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. Mike “Duke” Venturino Photos: Yvonne Venturino In the winter of 1980 Duke drove nearly 400 miles on icy roads to buy this 4" Model 24 .44 Special before anyone else got it. Then he learned it wasn’t that “special” anyway. Left is the newest S&W .44 Special and right is the oldest S&W .44 Special. Respectively they are the Model 21 Thunder Ranch Revolver and 1st Model Hand Ejector, the triplelock. in hot enough to lift the topstrap off of some test revolvers. Skeeter liked to load it much milder; as in about 900 fps with 250 grain bullets. His reason for favoring the .44 Special so much was he considered it inherently accurate. But crusty old Charlie Askins had an individualistic streak in him. He wrote the .44 Special was never needed because there was already the .44-40. Atta-boy Charlie! Revolver accuracy is a combination of factors like barrel quality, forcing cone smoothness, cylinder chamber mouths matching barrel diameter and other tidbits. Those are all factors in the handguns themselves. Then with the cartridge there are things like proper size bullets of proper temper of alloy for the pressure level desired, bullet lubricant, powder of proper burning rate for the pressure level desired, a concentric crimp applied evenly around the case mouth and much more. The most finely crafted revolver cannot shoot accurately with poorly constructed ammunition, and perfectly made ammunition cannot deliver precision from an improperly manufactured revolver. The idea of “inherent accuracy” from a revolver cartridge is a myth. ammunition maker’s engineers happen to spec things out so they mate well. That has occurred much more often with revolvers and ammunition for the .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum and .44 Magnum than it has for the .44 Special, .45 ACP/.45 Auto-Rim or .45 Colt. I have a S&W Military & Police .38 Special dating from the late 1940s. From a machine rest with .38 Special 148 grain full wadcutter factory loads, that worn-looking old gun will group five shots in about an inch at 25 yards. It is superbly accurate. Its barrel is .357" and its chamber mouths uniformly measure .358". Conversely, the only handgun I sold because it was dismally inaccurate was a handsome, nickel-plated Colt SAA .44 Special with 4¾" barrel. That thing wouldn’t keep five shots of any factory load or handload inside 4" at 25 yards, likewise fired from machine rest. I discovered the probable cause for its bullet-spraying tendency, though. Being of fairly early 3rd Generation manufacture, for some reason Colt saw fit to drill The Myth The reason for that myth’s existence is just that sometimes the handgun maker ’s engineers and the This is the new S&W Model 24 .44 Special with 6½" barrel introduced in 2008. Duke thought this snub nose (3") S&W Model 24 .44 Special was a good idea until he chronographed loads from it. It was hard to get one to break 700 fps with 240 to 250 grain bullets. WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM 49