skeeter skelton and the 44 special

[rclark]

Yep, the Bulldog should have a 'mild' load . Mine is 6.0g of Unique under 240g SWC. Skeeter load for my Ruger and Uberti revolvers.

[silvermane_1]

Originally Posted by buck460XVR

Me either. Kinda a good reason they were developed. Iffin the "specials" were that "special", odds are, there'd never been a magnum. That said, there is a "special" place for "specials". They work and work well within their parameters, even if those parameters are toned down from their magnum siblings. We as gun enthusiasts have attachments to particular calibers and platforms based on may things. It don't matter what they are and they don't have to appeal to anyone else but us. Whatever trips your trigger.

Well they were named "Special/s" because they could "safely" be shot with black powder and/or smokeless powder.

[SIGSHR]

The "Specials" were sort of the magnums of their day. The 38 Special was devised to overcome the perceived shortcomings of the 38 Long Colt. And allowed the older rounds to be used as practice rounds. The 44 Special was intended to be more efficient with smokeless powder.

[Jbar4Ranch]

I shoot .44 special a LOT for CAS. I just picked up my 6th and 7th Lipsey's/Ruger stainless 4 5/8" Vaqueros, plus three Italian models, and a couple 1866's.

[silvermane_1]

Originally Posted by SIGSHR

The "Specials" were sort of the magnums of their day. The 38 Special was devised to overcome the perceived shortcomings of the 38 Long Colt. And allowed the older rounds to be used as practice rounds. The 44 Special was intended to be more efficient with smokeless powder.

Yeah the 44 Spl was intended to be more efficient with smokeless power, but it could still be loaded with black powder.

[Jim Watson]

"More efficient." How so?
Late production (1939) .44 Russian smokeless had The Same ballistics as .44 Special, a 246 gr roundnose at 760 fps.
Things might have been different in 1907.

[silvermane_1]

Originally Posted by Jim Watson

"More efficient." How so?
Late production (1939) .44 Russian smokeless had The Same ballistics as .44 Special, a 246 gr roundnose at 760 fps.
Things might have been different in 1907.

Well the efficiency has to with the "quickness" difference between smokeless powder and black powder.

[Mike Irwin]

The story always was that with the transition to smokeless powder, the early bulky, low-energy density smokeless powders wouldn't work all that well with many of the smaller black powder-era cartridges.

To remedy this, S&W designed the .44 Special to be a cartridge that would duplicate the .44 Russian's ballistics with smokeless powder, but to do so, they had to lengthen the case to get enough powder in it to match the ballistics.

A few years ago I read an interesting article (can't remember where, unfortunately) that pretty well demolished that claim.

[JERRYS.]

Originally Posted by rclark

Yep, the Bulldog should have a 'mild' load . Mine is 6.0g of Unique under 240g SWC. Skeeter load for my Ruger and Uberti revolvers.

I went with 5.3 of unique under a 240gr SWC then moved up to 5.7. that's as much as I really could shoot quickly and accurately one handed in my bulldog. I tried some hot boutique loads and found myself "milking" my grip after each shot-that's not acceptable at all to me.

[.44 Associate]

I tell people that Keith or Seyfried are my favorites, but I notice that whenever I am in the mood for "comfort reading", I most often turn to one of Skeeter's books.

At any rate, I guess I will take the .44 Special over anything else. I do not think it is as versatile as the .45 Colt, and I suppose an honest rating has to put the .45 ahead of the .44, but until they pass a law saying handgun cartridge picks have to be perfectly rational, I will stick with the .44 Special.

I have three guns chambered for it at the moment. One is an S&W "classic", 4" nickel with fixed sights. It is gorgeous, but I cannot get it to shoot very well. I usually stick to the Skeeter load in the Special, but this particular gun leads badly regardless of bullet alloy, speed, or diameter. Several different gas check designs cut down the leading, but still are not accurate, and it is about the same story with jacketed and plated bullets. So I mostly keep the gun around for looking at.

I also have a 5" blued 1950 Military. It also is not very accurate, in fact it is one of the least accurate handguns I have. I would happily trade it off or sell it except that it was given to me by a close friend. So it also is pretty much a display piece.

My "using" gun is a Ruger flattop Bisley from Lipsey's. After an action tune and firelapping it is screamingly accurate with anything I put through it. I switch between two loads: the Skeeter load, with Keith bullets (any mold will do but my brass NOE mold is a favorite), and an "original" load of 6 grains Unique with a 246 grain RNL. The latter is essentially useless but is a quiet, no-recoil plinking load that is just fine for woods loafing and pinecone hunting.

[rclark]

...but until they pass a law saying handgun cartridge picks have to be perfectly rational, I will stick with the .44 Special.

Nothing says you have to be perfectly rational... And who would judge? . Now I like both the .45 Colt and the .44 Special. I admit I will but the .45 before the .44, but I still like to shoot both. In fact my last 2 center fire revolver I picked up was a .44 Special Taylor Cattleman and a .44 Special GP100.... Just because (see? not rational ).....

My goto tuned Ruger .44 Special 5 1/2" flattop (plow handle) is a also a nail driver. Doesn't get any better. It was very hard to find a load it "didn't" like when I was testing different powders .

[.44 Associate]

Well I think you are right and it does not surprise me that your Blackhawk does the job. I gave up trying to find a load that mine won't shoot - not that I tried too hard. At any rate, the old Colt will do things the .44 cannot, but I find more and more that the things the .44 cannot do are things I am not really interested in anyway. And now that it is bedtime I am going to thumb through a few pages of "Hoglegs, hipshots, and jalapenos" and call it a night.

[rclark]

I gave up trying to find a load that mine won't shoot

I wasn't really looking for loads that wouldn't shoot of course .... The reason why I was going through different powders was to find good loads equivalent to the Skeeter load (via chronograph) that I could use if the country ever had a run on powder again and my favorite powder(s) became unobtainium....

[.44 Associate]

I expect I have enough Unique put away to last me the rest of my days - especially at 7.5 grains per round!

[J.G. Terry]

My most recent use of my 624-no dash was at our informal "Bullseye" match. This little match was this past Wednesday. The load was 8grs. of Accurate #5. My bullets were Lyman 429421 sized .430 at 255grs. These bullets were slip fit in the cylinder throats. The alloy was slightly harder than Lyman #2. The lube was White 165. This, with the Skeeter Load, will be standard here on the hill. This load proved to be exceptionally accurate at 25 yards. It's hard for me to see a .44 Special S&W that would not shoot with lead bullets with proper fit etc.

[Ben Dover]

I always enjoyed reading Skeeter's writings. But I tried to keep in mind that he was an entertainer, not a ballistician.

Guys like Skeeter, Elmer, Jeffie etc are very entertaining. But don't take them too seriously.

[J.G. Terry]

My understanding is that Sketter was an active law enforcement officer including the Border Patrol. His sharing had to do with his experience. It does not take Homer Powley to figure that a 250gr. bullet@ 900 fps is no toy. What would a ballistician have to say about what Skeeter shared? Sketter rules. I could care less about the other two.

[rclark]

But don't take them too seriously.

I have to disagree. They were there and done that. Skeeter had a lot of law enforcement experience, Elmer did more hunting then most of us would ever do today. They speak of life experience. Not like an arm-chair quarterback who 'thinks' he knows better. I'll give more weight to the words of an experienced person, over a 'ballistician' any day of the week.

[J.G. Terry]

rclark: Well said.

[Ben Dover]

When ol' Elmer wrote that he killed a caribou DRT with one shot from a 4 inch barrel model 29 at 600 yards, any credibility he had vanished.

Skeeter never got that wild and far out, but being a border patrol agent, or any other kind of LEO, does not make you a small arms expert.

These guys made a living telling stories. And they were very good at it.

[J.G. Terry]

We are talking about loading and shooting cartridges in our revolvers. In our experience what Skeeter shared about the 44 Special has been confirmed in our experience. This thread has been about shooting experiences and nothing to do with our reading preferences. Jeff and Elmer were not in the mix.

Addendum: An expert is somebody twenty miles from home with a briefcase.

[Real Gun]

I have no use for 7.5 gr of Unique and a 240 gr bullet because I also have a 44 Magnum. But that same 7.5 gr load works nicely with a 200 gr bullet. I also shoot the Lyman minimum of 7.0, all in my 4 5/8 Flat Top, which has a smallish grip that doesn't work well with high powered loads.

[rodfac]

Rclark, ditto, well said. Skelton was the real deal (family members knew him & Jordan while in the BP) and he was also a pretty good writer. His load of 7.5 gr of Unique backing a 240 LSWC is my go-to for my .44 Spl's. Plenty of umph (950 fps in my guns) if & when you need it, and about all the recoil I can put up with for extended range sessions. Rod

[dahermit]

Originally Posted by Ben Dover

I always enjoyed reading Skeeter's writings. But I tried to keep in mind that he was an entertainer, not a ballistician.

Guys like Skeeter, Elmer, Jeffie etc are very entertaining. But don't take them too seriously.

I always liked Skeeter's writings in the gun magazines, as did my contemporaries who were gun people, but we would often refer to his writings as "Skeeter Skelton's fiction". He did have a unique style of writing seemed to be a blend of fact and fiction.

[tlm225]

Skeeter Is probably my all time favorite gun writer.