what was the main market of the 44 special when it came out

[mickbr]

Recreational shooters, target, hunting? law enforcement? was it ever issued to any military forces? Also how popular were handguns back in the early 20th century. I assume the hard working guy of 1908 putting in 10 hours at the factory didnt have the money for a whole safe stuffed full of guns like we can now. But would a 44 special have been a moderately common occurrence in a US gunowners house?

[gwpercle]

You would learn a lot more about the 44 Special by reading " Sixguns" by Elmer Keith .

This answer needs a book and the writer needs to be Elmer Keith for a proper start to a complete answer .
Gary

[onelight]

Recreational shooters, target, hunting? law enforcement? was it ever issued to any military forces? Also how popular were handguns back in the early 20th century. I assume the hard working guy of 1908 putting in 10 hours at the factory didnt have the money for a whole safe stuffed full of guns like we can now. But would a 44 special have been a moderately common occurrence in a US gunowners house?

I think the 44 special has always been a cartridge valued more by handloaders than the general public .
gwpercle has a good answer for 44 special history.

[mickbr]

We could say the same thing about any calibre or subject on forums but I'd be broke living in a dumpster if I bought a book any time I asked a question
Thanks for the reference though, but after shorter answers for this one.

[onelight]

I know how you feel , but six guns by Elmer Kieth is worth spending at least one night in a dumpster especially for revolver shooters .

[mickbr]

Its been on my want list for a while, I have all his smaller articles on PDF... is stuff actually shipping between our countries is another question.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I'll give you an unexpected, and perhaps controversial, opinion on who was responsible for the .44 Spec.'s popularity. It was all of the above, as stimulated by the writings of Skeeter Skelton, more than Elmer Keith. Keith may have developed the load, but Skelton's writings popularized it with the masses.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

This months American Handgunner has an article by Mike Ventrino on just this subject. The .44 Special is the result of several upgrades or improvements of several previous cartridges. Smith & Wesson was working on arms for US Army contracts. The Russians requested an upgrade to the .44 American cartridge which was heel crimped outside lubed. Smith & Wesson developed the .44 Russian. Then later in 1907 Smith & Wesson developed the .44 Special by lengthening the case of the .44 Russian. Whether Smith & Wesson was developing for the civilian, Army or law enforcement market Mike Ventrino does not specify. But Smith & Wesson developed the .44 American for the target market of the US Army and hit a home run with a contract with the Russians.

I have heard that although the .44 Special was developed after the advent of smokeless powder and was loaded with smokeless powder, but it was marketed with the target of the civilian market which still reloaded with black, not smokeless powder had home.

[35remington]

I am not sure anyone ever really “popularized” it. It has never been all that common and was more an enthusiast’s choice, with a modern day analogue being 10mm. The brief period between the involvement of Keith and the development of the 44 magnum taking the wind out of its sails to some degree saw to that, at least to some extent. If a cartridge is going to truly be popular it occurs within a short period of its introduction in almost all cases,

This does not describe the 44 Special.

As far as being a moderately common occurrence in a US gun owner’s home, no, not really.

[35remington]

https://gundigest.com/more/classic-g...century-part-i

This has three parts. Note that the production numbers even over long time periods were never very large. Actually they were quite small. By contrast, Smith and Wesson in more modern times sold one million compact Shield polymer pistols, most in 9mm, in three years.

Sorta the opposite of how the 44 Special has sold over its 40 times as long existence.

[35remington]

http://www.sixguns.com/BookOfThe44/bot44c09.htm

http://www.sixguns.com/BookOfThe44/bot44c08.htm

Please understand I think the cartridge deserved to be more popular than it ever was. Enthusiasts like it for good reason.

The general public....not so much.

[35remington]

https://www.americanrifleman.org/art...he-44-special/

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-rev...revolvers.html

https://www.shootingtimes.com/editor...e_200911/99478

A quote that rather explains the timeline from Layne Simpson:

“Yet after more than a century, the mild-mannered, big-bore round has never achieved "mainstream" status. Only because one and then another manufacturer sporadically introduced new handgun models has it managed to survive at all.”

Truly a pity. Many tried to promote it and still it did not catch on. By “catch on” I define that as a caliber that is in continuous production by major manufacturers for the entirety of its lifespan. The 44 has sold so poorly the firm that introduced it went for long and frequent periods of its history without making any. When they did reintroduce it, it was for only limited production runs, then they quickly stopped making them again.

[smithnframe]

Mickbr....I have a spare Sixguns by Keith you can have if you pay the shipping from Texas. PM me.

[6string]

The 44 Special was a fairly mature cartridge by the time Elmer picked up on it, so it wasn't intended for handgun hunters (as we think of the term) or consumer market, recreational shooters. Introduced in 1908 in the New Century "triple lock". It was intended to tap into the same market that originally found the 44 Russian so appealing, yet in the then-new "hand ejector" revolver design. In other words, military and police, perhaps also men who lived and worked in the outdoors and needed an effective tool for survival and protection.
The calvary was still something of the "elite" in the military. So, the ease of reloading, fixed sights, lanyard ring all come into play.
If you look at really old gun books, you'll see the 44 Special was quickly appreciated for target shooting, another forte of its predecessor. There were a ton of mold designs, all fairly light weight, that came about in the search for scoring and accuracy advantages.

A lot of times we get locked into our own perspective and try to impose that on our understanding of the past.

Jim

[Gray Fox]

If you walk into the average gun shop or chain retailer and look for .44 Special ammo, or .41 magnum for that matter, you see why the average non-handloading shooter of today would not buy one if they were on the shelf. GF

[samari46]

When S&W made the 24-3 series of revolvers in 44 special I seem to remember that the total run of 3",4" maybe 5" and the 6.5" barreled revolvers wasn't much more than 5-6000 total made. Think the 3" one was made for Lew Horton and what they didn't take the rest were sold on the open market. That one had a round butt with combat grips. If you see one with Pachmayer rubber grips it means either the owner took the combats off or the dealer. The combat grips can bring up to $300 for the set. Out of the 5-6000 24-3's made the 24-3 with the 4" barrel is probably the best one as far as barrel length is concerned. They also did a run in stainless as the 624 series. But there were a few problems there. Two stories exist about the 624's. One is the cylinders were bored through and would take the 44 magnum cartridge. The other story is that the wrong steel was used for the cylinder. Take your pick. Think the same amount of 624's was made as the 24-3's. Supposedly if you sent in your 624 and the cylinder was bored through they would not return the revolver as it was a liability to the company and they would give you a deal on another revolver. If it passed the test then they would stamp a red letter "C" on the box and return the revolver to you. My stainless 624 with the 6.5" barrel has the red "C" on the box. Supposedly the cylinder on revolvers that passed had the letter "F" stamped on the back end of the cylinder.. And after that S&W to date has not made any "N" framed revolvers in 44 special. They did make some 5 shot ones in stainless 696 and one other if I remember right. Before I even had a 24-3 or my 624 it took the better part of 5 years to fill a gallon freezer bag with 44 special brass. I have the dies, range pickup brass, and Starline brass, and cast bullets for my 44 specials. Too bad Marlin didn't do a run on their 1894series of rifles in 44 special.And used the 1x20 twist instead of the 1x38 twist they keep making their 44 magnums on. Would have sold like hotcakes. Ruger makes a good GP100 in 44 special. It's a good cartridge but in a longer barrel like the 1894 marlin you pick up some extra velocity as the powder has a longer time to work in a longer barrel. Frank

[Shawlerbrook]

I am thinking that the 44 and 38 Special were logical upgrades from the 44 Russian,etc and 38 long, short, S&W and Colt,etc. Both ended up bumped up to 44 & 357 magnums.

[Don Purcell]

In 1981 at the NRA Convention in Denver I had a chance to talk with Skeeter Skelton and told him that I wish Smith and Wesson would bring back the 1950 Target .44 Special. Skeeter's eyes brightened and he pulled me aside and in a conspiratorial voice said "You see that guy at the Smith and Wesson booth, go tell him what you just told me". "That guy" was Roy Jinks. I went up to Jinks and told him what I told Skeeter and before I even finished he arrogantly cut me off saying that people only wanted the magnums and they would never sell. Guess ole' Roy didn't know his market as well as he thought. I have the 4 inch Model 24-3 and love it and it's only load is Skeeter's 7.5 of Unique and 250 grain Keith.

[cp1969]

Short answer? Primary use, self-protection. Secondary, hunting.

[AnthonyB]

When S&W made the 24-3 series of revolvers in 44 special I seem to remember that the total run of 3",4" maybe 5" and the 6.5" barreled revolvers wasn't much more than 5-6000 total made. Think the 3" one was made for Lew Horton and what they didn't take the rest were sold on the open market. That one had a round butt with combat grips. If you see one with Pachmayer rubber grips it means either the owner took the combats off or the dealer. The combat grips can bring up to $300 for the set. Out of the 5-6000 24-3's made the 24-3 with the 4" barrel is probably the best one as far as barrel length is concerned. They also did a run in stainless as the 624 series. But there were a few problems there. Two stories exist about the 624's. One is the cylinders were bored through and would take the 44 magnum cartridge. The other story is that the wrong steel was used for the cylinder. Take your pick. Think the same amount of 624's was made as the 24-3's. Supposedly if you sent in your 624 and the cylinder was bored through they would not return the revolver as it was a liability to the company and they would give you a deal on another revolver. If it passed the test then they would stamp a red letter "C" on the box and return the revolver to you. My stainless 624 with the 6.5" barrel has the red "C" on the box. Supposedly the cylinder on revolvers that passed had the letter "F" stamped on the back end of the cylinder.. And after that S&W to date has not made any "N" framed revolvers in 44 special. They did make some 5 shot ones in stainless 696 and one other if I remember right. Before I even had a 24-3 or my 624 it took the better part of 5 years to fill a gallon freezer bag with 44 special brass. I have the dies, range pickup brass, and Starline brass, and cast bullets for my 44 specials. Too bad Marlin didn't do a run on their 1894series of rifles in 44 special.And used the 1x20 twist instead of the 1x38 twist they keep making their 44 magnums on. Would have sold like hotcakes. Ruger makes a good GP100 in 44 special. It's a good cartridge but in a longer barrel like the 1894 marlin you pick up some extra velocity as the powder has a longer time to work in a longer barrel. Frank

Frank:
I have one of the 624s you wrote about. Bought it used at the Nation's Gun Show, so have no box. Mine is not bored through, but will chamber 44 Magnum rounds. The cylinder is too short to close with Magnums and 250 Keiths, but it will with 200 grain RFN bullets. What I have read is that S&W will not replace the cylinder or return the revolver if they get one for service work but will give you another revolver. I have big notes in my gun record to NEVER send this one back to S&W. I shoot 44 Special in it and deal with the required cylinder cleaning.
Tony