s all I’ve got on .44 Magnum. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Until next time, if you need some ammo, be sure to get it from us with lightning-fast shipping at LuckyGunner.com.