Ruger .44 mag carbine

[Oldman11]

I think I know but will ask anyway,can you shoot 44 special in the .44 mag carbine. Will they work the action or will it be single shot only? Too much time on my hands I guess but cannot let it go,thanks.

[johnm1]

I was told that 44 special will not cycle the action properly. Actually it was recommended to shoot only full house 240 grain bullets. I have not tried in my Ruger 44 carbine. I’m just cheap and don’t want to buy aa box of specials that won’t work properly.

Wish I had actual experience as I’m pretty sure that is what you’re looking for. So, I read what you read and decided it wasn’t worth the cost of a box of specials.

[T. O'Heir]

Discussed over on The High Road back in 2006. Apparently, which Ruger you have matters. One of the guys had a Deerfield, a second model so to speak, that would not cycle with Specials.
I'd try loading a Magnum case to Special velocities and see.
Mind you, the Deerfield manual supposedly says to not use Specials.

[44 AMP]

The Ruger semi auto .44 Mag carbine? My little brother had one in the 70s. Nice gun, made for the 240gr load and JACKETED bullets.

Shooting cast bullets through the gas operated carbine is a pain in the butt waiting to happen, and you might not have to wait all that long...

Cast bullet lube, combined with powder residue and lead can clog gas systems. Some of them are a real pain to clean, and may require "shop level" disassembly to accomplish.

.44 Specials might not work the action, and lead bullets are not a good idea, so factory .44 Specials is probably not something you ought to be shooting out of that particular gun.

Accuracy is reported to vary a lot with bullet weight, Some guns apparently won't shoot anything but jacketed 240s with minute of deer accuracy. Others sometimes will do ok with 180s or 265s, but don't count on it. My brother's gun was minute of deer, or a bit better, but all he shot was factory 240gr JSP or JHP loads.

IF you are looking for a lighter than standard load, I'd recommend using .44 mag brass, jacketed bullets and a medium burning rate powder. Load a few at the starting load level, and see if they cycle the action. If so, reduce the powder change in steps until they don't cycle the action. Then go back up to the last load that did, and go with it. Also be aware that a light load which cycles the action when clean might not do as good a job when the gun is dirty.

Good Luck!

[disseminator]

I killed my first two deer with a Ruger 44 Semi-Auto carbine. Stick with the 240 Jacketed magnums. They always worked great.

[Drm50]

I bought a Ruger 44 carbine new back in 60s. I never tried 44sp in it. Loaded 240 JHPs with
22.5 gr H-2400 and never had a problem. You can back down the load and they will work.
I have partial box of 44sp a guy gave me because they wouldn't cycle the action on his Ruger 44. I have bought several Ruger 44 Carbines at bargin prices because they wouldn't
work and something must be broke. 100% of time it was due to shooting lead or cast and
clogging gas system. I could tell these guns had never been apart.

[Scorch]

No personal experience, but a customer brought in a Ruger 44 carbine a few years ago that his brother had shot 44 Specials through. One round had gotten stuck in the bore, and 14 or 15 rounds backed up behind the first bullet, the final one plugging the gas port. We ended up rebarreling it. I don't know what load or anything, but a word to the wise is sufficient.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

I bought a new (nib) Ruger semi Carbine long ago and target shot it for a little while thru its first Summer with me. Then gave to son as his first rifle on a Christmas Eve Day.
Tested some Blue Dot_ Win 296 & Dupont 4227 with it and just about all the jacketed bullets weights available from 180 gr thru 240 & 265. Only jacketed bullet I found for my application (deer) having reasonable 100 yard accuracy?__ 240 gr.
One mistake I made with the rifle was shooting wheel weight lead home cast bullets.
I quickly learned a lesson not to do that again. As being a semi auto its fun to do double taps with. No doubt the rifle was easy to over heat its barrel thus barrel leading occurs & plugged the rifles Gas Port also. For me at the time disassembly of the rifle was a real chore not having a disassembly schematics or computer community to question.

As far as shooting 44 special? Absolutely its can be done. Problem with doing the 44 special cartridge doesn't generate a high enough pressure/ psi of gas to function the rifles action. (been there done that) I even went so far as to hand-load 44 special brass and Mag brass to the highest 44 Special loading's published at that time. And got not at all rifle reliability results.

The semi auto rifle was designed to fire full pressured 44 Mag only. Although I do believe Ruger's 44 mag Lever does have that option of firing either 44 cartridge.

[hammie]

I'm not trying to be a fuss-budget, but after reading t.o'heir's post #3, I'm not sure how any definitive answer can be given. The rifle needs to be identified. There were two ruger .44 carbines: the first was the model 44, deerstalker, and the second was the model 99/44 Deerfield. Each had a different design and gas system. If I remember correctly the deerstalker had a short stroke piston, similar to the m1 carbine, and the Deerfield had a gas port discharging to the operating rod, i.e.mini 14. The operating characteristics will be different. You might be able to use .44 specials or lead in the Deerfield, without plugging the gas system, and the Deerfield might be able to work if the .44 special will feed and you handload the pressures higher. But if you're handloading, why bother, unless someone just gave you a 5 gallon bucket of .44 special brass.

[Reloadron]

I think I know but will ask anyway,can you shoot 44 special in the .44 mag carbine?

The Ruger Carbine 44 Magnum Caliber

which is gas operated and fed using a tubular magazine was designed and built for full house 44 Magnum cartridges. Like Sure Shot Mc Gee I tried 44 Special and met the same result. I also tried cast bullets which as many have stated proved to be a train wreck. The little rifle has served me for years shooting 44 Remington Magnum 240 grain JHP bullets.

The Model 44 Carbine was originally released in 1961 as "The Deerstalker" but the name was changed in 1962 as a result of a lawsuit by Ithaca Gun. They had a great production run through 1985.

Right around 2000 Ruger came out with The Deerfield another semi automatic 44 Magnum carbine which used a rotary magazine and I never had one so can't speak for it but it only list 44 Magnum as ammunition.

Ron

[mehavey]

...made for the 240gr load and JACKETED bullets.

See: https://www.thehighroad.org/index.ph...#post-10992664

Note three terms:
- #2
- Gas Check
- Liquid ALOX (very thin film)


.

[bamaranger]

Not only will shooting lead cause issues with the gas port on the Ruger carbine, the shorter .44 spl cases will leave a ring of fouling in the chamber that you really don't need. Meaning, when you switch back to magnum ammo, if not thoroughly cleaned, the mag case will extend past that ring and depending on circumstances, may effect function as well.

I experimented with my carbines a bit, reducing the load in mag cases, and it did not take long till the carbine would fire, but not cycle, the bolt simply short stroking, and the spent case remaining in the chamber, requiring manual cycling of the action. Accuracy was even worse than normal.

The carbines run best with full house ammo in mag cases, as they were intended.