.44 Special Revolvers

by Ed Buffaloe

I am well aware how many articles on the .44 Special cartridge are currently available, as well as articles about the legendary Smith & Wesson “triple-lock” revolver. But I have enjoyed my .44 Special revolvers so much over the years, and especially in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, that I want to share my enthusiasm for the cartridge and the guns by offering brief reviews and comments on some of the guns in my collection, taking the opportunity to compare and contrast them, and providing an overview of .44 Special revolvers on the new and used market today. Ideally, I would be as objective as possible, but I also feel there is a place for subjective impressions, and I hope my readers will forgive me if mine may differ from their own. I will present the guns in the order in which they were manufactured.

.44 Special Revolvers

The .44 Smith & Wesson Special cartridge first appeared in 1907, made for the Smith & Wesson New Century “triple-lock” revolver (see below). According to Dean Grennell, “a few prominent target shooters of the day” had called for a large caliber target cartridge, and Grennell maintains that Smith & Wesson always intended the cartridge primarily for target use, even loading it down somewhat to improve accuracy. He says: “No real effort was ever made to push it for military service, nor was much done to interest law enforcement in the caliber.”

.44 Special Cartridge Dimensions

An obsession with the .44 Magnum, beginning about 1956, led to a decline in interest in the .44 Special but more and more shooters today are realizing that the .44 Special occupies the sweet spot between minimum stopping power and too much recoil. For the average shooter, a .44 Magnum is often more gun than they need or want. Even a low velocity .44 Special cartridge is more powerful than a standard velocity .38 Special, and a high velocity .44 Special can rival or exceed the stopping power of a .357 Magnum, with nearly identical recoil.

New Century 1st Model Hand Ejector .44 Special

Smith & Wesson New Century Revolver - Target Model - 7½ Inch Barrel

This is the first gun ever made for this cartridge. The Smith & Wesson New Century has been praised by any number of experts as possibly the finest revolver ever manufactured. This may be hyperbole but the gun is certainly well and beautifully made. It was the last caliber to appear in a series of hand ejector models which were the first Smith & Wesson guns with swing-out cylinders, the earliest of which was the .32 Hand Ejector of 1896, followed by the .38 Hand Ejector of 1899. The .44 Special New Century became the flagship large caliber handgun of the Smith & Wesson company.

Three Locking Locations on the New Century Revolver Image courtesy of Othais at C&Rsenal - used with permission.

Another innovation,

U.S. Patent 811807 Rebound slide shown shaded in grey.

which is often overlooked when people write about the New Century, but which remains a standard feature of Smith & Wesson revolvers to this day, is the rebound slide. Earlier Smith & Wesson revolvers already had a rebounding hammer, which means that after the gun is fired and the trigger is released the hammer rebounds slightly so that the firing pin cannot reach the cartridge. This is a safety mechanism so if the thumb should slip while cocking the revolver the gun will not be able to fire.

However, the older mechanism, which used a rebound lever tensioned by a flat spring which also tensioned the trigger, caused a less than perfect trigger pull so, in 1905, Joseph H. Wesson filed a patent for a new mechanism that used a coil spring to tension the trigger and also to effect the rebound of the hammer. The coil spring runs down the center of a steel block that sits beneath the hammer and behind the trigger. The spring serves to return the trigger after a double-action trigger pull and also tensions the cylinder hand, while a bump on top of the block holds the hammer back from the cartridge so long as the trigger is in its forward position. Joseph Wesson referred to it as a “slidable wedge-block” but we know it today as the rebound slide. He was granted U.S. patent 811807 on 6 February 1906.

New Century Revolver Lockwork

The New Century was made from 1908 until 1915. My gun was made in 1910. After 110 years, it still functions flawlessly. When I took it apart the action did not appear to have been cleaned or lubricated for many years

New Century Target - 5 Shots @ 10 Yards

so I removed all the components and cleaned them thoroughly, put a dab of modern lubricant in a few strategic locations, and reassembled the gun. I made no attempt to do a “trigger job” because I wanted to keep the gun in its original configuration. The double action trigger pull measures 12.5 pounds, and the single action pull is 5 pounds. Both are very smooth, with a crisp and predictable single action release. This gun was designed for single-action target shooting, though the double action is remarkably smooth. I might try to reduce the double action trigger pull by a pound or two, but I would hate to ruin the nearly-perfect single action let-off. My gun has the 7½ inch target barrel with a drift-adjustable “Bisley” rear sight. It groups well and points naturally. The grips are a little small for my hand, but I wanted to keep them original so I added a grip adapter.

Second Model Smith & Wesson .44 Hand Ejector

Smith & Wesson 2nd Model Hand Ejector .44 Special - 6½ Inch Barrel

The Second Model Hand Ejector is essentially the same gun as the First Model minus the third locking lug. Eliminating the locking lug allowed the elimination of the large ejector shroud under the barrel. Inside I found the same highly polished lockwork components, but the rebound slide no longer has the patent date or the lug on the backside. The cylinder bolt no longer has a set screw.

2nd Mod. Hand Ejector - 5 Shots @ 10 Yards

Otherwise my Second Model, which was made in 1926, remains virtually identical to the First Model. The question I really wanted to answer was, does it shoot as well as the First Model? The answer is, indeed it does! It appears that the third locking lug makes no difference to the accuracy of the revolver.

My Second Model has cheaper grips with no medallions and also has a lanyard on the base of the grip. Again, I retained the original grip plates but added a grip adapter to make the gun easier to hold. This gun had a 13 pound double action trigger pull and a 5 pound single action pull. I couldn’t resist taking a few thousandths of an inch off the strain screw, reducing the double action pull to 11.5 pounds and the single action pull to 4½ pounds. That seemed not too drastic a change for the old gun. With a 6½ inch barrel, it is slightly less unwieldy than its older cousin, but no less accurate.

Colt New Service .44

Colt New Service .44 - 5½ Inch Barrel

According to James Serven, the Colt New Service appeared in 1897 and was discontinued in 1943. Built on a large, heavy frame with a swing-out cylinder, this was the first Colt double-action revolver with a cylinder that revolves clockwise, and with a side-plate on the left side. The New Service has a very large grip frame, clearly made for men with big hands. The gun weighs 46.75 ounces, just an ounce and a quarter short of three pounds.

Colt New Service .44 - 5 Shots @ 10 Yards

The gun shown here was made in 1925. When I got it the double action trigger pull was 15 pounds. I did not want to make changes to it, but I could barely pull the trigger, so I bent the mainspring to give a double action pull of 13 pounds. Despite being made to accommodate double action shooting, Colt pistols were always intended to be shot single action by manually cocking the hammer.

The grip of the Colt did not fit my hand well at all, so I added a grip adapter. The old gun groups well, but shoots low at 10 yards. Again, I did not want to alter it, so I did not attempt to file the front sight to correct this issue. The single-action trigger pull is 4.5 pounds. It has a very different feel from my other revolvers, but I was able to shoot a reasonably tight group with it. The Smith & Wesson New Century has a slightly heavier single action trigger pull than the Colt, but the Smith & Wesson trigger feels smoother than the Colt and I can more readily predict when it will break.

Charter Arms Bulldog

Charter Arms .44 Bulldog - circa 1981

My first .44 Special was a Charter Arms Bulldog. The Charter Arms .44 Bulldog first appeared in 1973 and for ten years was the only production .44 Special on the market. I can’t say it was solely responsible for the resurgence of interest in the .44 Special cartridge but I can say that new models in .44 Special began to proliferate after 1983. Charter Arms has always made budget guns but they are well made and an excellent value for the money. The Charter Bulldog uses a one-piece frame with no side plate, allowing it to be somewhat lighter than other revolvers of a similar size.

I have owned several Bulldogs over the years, but my favorite carry piece is a stainless steel version made in Stratford, Connecticut in about 1981. The gun weighs 23.5 ounces, so it is easy to carry, though recoil is appreciable with heavy 240 grain bullets. I have standardized on 200 grain bullets and I put Pachmayr rubber grips on the gun to help reduce felt recoil as much as possible. Even with rubber grips the Bulldog is not comfortable to shoot for long periods

Charter Bulldog - 5 shots @ 10 Yards

but it serves me well for concealed carry and is more than accurate enough for defensive purposes.

One disadvantage of the Charter Arms design is that it is not as easy to work on as Smith & Wesson or Ruger revolvers, so there is less you can do to improve the trigger pull. Neither the double nor the single action trigger pull is as smooth or crisp as a Smith & Wesson. You can always polish the engaging surfaces of the trigger and hammer but the trigger is more difficult to reinstall than on other revolvers. I have tried reduced power hammer springs on several Bulldogs and in every case the spring worked fine for a time and then I began to experience light strikes on hard primers. I think the best one can hope for is to smooth the action a bit by some judicious polishing but I have given up on changing out or modifying the spring. The hammer can be shimmed to reduce drag--shims are available from triggershims.com, and a video is available on how to install them.

Rossi Model 720

Rossi 720 - circa 1995

The Rossi 720 was available from 1993-1999, with a spurless-hammer double-action-only version (720C) appearing in 1995. The gun is a virtual Smith & Wesson clone, with the 720’s frame being the same size as the S&W L frame, though it is not as heavy and uses a coil mainspring like the Smith & Wesson J frame. The Rossi frame is only a little thicker than a J frame but is considerably deeper to accommodate the larger cylinder. The Rossi weighs in at just over 31 ounces, almost a half-pound heavier than the Charter Bulldog but a quarter-pound lighter than a Smith & Wesson Model 696 L frame. Because the added weight absorbs recoil better, it is more comfortable that the Charter Bulldog for extended shooting sessions. The rubber grip is well designed and comfortable in the hand. Though I generally prefer a grip without finger grooves, the Rossi grip fits my hands well.

Rossi 720 - 5 Shots @ 10 Yards

.44 Special Revolvers Continued on Next Page

Copyright 2020 by Ed Buffaloe.  All rights reserved.

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