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

[Jtarm]

I believe the OPs question is what was S&Ws rationale for developing the .44 special, not what did handloaders turn it in to.

IMO, it was about the gun and not the cartridge. The Triple Lock was introduced to give Smith a presence in the large frame revolver market and compete with the New Service. The primary market for Colt and S&W would have been LEOs and target shooters, probably also with the hopes the U.S. (or other) military would be interested in a big bore DA.

For their new revolver, Smith needed a bigger & badder round to go with it. They certainly didn’t want “.45 Colt” or “.44 WCF” stamped on the barrel, so they lengthened the .44 Russian, and, voila, the .44 Smith and Wesson Special is born.

New century, new gun, new cartridge.

[rintinglen]

I might be wrong but didn’t the 44spec cause problems in Colt revolvers when first out? And that’s why Colt stayed with 44/40.

The 44 S&W Special had a terrible flaw: It's name. Colt was chambering 32 New Police, and 38 New Police guns, not 32 S&W Long or 38 S&W. Also, Colt was still catering to the frontier "one size fit's all" mentality, so the man with a 44-40 rifle could use the same ammunition in his revolver. The number of 44 Special rifles were few, if any, in those days. And you could, if you absolutely had to, special order a New Service in 44 Special, cash in advance. A 45 Colt version was available from Sears cerca 1902 for $16.75. I don't know how much they would charge for a "Special" order.

[salvadore]

I bought mine for fauna and homo sapian sapian social occasians, and fun. It delivered.

[rintinglen]

Lest anybody think that I'm immune to the lure of the 44 Spl I offer the following:

[Jtarm]

The 44 S&W Special had a terrible flaw: It's name.

Lol, yep, and it went both ways: S&W sure didn’t want “.45 Colt” or “.44 WCF” stamped on their New Century revolver. So they lengthened the .44 Russian and made it their own.

[Rich/WIS]

The original S&W for the 44 SPCL was the triple lock, which retailed for $21 in either 44 SPCL or 44 Russian. The lock work was difficult to manufacture do to the lock for the crane and the design changed to eliminate it in later models. The time frame when it came out didn't have cartridges like the 357 and if you wanted serious power the solution was bigger bullets. The 44 SPCL was an outgrowth of the 44 Russian and was the Russian case lengthened to allow more BP (was originally a BP round) but it was found to be a good balance of bullet weight and case capacity for the then new smokeless powder. Appeal was for LE and use in the wilder areas of the rapidly vanishing frontier. FWIW it could be custom ordered in 44/40, 38/40 and 45 Colt.

[mickbr]

The original S&W for the 44 SPCL was the triple lock, which retailed for $21 in either 44 SPCL or 44 Russian. Appeal was for LE and use in the wilder areas of the rapidly vanishing frontier.

Just saw a source saying average US annual salary in early 1900's was $450-650 so the gun cost about 2-3 weeks salary. Thats not too bad.

[kgb]

A S&W-stamped .44-40 sounds like as good an explanation as any.

[Ed K]

Am often amused by those who eschew the 44 magnum and then proceed to run the 44 special as hard as possible.

[rintinglen]

Attachment 264952

This is the Market. Note the Colt New Service in Mary Pickford's right hand, with the Colt SAA in her left, having deftly turned the tables on William S. Hart. S&W was hoping to sell to the "idea" of the Wild West, hoping Shop owners, Bankers and other back east Businessmen who had the money to indulge their fantasy's would snap them up, not unlike the Colt SAA"s being sold to Cowboy re-enactors today.

[Oyeboten]

A S&W-stamped .44-40 sounds like as good an explanation as any.

They were stamped ".44 Winchester" though, rather than "44-40".

When S & W came out with the longer Cylinder for the New Model 3 and for the big Frame "DA" Top Breaks, it was to allow these to be chambered for longer Cartridges of .44 Winchester, and also, 38 Winchester.

By 1899, the new K Frames could be had chambered in .32 Winchester.

There is nothing to suggest S & W felt embarrassed or reluctant to stamp Winchester Cartridge designations on Revolvers chambered for Winchester Cartridges.

As far as .45 Colt, in the later long-Cylinder New Model 3s, the later long-Cylinder "DA"s, and then the 'New Century' and the '2nd Model Hand Ejector...

I have never read or heard any good reason why these are so scarce in .45 Colt, and I do not know myself why.

They made plenty of them in .455 Webley ( the latter two, especially, and for use in the 1914 - 1918 War ), though it is of course a milder Cartridge than .45 Colt is.

So, I do not know why.

The Revolvers would have been fine with the pressures of .45 Colt, ( which was no worse than .44 Russian or .44 Winchester ) and been fine with the diameter.

So...it is a mystery to me!

[Oyeboten]

I believe the OPs question is what was S&Ws rationale for developing the .44 special, not what did handloaders turn it in to.

IMO, it was about the gun and not the cartridge. The Triple Lock was introduced to give Smith a presence in the large frame revolver market and compete with the New Service. The primary market for Colt and S&W would have been LEOs and target shooters, probably also with the hopes the U.S. (or other) military would be interested in a big bore DA.

For their new revolver, Smith needed a bigger & badder round to go with it. They certainly didn’t want “.45 Colt” or “.44 WCF” stamped on the barrel, so they lengthened the .44 Russian, and, voila, the .44 Smith and Wesson Special is born.

New century, new gun, new cartridge.

Yes but...

.44 Special had same Bullet, same FPS, as .44 Russian had..it had the exact same performance.

I am sure many people were amused with this at the time, even if S & W may not have been amused with their amusement.

I'd have just ordered a "New Century" in .44 Russian, if it was me, back then, just to savor the amusement, and because I really like .44 Russian...

I am sure the boys in the assembly room would have agreed..!

[onelight]

I have read that the small rim on the 45 colt in guns that ejected all the chambers at once made them less than ideal in those style guns because of the chance of getting a case head under the ejector star .
I don't know if modern 45 colt case heads resist that problem better than the old ballon head cases , or if this is dirty gossip started by the competition

[Jtarm]

Yes but...

.44 Special had same Bullet, same FPS, as .44 Russian had..it had the exact same performance.

I am sure many people were amused with this at the time, even if S & W may not have been amused with their amusement.

I'd have just ordered a "New Century" in .44 Russian, if it was me, back then, just to savor the amusement, and because I really like .44 Russian...

I am sure the boys in the assembly room would have agreed..!

True it was the same performance, but as chronos were in rather short supply in 1907, probably not many folks had a clue.

[Oyeboten]

True it was the same performance, but as chronos were in rather short supply in 1907, probably not many folks had a clue.

S&W Published the performance data for their Cartridges, even as Winchester and others did for theirs.

I imagine most everyone was aware they were the same performance ( at the time ).

I really like .44 Special, and .44 Russian, and I wish I had gotten in to them a long time ago instead of being such a late bloomer.

I only have one .44 Special, which is an early production 2nd Model Hand Ejector.

Timing, Lock up, and Bore are great, finish is a little worn, Lol, and it is a joy to Shoot...

I did load up a Box of .44 Special in 3 F Swiss, but I have not tried them yet.

Hosted on Fotki

They are my favorite Hand Gun Cartridges now.

[Jtarm]

S&W Published the performance data for their Cartridges, even as Winchester and others did for theirs.

I imagine most everyone was aware they were the same performance ( at the time ).

I really like .44 Special, and .44 Russian, and I wish I had gotten in to them a long time ago instead of being such a late bloomer.

I only have one .44 Special, which is an early production 2nd Model Hand Ejector.

Timing, Lock up, and Bore are great, finish is a little worn, Lol, and it is a joy to Shoot...

I did load up a Box of .44 Special in 3 F Swiss, but I have not tried them yet.

Hosted on Fotki

They are my favorite Hand Gun Cartridges now.

Thanks, didn’t know that.

[Mr_Sheesh]

You could get velocity data back then with a ballistic pendulum - You fire into a pendulum designed to capture the boolit and the momentum of that boolit causes the pendulum to swing backwards, the number of degrees it moves can be "mathed on" to give you boolit velocity.

[Baltimoreed]

Dirty Harry wannabes who still wanted to shoot their new Model 29 after the first cylinder of ‘blow your head clean off your shoulders, punk’ .44 mags.

[6string]

S&W Published the performance data for their Cartridges, even as Winchester and others did for theirs.

I imagine most everyone was aware they were the same performance ( at the time ).

I really like .44 Special, and .44 Russian, and I wish I had gotten in to them a long time ago instead of being such a late bloomer.

I only have one .44 Special, which is an early production 2nd Model Hand Ejector.

Timing, Lock up, and Bore are great, finish is a little worn, Lol, and it is a joy to Shoot...

I did load up a Box of .44 Special in 3 F Swiss, but I have not tried them yet.

Hosted on Fotki

They are my favorite Hand Gun Cartridges now.

That is one handsome S&W 44 Special!
The finish is perfect! It's like a favorite pair of real denim jeans. Nothing can fake that authentic look of honest patina.
I bet it's a lot of fun to shoot, with cast boolits of course!

Jim

[justashooter]

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.
.

the modern injection molded polymer crap is incredibly cheap to mass produce, and generally function. a good revolver is a work of art, by comparison.