44 Special in 44Mag

tmullanejr · May 14, 2012

Can you safely fire factory 44 Special ammo in the Ruger DeerStalker 44 mag rifle and have it function....
I am thinking of using this lower power ammo to teach my 13 yr old daughter to use this gun as her first deer rifle....
I figure the recoil will be a fair bit less and she will get used to it before going full 44 mag

mike-c · May 14, 2012

Greetings,

I suggest you go to your local gunsmith, and have him load some low velocity 44 magnums. You may want enough velocity to cycle the action for another shot. Also, the shorter 44 special will leave some residue at a bad place, so that a longer 44 magnum may jam the action if it is not properly cleaned.

I do not think the 44 special will have enough power to cycle the action.

Mike 8)

mattsbox99 · May 14, 2012

The Deerstalker was designed to run with full power .44 Mag, so I doubt it will function with .44 Special.

Recoil should still be pretty low, I have a Deerfield and recoil is pretty low with it.

Jimbo357mag · May 14, 2012

You could hand load and eject them one at a time but be sure to clean the chamber when done shooting. 8) 8)

cruzerlou · May 16, 2012

I load 23-5 Grs of H-110 under a 240gr Hornaday XPT for my cria 1965 Deerstalker and I've found that this load runs the gun just fine and dosn't overdrive the action and is darn accurare too ,were talking 2" at 100 yards with a 4x38 MM Weaver K-4 scope on it .Any lighter a load and I start having problems with cycling .Thyis load is also destavating on deer out to 150 yards,which is the limit of the cartrige anyway .The recoil is not bad ,but you will noitce it off the bench ,but with such a light gun in .44 mag thats expected .
Lou

mike28w · May 17, 2012

I haven't shot reduced loads in my carbine. Two things come to mind, no lead bullets , just jacketed. I think that I would reload 44 mag cases, not 44 specials.

Some of the Ruger 44 carbines have an adjustment of the gas piston device. It's under the barrel near the gas port. You can adjust this piston to use different loads. I'm not sure that all 44 carbines have this.

I learned about this, from this forum, so I'd suggest a search ....

Good luck, mike

PS: it's a simple matter of turning an allen screw. Ruger has some specific recommendations about the direction and number of turns , but I don't remember them....