.44 caliber is a family of large-caliber firearm cartridges and firearms, particularly revolvers. [1] The most well-known is the .44 Magnum which uses a 0.429 to 0.430 inch diameter bullet, depending on jacket or cast. Though less common than the smaller .38 caliber family of cartridges, the caliber is popular with many shooters and the .44 Magnum in particular facilitated the rise of handgun hunting. Its role as the most powerful handgun cartridge has been superseded by various recently developed .45 caliber and .50 caliber handgun chamberings. [2]
The caliber was also common in American Civil War-era cap & ball revolvers such as the Colt Army Model 1860 and the Remington Model 1858, offering more stopping power than the .36 caliber revolvers of the time. Notably, the derringer that John Wilkes Booth used to assassinate Abraham Lincoln was .44 caliber. [3]
The following dimensions are given in millimeters (inches). [4]
Name | Case type | Bullet diameter | Neck diameter | Base diameter | Rim diameter | Case length | Overall length | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mm | in | mm | in | mm | in | mm | in | mm | in | mm | in | ||
.44 S&W Special | rimmed straight | 10.89 | .429 | 11.61 | .457 | 11.61 | .457 | 13.06 | .514 | 29.46 | 1.16 | 41.15 | 1.62 |
.44 Remington Magnum | rimmed straight | 10.89 | .429 | 11.61 | .457 | 11.61 | .457 | 13.06 | .514 | 32.78 | 1.29 | 40.89 | 1.61 |
.44 S&W Russian | rimmed straight | 10.89 | .429 | 11.61 | .457 | 11.61 | .457 | 13.08 | .515 | 24.64 | .97 | 36.32 | 1.43 |
.44 S&W American | rimmed straight | 11.02 | .434 | 11.13 | .438 | 11.18 | .440 | 12.85 | .506 | 23.11 | .91 | 36.58 | 1.44 |
.44 Webley (.442 R.I.C.) | rimmed straight | 11.07 | .436 | 11.94 | .470 | 11.99 | .472 | 12.78 | .503 | 17.53 | .69 | 27.94 | 1.10 |
.44 Bulldog | rimmed straight | 11.18 | .440 | 11.94 | .470 | 12.01 | .473 | 12.78 | .503 | 14.48 | .57 | 24.13 | .95 |
.44 Colt | rimmed straight | 11.25 | .443 | 11.43 | .450 | 11.58 | .456 | 12.27 | .483 | 27.94 | 1.10 | 38.1 | 1.50 |
.44 AMP | rimless straight | 10.9 | .429 | 11.6 | .457 | 11.9 | .470 | 11.9 | .470 | 33 | 1.298 | 41 | 1.6 |
.44 Remington Centerfire | rimmed straight | 11.4 | .447 | 11.4 | .447 | 11.4 | .448 | 12.2 | .480 | 27.1 | 1.065 | ||
.429 DE | Rebated, bottleneck | 10.89 | .429 | 11.71 | .461 | 13.8 | .543 | 13.1 | .515 | 32.56 | 1.282 | 39.12 | 1.54 |
Name | Case type | Bullet diameter | Neck diameter | Base diameter | Rim diameter | Case length | Overall length | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mm | in | mm | in | mm | in | mm | in | mm | in | mm | in | ||
.44-40 Winchester | rimmed bottleneck | 10.85 | .427 | 11.25 | .443 | 11.96 | .471 | 13.33 | .525 | 33.27 | 1.31 | 39.37 | 1.55 |
.444 Marlin | rimmed straight | 10.9 | .429 | 11.51 | .453 | 11.91 | .469 | 13.06 | .514 | 54.91 | 2.162 | 65.28 | 2.57 |
.44 Henry | rimmed straight | 11.33 | .446 | 11.00 | .434 | 11.20 | .441 | 13.20 | .518 | 22.9 | .903 | 34.2 | 1.345 |
The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special, .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & Wesson.
A derringer is a small handgun that is neither a revolver, semi-automatic pistol, nor machine pistol. It is not to be confused with mini-revolvers or pocket pistols, although some later derringers were manufactured with the pepperbox configuration. The modern derringer is often multi barreled, and is generally the smallest usable handgun of any given caliber and barrel length due to the lack of a moving action, which takes up more space behind the barrel. It is frequently used by women because it is easily concealable in a purse or a stocking.
The .357 SIG is a bottlenecked rimless centerfire handgun cartridge developed by the Swiss-German firearms manufacturer SIG Sauer, in cooperation with ammunition manufacturer Federal Premium. The cartridge is used by a number of law enforcement agencies.
The .357 Smith & Wesson Magnum, .357 S&W Magnum, .357 Magnum, or 9×33mmR is a smokeless powder cartridge with a 0.357 in (9.07 mm) bullet diameter. It was created by Elmer Keith, Phillip B. Sharpe, and Douglas B. Wesson of firearm manufacturers Smith & Wesson and Winchester. The .357 Magnum cartridge is notable for its highly effective terminal ballistics.
A rim-fire is a type of metallic cartridge used in firearms, where the primer is located within a hollow circumferential rim protruding from the base of its casing. When fired, the gun's firing pin will strike and crush the rim against the edge of the barrel breech, sparking the primer compound within the rim, and in turn ignite the propellant within the case. Invented in 1845, by Louis-Nicolas Flobert, the first rimfire metallic cartridge was the .22 BB Cap cartridge, which consisted of a percussion cap with a bullet attached to the top. While many other different cartridge priming methods have been tried since the early 19th century, such as teat-fire and pinfire, only small caliber rimfire and centerfire cartridges have survived to the present day with regular use. The .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge, introduced in 1887, is by far the most common ammunition found in the world today in terms of units manufactured and sold.
The .50 Action Express (AE) (12.7×33mmRB) is a large-caliber handgun cartridge, best known for its usage in the Desert Eagle. Developed in 1988 by American Evan Whildin of Action Arms, the .50 AE is one of the most powerful pistol cartridges in production.
The .45 Colt (11.43×33mmR), is a rimmed, straight-walled, handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It was originally a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver. This cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1873 and served as an official US military handgun cartridge for 19 years, before being replaced by the .38 Long Colt in 1892.
The .44 Remington Magnum, also known as .44 Magnum or 10.9x33mmR, is a rimmed, large-bore cartridge originally designed for revolvers and quickly adopted for carbines and rifles. Despite the ".44" designation, guns chambered for the .44 Magnum round, its parent case, the .44 Special, and its parent case, the .44 Russian all use 0.429 in (10.9 mm) diameter bullets. The .44 Magnum is based on the .44 Special case but lengthened and loaded to higher pressures for greater velocity and energy.
The .44 Smith & Wesson Special, also commonly known as .44 S&W Special, .44 Special, .44 Spl, .44 Spc, or 10.9×29mmR, is a smokeless powder center fire metallic revolver cartridge developed by Smith & Wesson in 1907 as the standard chambering for their New Century revolver, introduced in 1908.
The .41 Remington Magnum, also known as .41 Magnum or 10.4×33mmR, is a center fire firearms cartridge primarily developed for use in large-frame revolvers, introduced in 1964 by the Remington Arms Company, intended for hunting and law enforcement purposes.
The .256 Winchester Magnum is a firearms cartridge developed by Winchester, and was produced by necking-down a .357 Magnum cartridge to .257 diameter. It was designed for shooting small game and varmints.
The .22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, also known as the .22 WMR, .22 Magnum, .22 WMRF, .22 MRF, or .22 Mag, is a rimfire cartridge. Originally loaded with a bullet weight of 40 grains (2.6 g) delivering velocities in the 2,000 feet per second (610 m/s) range from a rifle barrel, .22 WMR is now loaded with bullet weights ranging from 50 grains (3.2 g) at 1,530 feet per second (470 m/s) to 30 grains (1.9 g) at 2,200 feet per second (670 m/s).
A wildcat cartridge, often shortened to wildcat, is a custom cartridge for which ammunition and/or firearms are not mass-produced. These cartridges are often created in order to optimize a certain performance characteristic of an existing commercial cartridge, or may merely be intended as novelty items.
Elmer Merrifield Keith was an American rancher, firearms enthusiast, and author. Keith was instrumental in the development of the first magnum revolver cartridge, the .357 Magnum (1935), as well as the later .44 Magnum (1956) and .41 Magnum (1964) cartridges, credited by Roy G. Jinks as "the father of big bore handgunning." Keith was born in Hardin, Missouri, and overcame serious injuries that he had sustained at age 12 in a fire when he was living in Missoula, Montana.
A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun which needs to be held by both hands and braced against the shoulder. Handguns have shorter effective ranges compared to long guns, and are much harder to shoot accurately. While most early handguns are single-shot pistols, the two most common types of handguns used in modern times are revolvers and semi-automatic pistols, although other handguns such as derringers and machine pistols also see infrequent usage.
A super magnum is a longer and/or more powerful version of a "magnum" cartridge. Although the term "super magnum" typically refers to a handgun cartridge, created by lengthening an existing straight-case design, it can also refer to rifle and shotgun cartridges, such as the .17 Winchester Super Magnum and the 31⁄2" 12 Gauge Super Magnum. In this case, it simply denotes that it is of greater power than existing "magnums" of a similar caliber or gauge, this is comparable to other designations, such as the "Remington Ultra Magnum". The most widespread of these cartridges are the "SuperMag" family of super-magnum handgun cartridges that were proposed and tested by Elgin Gates in the 1970s.
.22 caliber, or 5.6 mm, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm) in both rimfire and centerfire cartridges.
The Smith & Wesson Model 57 is a large frame, double-action revolver with a six round cylinder, chambered for the .41 Magnum cartridge, and designed and manufactured by the Smith & Wesson firearms company. The gun was designed as a weapon for law enforcement agencies. However, due to size and recoil it found more favor with civilian target shooters and hunters.
The .500 S&W Magnum or 12.7×41mmSR is a .50 caliber semi-rimmed revolver cartridge developed by Cor-Bon in partnership with the Smith & Wesson "X-Gun" engineering team for use in the Smith & Wesson Model 500 X-frame revolver and introduced in February 2003 at the SHOT Show. From its inception, it was intended to be the most powerful handgun cartridge to date, with the capacity to harvest all North American game species. While more powerful handgun cartridges, such as the .500 Bushwhacker, have emerged since, they are only available in custom firearms, and the .500 S&W remains the most powerful production handgun cartridge.
The Remington Model 1890 New Model Army was a revolver by Remington Arms. It was based on the successful Remington Model 1875 and the lesser known Model 1888 with both revolvers having the same size, appearance, and the removable cylinder. The 1890 Remington single-actions kept the solid frame and similar styling of the 1875 model, but lacking the large web under the ejector rod housing and equipped with checkered rubber grips. Like the 1875 model, the 1890 was suitably made for metallic cartridges, but only issued in .44-40 caliber.