Yankee_Papa
Bearcat
Does the 44 Spl GP100 have +P capability? Will it handle Keith loads? Will it handle near 44 Mag loads like the S&W Model 24?
From your Owners Manual:
The five-shot GP100® 44 Special is chambered for the .44 Special cartridge only.
I would agree with that. I stick with the Skeeter load in mine. That's has 'hot' as I will go with the the GP-100. YMMV. My .44 Special BH flattops on the other hand will take warmer loads.... but I have no need to go there, even though I ran one of 'em with some Keith loads while testing.... I have .44 Magnums that are 'made' to handle magnum loads if needed.I do not think you should run hot loads through the GP100 .44 Special. The forcing cones are pretty thin.
I think that the main reason for bulged and cracked forcing cones on S&W M24 and M624 is longer unsupported barrel protruding from the frame, to compensate for shorter cylinder:OP you mention the S&W mod 24 handling near 44 mag loads. I have seen a couple of Mod24 & 624's fall victim to that thinking with bulged and cracked forcing cones. The load was the Keith bullet and 2400 load Elmer used.
According to post quoted and linked her https://www.rugerforum.com/threads/...omething-new-and-what-we-could-expect.298775/ , Ruger did change barrel thread on GP100 10mm Auto. It's now 11/16", trifle larger than even on S&W N-frame. Could be that they realized problem with 44 Special on GP100 you and BULL'S-EYE mentioned. That will open possibility in GP100 for anything up to even 45 Colt and 45 ACP. If Ruger makes 10mm and 45 same way as they made 45 Colt/45 ACP Redhawk, that might create revolvers that could outsell any revolver they ever manufactured. I just hope that Ruger will make 41 Magnum with 6-7.5 inch barrel. I will keep one 357 Magnum S&W 686 and one 44 magnum Bisley, but my primary revolver will be longer barrel GP100 in 41 Magnum.Interestingly, when Dave Clements was doing his .44 Sp conversions of GPs he used a custom longer cylinder and shortened the forcing cone. Another member commented this allowed him to maintain his guns could take a 250 gr bullet at 1200 fps. Also, the 10mm GP100 uses a barrel with a thicker shank. Wonder why Ruger does not change over to the larger diameter for the .44's. Marc Morganti offers some conversions of Ruger .44's to a custom barrel with the larger shank and claims they can take loads approaching the .44 Mag.
For those wanting to learn about the 6 O'clock forcing cone cracks you can read about it here....
Senior product engineer Richard L Baker used to work for Ruger prior to his going over to Smith & Wesson
and possibly see why there is a similarity between the Ruger GP100 and the S&W mod 586/686 L frames
The Smith & Wesson L-Frame Story – RevolverGuy.Com
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