Friday, January 17, 2014

.44 Special / .44 Magnum

Those of you who read this little blog know that I'm a fan of the .44 Special.  I was over at this forum, discussing the .44 Special and Uncle Nick sent me to the SAAMI drawings of both the .44 Special and the .44 Magnum and pointed out something that I had never noticed.

According to the SAAMI drawings of both cartridges, the loaded maximum length of the .44 Magnum cartridge is 1.610 inches, while according to the drawing for the .44 Special, the maximum length of that cartridge is 1.615 inches.  The Special is longer than the Magnum by 0.005 inches.  That's interesting, because the Special case is shorter than the Magnum case by 0.125" (1.285-1.160).  That's interesting because the Special case is shorter, but the maximum allowable COAL is longer.

I had never looked at the drawings side by side and compared them.  This brings all sorts of questions to my mind, and I'm going to have to ponder on this for a while.  Is it possible that there's more powder space under a Special cartridge than there is a Magnum cartridge?
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6 comments:

  1. Sdv19495:23 PM

    It's not possible, it's true. This is due to the Magnum case having a thicker, stronger web in the head section to withstand the higher pressures. Please don't blow up a nice old revolver using magnum loads in special brass.

    JM2c

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  2. Old NFO6:45 PM

    LOL, sounds like a rabbit hole to go down... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Skip8:24 PM

    A little water should tell ya.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rivrdog9:17 PM

    Okay, I have new brass for both calibers. I will have to measure now. I thought Elmer Keith specifically invented the .44 Magnum so as to NOT be able to be chambered in .44 Special firearms.

    The longer COAL might be because of the longer-style LRN bullets the Special was designed to be loaded with, whereas the Magnum was designed around soft point and SWC lead bulelts.

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  5. Anonymous5:18 AM

    Riverdog

    Remember that the length of the chamber and the max loaded length arenot the same. Its the chamber length that stops mag in special problems.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous5:18 AM

    Riverdog

    Remember that the length of the chamber and the max loaded length arenot the same. Its the chamber length that stops mag in special problems.

    ReplyDelete

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