Now really, outside of Military & Police Snipers. Who in their somewhat normal mind. (Yeah I know that I am talking to gun nuts like you & me) With all due respect folks, what possible use is this!?!Grumpy
BY JOHN TAFFIN
Two of the finest .44 Specials ever produced, the Smith & Wesson
Triple-Lock and the Freedom Arms Model 97.
At the dawn of the 20th century America Smith & Wesson introduced the New Century revolver. This beautiful sixgun had other names such as the Model of 1908, the .44 Hand Ejector 1st Model but it is more widely known to both collectors and shooters as the Triple-Lock.
Both Colt and Smith & Wesson had produced double-action sixguns in the 1870s and 1880s, however in the 1890s they started looking forward at what would become the first modern double-action revolvers. For Colt their premier design was the New Service while Smith & Wesson came up with the smaller-frame Military & Police. Both of these revolvers featured swingout cylinders and simultaneous ejection. The S&W Police was first chambered in the .38 Special in 1899 or 1901, according to which expert you choose to believe, and in 1907 they expanded the medium-frame Military & Police to a large frame .44.
Top to bottom: Smith & Wesson’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Model Hand Ejector .44 Specials.
Smith & Wesson
The Triple-Lock featured an enclosed ejector rod and the cylinder locked in three places — at the rear, at the front of the ejector rod and with a beautifully machined third locking feature at the front of the cylinder on the frame. Even today this Smith & Wesson is still regarded by many as the finest revolver ever produced. Smith & Wesson already had the superbly accurate .44 Russian and could have easily chambered the new sixgun for this cartridge. However, they chose to lengthen the .44 Russian’s 0.97″ length to 1.16″ and the result was a new cartridge, the .44 Special.
They did not know it at the time but Smith & Wesson was on the brink of perfection. They now had a beautifully crafted sixgun and a new cartridge that could easily be safety loaded to eclipse the .45 Colt. But, as so often happens, instead of making a real change in sixgunning the .44 Special was loaded to the exact same specifications as the .44 Russian using the same round-nosed bullet. Instead of a 250-grain bullet that could easily have been loaded to 900—1,000 fps, the .44 Special stayed at the same 750 fps as the .44 Russian. It was an accurate and easy-shooting load but could have been so much more.
The .44 Special may have started as a sedate sixgun cartridge, but did not stay this way very long. What S&W and ammunition factories did not do, handloaders did. Starting in the 1920s men like Elmer Keith, Gordon Boser, Ray Thompson, John Lachuk and others who were members of the .44 Associates experimented and traded information on the .44 Special. Foremost of these was Elmer Keith who spent 30 years selling the attributes of the heavy-loaded .44 Special.
Using balloon head brass, which had a larger capacity than current solid head brass, Keith started first with #80 powder and then when it arrived, #2400 powder loaded under his #429421, a 250-grain semi-wadcutter bullet. Keith claimed 1,100 fps with #80 and 1,200 fps with the new #2400 powder. I have duplicated his loads using the original style brass, both powders and his bullet and found him to be correct.
The Smith & Wesson Triple-Lock was only produced until 1915, and then to save $2 per gun, they dropped the third locking feature and the enclosed ejector rod and the result was the 2nd Model Hand Ejector. Dedicated sixgunners asked over and over again for Smith & Wesson to bring back the Triple-Lock. In 1926 the 3rd Model Hand Ejector arrived with a return to the enclosed ejector rod, however not the third locking feature.
After World War II the 4th Model or Model of 1950 arrived and this would be used in a few short years as the platform for the .44 Magnum. The 1950 Target Model .44 Special is probably in reality an even better sixgun than the Triple-Lock. These were offered in 6-1/2″ for target shooting and outdoor use and the 4″ version for an easy packing sixgun for self-defense or general everyday carry. A very few 5″ were also offered. The 1950 Target was dropped in the mid-1960s. However, in the early 1980s Smith & Wesson brought it back as the Model 24-3 and also a stainless version, the Model 624. Both of these were offered in standard 6-1/2″ and 4″ versions.
The true classic .44 Special, the 1950 Target from Smith & Wesson.
The Horse
Colt chambered their New Service in .44 Special both in standard and Flat-Top Target versions. I have found the latter to be a superbly accurate sixgun. Colt also chambered all three generations of their Single Action Army in .44 Special and the 2nd and 3rd Generation New Frontiers were available in .44 Special.
The .44 Special New Frontiers make exceptionally good hunting sixguns. During the 175th Anniversary of Colt in 2011 I acquired one of the 5-1/2″ New Frontier .44 Specials and found it to be an excellent shooting .44.
Today, if you want a .44 Colt about the only way to get one is to search gun shops and gun shows for a used example. USFA also offered both Single Action and Flat-Top Target versions in .44 Special before they closed their doors. These were beautifully finished and fitted Specials.
One of the last Colt New Frontier .44 Specials was this one produced in the 175th year of Colt.
Special Hunter
The .44 Special with heavy loads in the early Smith & Wesson and Colt Revolvers was the first true hunting sixgun cartridge and remains an excellent choice today for deer-sized game at reasonable ranges. I have taken some large feral pigs in the 500- to 650-lb. class with the Keith Heavy .44 Special load. As an everyday working load today, my standard choice is now Skeeter Skelton’s load of a 250-grain semi-wadcutter over 7.5 grains of Unique for right around 950 fps. This will do all I require of a sixgun at this stage of my life. To duplicate the original .44 Special I use the same bullet over 6.0 grains of Unique, 5.5 grains of W231, or 4.5 grains of Red Dot or Tite Group. The more I shoot, the more I enjoy this easy shooting and accurate load.
As a self-defense proposition it would be hard to find a better cartridge than a properly loaded .44 Special. The Keith load is definitely not the best choice nor at the other end of the spectrum, the standard original 246-grain round-nose bullet load which has been the standard for over 100 years. There are a few offerings such as the Speer 200-grain Gold Dot HP offered as a self-defense load.
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Colt Woodsman Target Model
Could there be a more fitting name than “Woodsman” for a .22 Long Rifle, semi-automatic handgun that evokes images of bouncing tin cans or dropping rabbits on the run? This is yet another classic firearm from John M. Browning, assisted by Colt employees George H. Tansley and F.C. Chadwick. When introduced in 1915, it was named the “Colt Automatic Pistol, caliber .22 Target Model”—hardly indicative of what would become a 62-year reign of a gun that started many a boy on a lifetime of shooting. In all, more than 690,000 were made.
Initially sporting a 6 5⁄8-inch barrel, adjustable sights, blued finish, checkered walnut stocks and a profile reminiscent of the Luger (and later, the Ruger Mark I), this pistol was renamed the Woodsman in 1927. Retaining its adjustable sights, it came with a two-tone, 10-round-capacity magazine retained by a European-style heel release. In 1933 Colt introduced a Sport Model with 4½-inch barrel, and from 1938 until 1944 the company made a heavier-barreled Match Target with a “Bull’s Eye” target logo on the frame. These guns constitute the First Series, which ran until 1947.
From 1947 to 1955, the Second Series featured Sport and Target Models, with Target barrels shortened to 6 inches, and saw a side-mounted magazine release. Designers and engineers at Colt re-proportioned the grip (with Coltwood or brown plastic stocks) with a higher arch, for better controllability, and they added a weighted-barrel Match Target Model to the line.
The Third Series, from 1955 to the end of production in 1977, had the magazine release relocated to the frame’s bottom. It introduced the economical, fixed-sight Challenger and Huntsman Models, along with other variations. Stocks were black plastic, but beginning in 1960 Colt offered thumbrest walnut stocks at no extra cost. The price back then for a Woodsman Target was $84.50. Two years ago a 1938-era, 95-percent Woodsman Target with original magazine, box, and sales receipt sold for $850 at Wally Beinfield’s Las Vegas Antique Arms show.
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The Ravens Part I: Mission and Men
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Now that is a lot of firepower!
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“In some markets, the blade creates an image of a weapon. I have in mind creating a tool that would be useful for cyclists. Cyclists have a need for specific tools but not necessarily a blade,” he said. “We already have a tool specifically for golfers.”
Last week, Mr Justice Saini blamed the “plague of knife crime” in Bristol and surrounding areas for the murder of 16-year-old Mikey Roynon, a talented teenage rapper stabbed in the neck at a house party in Bath.
The same week, a 15-year-old boy who stabbed another teenager in the heart in full view of pupils leaving a primary school in Leeds, was found guilty of murder.
It came amid reports of soaring demand for body armour for shopping centre security staff amid a 65% rise in violent and abusive incidents in the past two years.
Under UK law, a person can only carry a knife in public if it has a folding blade that is less than 3in (7.62cm) long.
For all other knives, it is illegal to carry them in public without a good reason, which can include needing the knife for work, wearing it as part of a national costume or for religious reasons, such as the curved kirpan knife carried by some Sikhs.
Elsener said Victorinox was responding to the tightening of regulations by developing blade-less tools for specific outdoor activities or sports.
Victorinox produces about 10m of the pocket tools each year. There are about 400 different types to choose from, including one that boasts 73 functions. They have even been carried into space by Nasa astronauts.
However, until now they have always had at least one blade.
The company has already had to adapt its products to tightened restrictions on carrying knives and in the aftermath of 9/11 the company’s sales fell by 30%.
Even in Switzerland, the home of the brand, there has been discussion about what people are permitted to carry. In 2016, there was a parliamentary debate about banning blades longer than 5cm. One MP even asked: “Will the famous Swiss army knife be forbidden?” The proposed amendment was dropped.
The Swiss army knife was first developed in Ibach, Switzerland, in 1891 and was orginally referred to as an Offiziersmesser, or officer’s knife, as the company had a contract to supply knives to the army.
The product was given the name Swiss army knife six years later.