.44 Russian A Stubby, But Accurate Load

The .44 Smith & Wesson Russian is a rather stubby little cartridge. It has an overall cartridge length that is just a bit shorter than a Sharps .45-caliber paper-patched 550-grain bullet, but its performance outshines its size. In recent years cowboy-action shooters have brought new life to this fine old load.

One attraction for me is shooting blackpowder revolvers and lever-action riﬂes from the 1870s. Of course for me, shooting those guns is rather restricted to using the newly-made copies. Regarding revolvers – which we’ll concentrate on for the rest of this short tale – my guns are mostly second- and third-generation Colt Single Actions in .45 Colt and .44-40, and the Uberti versions of the S&W Russian Model 3.

For me, the .44 Russian has a particular appeal because it actually predated the Colt Single Action and, well, the S&W revolvers did make their mark on the Western frontier, didn’t they? There is evidence of the slightly older S&W .44 American revolvers being present at The Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. Read the rest of the story here.

The .44-40 is the cartridge that replaced the .44 Russian. The .44 Special didn't come around until 1907.

The .44-40 is really an impressive round. It's not surprising that frontiersmen took to it as the standard round for both revolvers and lever action rifles.

A 200gr bullet at 1245 fps is not far from .44 mag territory.

I love shooting the .44 special. I probably shoot 10 .44 specials for every .44 mag.

.44 Special and the famous Charter Arms Bulldog.

“Cartridge for the Russian version of the Schofield, I believe.”

There was no “Russian version” of the Schofield.

S&W’s Schofield single action revolvers were a minor sub-variant of their No. 3 Single Action. 5925 were produced to fulfill US War Dept contracts from 1875-77.

The great majority of the No 3 variants were produced from 1870 to 1912, for commercial sale and Imperial Russian contracts, and for a Turkish contract. Calibers of these ranged from 32 to 455 Mk II (British service cartridge). The plurality chambered 44 Russian, introduced in 1871 with the First Model Russian.

S&W preferred the 44 caliber over the various 45 calibers, which they produced only for special orders.

The Schofield was shoved onto the War Dept at the behest of George Schofield, USMA graduate and brother of John M. Schofield, also a West Point grad and highly placed in the post-ACW US Army (service academy cadets still learn some of his speeches). He insisted on incorporation of several pet “improvements” into the gun’s redesign/alteration, but there was no hope of widespread production and issue: before adopting Colt’s M1873 the Army purchased 1000 No 3 First Model Americans and wasn’t impressed. It sold off the Schofield variants as soon as it could.

The No 3 cylinder and frame were too short to accommodate the 45 Colt revolver cartridge that was already standard issue, so a shorter round was produced for service use, less powerful than that for the M1873 Colt Single Action but it could be chambered in the earlier sidearm.

So the Schofield was an afterthought.

“The .44-40 is the cartridge that replaced the .44 Russian. The .44 Special didn’t come around until 1907. ...”

The 44-40 (first known as 44 Winchester Centerfire or WCF) was introduced in 1873; the 44 Russian was introduced in 1871. Both enjoyed very long service lives, commonly available until WWII. They satisfied different requirements: the 44-40 was a rifle cartridge, the 44 Russian a revolver cartridge.

Early 44-40 loads matched performance of handgun rounds like 45 Colt and lent no special advantage to a revolver shooter. With the advent of nitro propellants for commercial ammunition in the 1890s, Winchester developed high velocity loads for the 44-40, but these were safe only in rifles.

With commercial competition being what it was in the later half of the 19th century, manufacturers did not standardize chamber dimensions well. 44-40 suffered a loss of reputation for accuracy, especially from handguns, whose makers did not always duplicate Winchester’s chambers adequately; furthermore, headspace had to be generous to permit function. And 44-40 was (and is) a fussy handloading proposition, with very thin case walls and gentle taper. In contrast, the 44 Russian, squat and straight-walled, was blessed with a strong cartridge case and reloaded easily.

44 Russian enjoyed early success as a target cartridge and dominated long-range events for some years. So great was its reputation that Colt’s was still marking its New Service revolver “44 RUSSIAN and SPL” in the 1930s.

The 44 Special had a longer cartridge case; writers have postulated that this was to make room for early bulky smokeless powder, but factory ballistics duplicated the Russian. The 44 Magnum (1955) was built longer still, specifically to prevent its chambering in earlier, weaker guns.

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