GREAT WESTERN 44 SPECIAL

[buffalo4star]

Not certain if this is where I should be posting this. I have looked in the schedule of categories and did not find one that ,in my opinion, addresses the questions I have.
Purchased a great western in 44 special on this Forum. It is a great revolver with parts that are tight and well assembled.
Last evening I was putting snap caps in the cylinder and was short of 44 special snap caps so decided to try 44 mag snap caps. They fit. I then decided to see if factory 44 mag ammo with chamber. They chambered as well. Tried 44 mag snake loads, they also fit. My question is does anyone know if did great Western used 44 mag cylinders for both 44 special and 44 mag revolver’s.

Great western also made their guns with either a colt hammer mounted firing pin system or with the firing pin mounted in the recoil shield. Am curious to know if the gun left the factory with the recoil shield mounted system could it be converted to use the standard Colt hammer.

Bought the “Great Western Arms Company” by Dougan & Hoobler but as yet have not found the answers I seek.

Appreciate any feedback. Thanks and have a Merry Christmas.......Lou

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Moved this thread from Classifieds to the Lounge to get better exposure.

Interesting questions.

Moderator

 

[Mike Armstrong]

My short "answer" to your question is "I don't know." I do know that Great Western SAAs were for a long time disregarded by many gun collectors and shooters, and many of them were fooled with both by actual gunsmiths and good 'ol Bubba.

And the company sold "kits" and spare parts VERY cheap when it had financial various crises and in its final death throes. You can find these offered in ads in old gun magazines, especially from Southern California dealers of the time. I have some of these mags and will look at them to see if there are any clues there.

Several POSSIBILITIES (as I'm sure you know):

1) GWA was making .44 Mags at some time and you got a mis-marked revolver. I can't remember if they DID make .44 Mags, but I remember having seen some discussion of whether the GWA SAA was strong enough to take Magnum pressures. I'll try to find that article.

2) GWA was making .44 Mag revolvers and replacement .44 Mag cylinders and you got one of those cylinders fitted to a .44 Special.

3) Your .44 Special was rechambered to .44 Magnum. Most likely possibility, I THINK.

4) GWA .44 Specials had long chambers (like early Colt DAs chambered for .38 Long Colt that will chamber even .357 Magnums).

Which of these is the true source of your situation? Maybe someone else knows. I'll look around.

I think the key thing for you right now is to NOT shoot magnums in your nice .44 until you have some answers.

And congratulations on having a great sixgun and what I consider an important piece of California history!

 

[Bob Wright]

I had a Hy Hunter, which was sort of the successor to the Great Western. From my research at the time, all I had to do was remove the Christy type firing pin, insert a Colt recoil plate, and install a Colt hammer. I never got around to masking this conversion, tough.

Bob Wright

 

[Mike Armstrong]

Looked in a couple of old "Shooting Times" magazines (Feb 1962 and June 1963) and found ads for GW "Kits" in many calibers including .44 Spl and .44 Magnum, and parts for both calibers. Kits for sale by E&M Firearms of Studio City, CA AND "Great Western Arms Sales Co." of North Hollywood, CA in the 1963 magazine. No ads for finished guns in either issue.

But it LOOKS like GW did make both .44 Spls. and Magnums.

Not sure how these "parts clean up" sales correlate to the end game of GW--perhaps the GW book will tell.

About this time (early '60s) a tsunami of Colt copies and clones (including the "Hy Hunters" made in West Germany, I think) began to be imported into the US, and that confuses the GW story and the consumers' image of GW.

Didn't help that many of the imports had names that also attempted to capture the Old West associations that GW had tried to embody. Many people have assumed that GWs were all or part made outside of the US. I'm not sure how true that assumption is.

Christy Arms was also MANY making replacement parts for SAAs during this period. These would interchange with First Generation Colts very readily, and many people who didn't want to search for .41 or .38-40 ammo, or just had a bad bore, replaced barrels and cylinders with more accessible calibers. I had a Colt SAA that had been a .32-20 but had been converted to .38 Spl. with a Christy barrel and cylinder (I converted it right back....with Colt parts). I'm sure that GWs have also been converted with Christy parts once the GW parts weren't available (and genyouwine Colt parts were available, but much more expensive).

if you go searching for info in old gun mags for trivia like this, PLEASE don't look at the prices--if you think "sticker shock" is painful, you don't want to find out how painful "I missed the boat" shock is!

 

[toysoldier]

You purchased it as a 44 special. If it is only fired with that round, it will probably give you many years of good service. Start shooting magnum loads in it (except, maybe, the snake loads) and all bets are off.

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Just for fun, check this out . . . http://www.rugerforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=134511 :mrgreen:

 

[sack peterson]

Golly, if only there was an authoritative website on Great Western Arms Co out there on the interweb, perhaps composed by a guy that's been doing 10+ years of scholarly research... A website that is top 3 in search results for Great Western...  Where email and phone # is provided and inquiries are answered. Alas, it looks like we're left to message board guys only casually acquainted with the topic to answer this question.  We may never know the answer!

 

[Ale-8(1)]

And what if that guy could stop being a wise guy long enough to just post his website addy . . . :wink:

I looked it up but I want to see it from THE GUY. :lol:

 

[sack peterson]

Thanks

www.greatwesternarmsco.com

I'm corresponding with buffalo4star on this now

 

[Ale-8(1)]

Welcome, Sack. :wink: :mrgreen:

 

[T.A. WORKMAN]

ALL GW .44 specials are very scarce to rare in MHO.

I just checked the cylinder on my 7 1/2" Frontier Model GW .44 Special serial, #5108 and all the parts #'s match so it is original to the gun.You can plainly see the shoulders in the cylinder.

The .44 Special chambers correctly while a .44 Mag round does not.

Glad you it her,,I looked long and hard at it. :wink:
Terry

 

[5card]

I would not shoot 44 mags in that gun, I have seen several that were cracked at the top of the cylinder and my guess is from doing what you are thinking. There are ton of 44 mag guns. I have several Rugers in 44mag and a couple of smiths 44mags no problem with them, You get one shot here why chance it!

 

[buffalo4star]

Want to thank everyone for the feedback especially from Sack Peterson. Learned a great deal about Great Western Arms history both positive and negative. The 44 Spl. I have is a very tight ,well put together gun. No heavy horsepower loads for this 44 Spl. In fact 99% of my loads are all out of the heavy category. Had many years of that with the FA 454’s. This will be for pleasant shooting at the range. For hunting a 44 mag or 33-30 will work. Thanks again....Lou