Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. Right: Both of S&W’s new Models 24 and 21 had .429" chamber mouths but the former is capable only of mediocre grouping and the latter one is very accurate — go figure. special This group shows why Duke thinks the .44 Special cartridge is alright but not Special. It’s not huge — but not tiny either. The . 44 T Ain’t so WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • JULY/AUGUST 2009 he .44 S&W Special ain’t so special. That may be heresy to some, most notably some gun’riters who almost genuflect at the name. But it just ain’t so great. In regards to the criterion by which revolvers and their cartridges are judged, the .44 Special can’t do a single thing many others do just as well — or better. Or better? Not only will I say the .44 Special ain’t so special I will even say it was never needed. Because — for most of their concurrent production periods the .44 S&W Russian was loaded to the same ballistics as the longer .44 Special. That was with identical 246 grain, lead, roundnose .429" diameter bullets at 755 fps. The only difference between the .44 Special and the .44 Russian is that the former’s case length is 1.16" and the latter’s is .9". So why did the .44 Special develop such a strong mystique? Because of gun’riters like Elmer Keith and Skeeter Skelton. Elmer used that extra case capacity so he could load it HOT; as special? 48