Can You Handle The .44 Magnum?

[kcsteve]

Search Amazon for gel padded motorcycle gloves. They have flames on the back.

 

[gunzo]

Wow, a heck of a thread retrieval, more life than the original. Guess I should go on record.

I likely don't handle a 44 mag as well as I used to as it's probably been over a year since I've shot a full house load. But, I used to be reasonably proficient, shooting them weekly & having killed several deer with them.

Have had OM flattop BH's, Super BH's, Redhawks, N & L frame Smiths, including the sadistic 329 in 44 mag. Hate to think if this older man could even hold on to it for 6 shots. Thought about stepping out the back door & trying it. I'll think more about that after I've shot my Bisley for a few cyl. fulls first, to see if I even care for that. Folks that have difficulty with the 44 should try a Bisley if they haven't, the grip helps some.

Skeeter Skelton? I've really missed him. Have his books & they still get opened to this day.

Maybe my best effort with a 44. 1988

 

[Paul B]

"Folks that have difficulty with the 44 should try a Bisley if they haven't, the grip helps some."

I have to second that though although I'll admit they do take a little getting used to the different feel. Now I prefer the Bisley style over the more conventional type.

Not the .44 agnum but Ross Seyfried wrote an article on what he thought the perfect out of the bod hunting handgun would be. He chose the Ruger Bisley 5.5" in Colt .45 and sad it would stand up nicely to serious loads for Ruger revolvers.
Paul B.

 

[Hankus]

Wow, a heck of a thread retrieval, more life than the original. Guess I should go on record.

I likely don't handle a 44 mag as well as I used to as it's probably been over a year since I've shot a full house load. But, I used to be reasonably proficient, shooting them weekly & having killed several deer with them.

Have had OM flattop BH's, Super BH's, Redhawks, N & L frame Smiths, including the sadistic 329 in 44 mag. Hate to think if this older man could even hold on to it for 6 shots. Thought about stepping out the back door & trying it. I'll think more about that after I've shot my Bisley for a few cyl. fulls first, to see if I even care for that. Folks that have difficulty with the 44 should try a Bisley if they haven't, the grip helps some.

Skeeter Skelton? I've really missed him. Have his books & they still get opened to this day.

Maybe my best effort with a 44. 1988

My first and only .44 Magnum is my 1993 Bisley Super Blackhawk. I bought it after returning from my second tour in Korea. While overseas I read an article (in Guns and Ammo?) about custom pistols from Stoney’s Pistol Palace in Sarasota. They performed a trigger and action job on it for ~$100? on a new pistol that cost me $399 IIRC. I bought it to carry while bow hunting at my next duty station, Fort Carson, CO. I MUCH prefer the Bisley grip with heavy rounds. I recently picked up a Super Redhawk in .454 Casull that is punishing enough to shoot that I’m in the market for a padded glove. I have never needed one with the Bisley.

 

[kcsteve]

I learned early on not to high grip a Ruger dragoon. That square trigger guard will eat your fingers.
Watch videos of big bore shooters. There is a technique to shooting the big guns. They don’t fight the recoil like a tactical shooter. They just hold on tight and let it roll up.

 

[Hvymax]

You leave your dominant elbow loose. That way the gun goes over your shoulder instead of in your face.

 

[BearBiologist]

Nice Randall!

 

[BearBiologist]

Knew a girl who hunted with a 454. She used (and recommended to my wife) bicycle gloves.

 

[weaselmeatgravy]

I grew up in Colorado and bought my first .44 Mag, a 6.5" S&W M29, at a gun show in the national guard armory in Boulder when I was 16, paid $300 for it in money earned at Burger King at $2.20 per hour. I always shot it single action and got in the habit of cocking it for the next shot as I was bringing it down from recoil from the prior shot. Then I got a bug up my butt to have the action slicked up and took it to Fred Sadowski, a famed smith at a shop called 300 Gunsmiths in Commerce City. When I got it back, the action was like butter and I took it to the range. On about the 3rd shot, as I was cocking it for the next shot, my finger evidently touched the trigger and it went off unexpectedly, flew out of hand, smacked my right earmuff, sailed over my shoulder, landed on the concrete sidewalk behind me, and skidded several feet. Heartbroken, I picked up my now scratched and scuffed revolver and headed back to the smith. Fred tested the single action trigger pull and told me it was one ounce. He apologized for that and confessed that he had allowed his apprentice son to do the action job on it. He fixed it himself and refunded me the cost of the action job, But it was still scratched up and I eventually sold it after finding a replacement (which I left stock).

 

[Bullthrower338]

Thank you for posting this, I could never read enough Skeeter or Keith or shoot enough of the great Ruger’s or S&W revolvers chambered for the 44 mag.

 

[jimbo1096]

I have passed all the 44s on by now, I think. The last and most liked was the stainless 4 5/8 barrel gun and just because I preferred 45s. I have started the 44spl again in the GP100. That is a fun gun to shoot too.
Skeeter makes for fine reading by the firelight just before bedtime.

 

[The Blackhawk Kid]

I always liked the 44 mag! Now I shoot 44 Spls. with a bad shoulder!

 

[BuckRimfire]

First time I shot a .44 M I was 21, 22, something like that. A friend's dad had a Super Blackhawk and the one time I shot it, six rounds was enough for me. The last three my trigger finger was sore due to the thing flipping up so much. I concluded that I hated the .44 M. But I grew up shooting DA revolvers, mostly S&W, and probably don't know how to grip a plow-handle SA correctly.

Fast forward twenty-odd years and my brother-in-law had a Redhawk 7.5" inherited from their dad. We split a box of ammo 25 rounds each and I loved it. Bought my own off Gunbroker within a month.

I'm not a big, tough guy (tall and skinny) but that gun really works for me, even with the few +P loads I made from recipes in Handloader #246 (300 grain pushing 1400 FPS). Admittedly, I shoot a lot of stuff that's more like hot .44 Special or Magnum starting loads. Handloading for the .44 is the best hobby.

My fingers are long so I find the stock grips a little small. I've been meaning to order a slightly bigger set of smooth wooden grips for years to see if a bit more leverage helps me hold on target easier. Other than that, the only problem I have is that the backstrap tends to pull up a blister/tear in the skin on my thumb with full Magnums. I try to remember to put on some sort of work glove for heavy loads.

On the subject of gloves, my wife didn't like handling my MkIIs because she said they were "trying to pinch her." (I know, stop riding the slide!) I bought her a pair of thin leather batting gloves or golf gloves (forget which) from a Big5 and problem solved. She then liked the MkII enough to buy herself a Mk IV 22/45 Lite.

 

[daveag.]

First time I shot a .44 M I was 21, 22, something like that. A friend's dad had a Super Blackhawk and the one time I shot it, six rounds was enough for me. The last three my trigger finger was sore due to the thing flipping up so much. I concluded that I hated the .44 M. But I grew up shooting DA revolvers, mostly S&W, and probably don't know how to grip a plow-handle SA correctly.

Fast forward twenty-odd years and my brother-in-law had a Redhawk 7.5" inherited from their dad. We split a box of ammo 25 rounds each and I loved it. Bought my own off Gunbroker within a month.

I'm not a big, tough guy (tall and skinny) but that gun really works for me, even with the few +P loads I made from recipes in Handloader #246 (300 grain pushing 1400 FPS). Admittedly, I shoot a lot of stuff that's more like hot .44 Special or Magnum starting loads. Handloading for the .44 is the best hobby.

My fingers are long so I find the stock grips a little small. I've been meaning to order a slightly bigger set of smooth wooden grips for years to see if a bit more leverage helps me hold on target easier. Other than that, the only problem I have is that the backstrap tends to pull up a blister/tear in the skin on my thumb with full Magnums. I try to remember to put on some sort of work glove for heavy loads.

On the subject of gloves, my wife didn't like handling my MkIIs because she said they were "trying to pinch her." (I know, stop riding the slide!) I bought her a pair of thin leather batting gloves or golf gloves (forget which) from a Big5 and problem solved. She then liked the MkII enough to buy herself a Mk IV 22/45 Lite.

Try leather motorcycle gloves. With a padded palm. I have a store in St Joseph, MO that sells nice, soft elk hide gloves. They are good to wear shooting.

 

[BuckRimfire]

Try leather motorcycle gloves. With a padded palm. I have a store in St Joseph, MO that sells nice, soft elk hide gloves. They are good to wear shooting.

No padding needed, just something to protect my girlish skin a bit.

I work in a research lab so my hands are pretty soft. When I go out for an unusually long day of kayaking I have to wrap the lower knuckles of my thumbs with duct tape to keep the paddle from abrading them. It works surprisingly well if you get it on tight so the adhesive stays dry and stuck down.

If I shoot a lot of heavy .44 in a day my hand (mainly the joint of my thumb) will ache a little the next day from the beating, but I don't think padding will affect that. Anyway, I like it, as a reminder of all that fun shooting!