44 Special

[Music] hi rod Andres today so please bear with gunfire here in the background recently a lot of people and want to say a lot I do mean a lot I don't mean 1 or 2 a lot of people have contacted me asking to see a presentation on calibre 44 special so here we are and before we go any farther let me show you a close-up for what 44 special ammunition looks like from your left to right is 9 by 1938 special 357 Magnum 44 special 44 Magnum 45 acp the 38 special in the 357 are the same diameter but the 38 special has a shorter casing so it's one way interchangeable with 357 however the 357 is a newer higher chamber pressure round so although it's only slightly bigger than the 38 special it's significantly more powerful the same concept applies to 44 special vs. 44 magnum they're the same diameter the 44 special is slightly shorter casing therefore it's one way interchangeable with 44 Magnum however the Magnum is a newer higher chamber pressure round so even though it's only slightly bigger than the 44 special it's a lot more powerful so how much more powerful is 44 Magnum than 44 specials I've got the chronograph set up at 7 yards and I have my Smith & Wesson Model 29 44 Magnum with a 6-inch barrel and I have it loaded with spear Gold dot 44 Magnum 210 grain jacketed hollow-point $13.99 1387 1381 1359 and 1371 now I have my model 29 load with speared gold dot 44 special with a 200 grain jacketed hollow-point let's see how it compares 767 784 727 703 and 763 now let's try a different type of ammunition this is Hornady custom 44 Magnum 200 grain jacketed hollow-point 1440 1419 1404 14 33 and 1420 now let's see how that compares to the 44 special version now I've got 180 custom 44 special with a 180 grain jacketed hollow 8:24 811 813 809 and 815 now let's go crunch the numbers well I crunched the numbers in with the gold dot ammunition for 44 Magnum are gonna mean velocity 1361 44 special 758 now this is a 210 versus a 200 grain projectile so even with a bullet that's slightly heavier were still getting over 600 feet per second more velocity now with the Hornady custom ammunition for 44 Magnum I got 1423 for 44 special 814 this is a 200 versus a 180 grain projectile so with the bullet that's 20 grains heavier we're still getting over 600 feet per second velocity and that's a lot more this does come with a couple of caveats such as chronographs don't always agree with each other and certain environmental factors like elevation and ambient temperature can affect chronograph results also there's a segment of the population that thinks if you put 44 special ammo into a 44 magnum revolver it'll shoot but the numbers you get won't really be representative of what you have gotten in a true 44 special revolver really the difference if any would be negligible however this 44 magnum revolver does have a 6-inch barrel or 5 and 7/8 and although 6 or even 8 inch barrels are very common on 44 Magnum revolvers these days when someone's using a 44 special for security or concealed carry or personal protection it's usually going to be some kind of snub nose revolver so let's try this again with a revolver that may be more representative of what people are using this Ruger GP 144 special with a 3 inch barrel which I purchased with donations to the patreon account thank you everybody so let's go back to the chronograph with this gun and our 44 special ammunition and see how our results compare I will start with our spear Gold done 7:27 755 734 753 and 737 now let's see how that compares 200 custom and now our Hornady custom 867 805 827 853 and 863 now let's go crunch those numbers well I crunched the numbers in the speared gold ammunition we saw that in the 6-inch barrel revolver without a mean velocity of 758 with the three inch barrel it was 741 a loss of 17 feet per second that's within the variation of one round to the next and not enough difference to make a difference but with the Hornady custom ammunition we saw that in the 6-inch barrel revolver about a mean velocity of 814 with the 3-inch it was 843 a gain of 29 feet per second not really ammunition will have a range of velocities and it would appeared that a couple of the rounds I fired out at the three inch barrel we're near the top of that range if I were to fire five more shots I'd probably get a slightly different result but either way between the 6 and the 3 inch barrel we've got a difference of 29 feet per second well within the variation of one round to the next and not enough difference to make a difference but as always these are just numbers on the page how does that translate into effectiveness when we shoot this ammunition through this revolver at the intended target let's see if we can put that to the test not a test our effectiveness we're going to use the meet target for those who haven't seen it before it's leather jacket skin followed by porkchop pectorals pork ribs a bag of oranges to simulate lung tissue more pork ribs on the back four layers of t-shirt on the front four layers on the back and the whole thing followed by the new and improved high-tech police bullet stop I also want to take a moment to discuss hearing protection and eye protection forgive the delay but there are some people who are not very observant they keep asking about it this is an earplug case of earplugs with ever shot I take earlier you saw me wearing earphones for some calibers that are excessively loud like 44 Magnum I typically use earplugs and earphones but since we're only gonna shoot the 44 special now earplugs will suffice now as far as eye protection I don't really consider it necessary when shooting paper targets are using the coronagraph but when I'm shooting something with a potential for blowback like steel knock down plates or cinder blocks before the meet target I will we're shooting glasses however I typically take them off before I get back on camera sometimes I'll see them sitting on the table so now that we've covered that let's get on letter shoot the mead target with our Ruger GP 100 caliber 44 special and I have it loaded with speared gold dot 44 special 200 grain jacketed hollow-point cattle shoot from 7 yards well a pork chop pectoral has 44 caliber holes in our ribs on the front have 44 caliber holes in them where bullet tenerife broke them ribs on the back have 44 caliber holes in them where bullets hit ribs broke them but let me show you close up of these projectiles here's our four rounds we see moderate expansion on one and on the other three minimal expansion these results are really disappointing now we'll shoot from seven yards with our Hornady custom 44 special 180 grain jacketed hollow-point well I took the meet target apart and it has 44 caliber holes in it but what's really noteworthy is as where the speared gold dot projectiles were stopped by the t-shirt on the back of the target the Hornady custom projectiles penetrated some to xx some to xxx layer of fleece so we see lackluster performance and over penetration but what really made an impression is what condition these projectiles are in now let me show you a close-up of them I can only show you three projectiles because I dropped one in the snow and I couldn't find it but it was in the same condition as these and that condition is absolutely zero hollow point expansion now I'm going to try one more type of 44 special ammunition this is hornady critical defense as where the Hornady custom was a 180 grain jacketed hollow-point through critical defense is a 165 grain FTX projectile like a ballistic tip let's see if this does any better and it looks like we have a winner we got some good holes in our porkchop pectoral our ribs on the front of the target have a lot of damage where bullets hit the ribs shattered them a lot of damage to our orange lung tissue our ribs on the back of the target have some impressive holes where bullets hit the ribs shattered them and all of our projectiles were stopped by the t-shirt on the back of the target now let me show you a close-up of these bullets and this one still has the red tip stuck in it but what we see is very good expansion there's a few more things to cover and fair warning this is the boring part of the video where I talk and the big thing to cover is the question why would someone choose to carry a 44 special revolver for concealed carry of personal protection purposes when there are so many other choices that would seemingly be better this is a topic I could go on about for a couple of hours but I'm gonna try to condense it to just a few minutes and there's two aspects to it there's the 44 special revolver and the 44 special ammo and I wanna start with the ammo as we saw 44 special is one way interchangeable with 44 Magnum in the same way that 38 special is one way interchangeable with 357 Magnum and why would someone choose to put the special ammo in there magnitude Walter I'm sure there's many reasons but I want to cover just two of them one is so you can go to the range and target shoot with ammunition that has a lot less report and a lot less recoil in the same way that a lot of people will target you with 38 special animal in there 357 revolver however in trying to use 44 special for that task there's a couple of disadvantages as we're 38 special ammunition is readily available and most of the time significantly less expensive than 357 44 special ammo can be hard to find and is frequently more expensive than 44 Magnum now another reason someone might put special ammo in their magnum revolver is because they anticipate the better handgun might be used by a smaller lighter less experienced shooter who can really benefit from reduced noise and reduced recoil I've had several men tell me that they carry 357 magnum revolver loaded with 357 animal but in a situation where they anticipate their wife might use the gun they'll load it with 38 special animal someone with a 44 magnum revolver might do the same thing for the same purpose now in the aspect of why would someone choose to carry a 44 special revolver that's a little more complex and it starts with the ongoing debate between autoloaders and revolvers for concealed carry or personal protection now that's a subject I've discussed ad nauseam on several occasions so today we have a very abbreviated version of it and it goes like this revolvers can have some advantages over an autoloader but an autoloader has a lot of advantages over a revolver an autoloaders flat profile can make it for many people easier to carry most Auto loaders are going to have a shorter trigger pull than a double-action revolver making them for many people easier to shoot more accurately autoloaders typically have a significantly greater capacity as where most revolvers have a five or six shot cylinder Auto loaders can have magazine capacities of 15 or more and most of us can trade out magazines a lot faster than we can reload a revolver with speed motors so why would someone choose a revolver there's many reasons again let me cover just a few one is that because some people with their financial situation or their local laws or things like that a revolver is the gun they have is what they inherited whatever it's what they're stuck with another reason is some people do not trust themselves with an autoloader they know the amount of training they have they know the amount of training they're going to get they don't trust themselves to remember to chamber around on an ottawa or remember to take the round out of the chamber or remember to engage a safety or disengage a safety and so on they don't trust themselves with an autoloader some revolvers the right choice for them now there are some people who do not trust autoloaders they consider them prone to malfunctions recently someone who worked plain-clothed security and carries a revolver was talking to one of my crew and he was saying he carried a revolver which coincidentally was a 44 special not this model but he said he'd to carry the revolver because autoloaders can be unreliable now you may disagree with his opinion I disagree with it today's generation of Auto loaders have properly loaded properly maintained are extremely reliable but what we can't disagree with is the reality that that was in fact his opinion and that's what he's gonna go with so if someone were to choose to carry a revolver why would they choose to carry a 44 special as opposed to something that might be a lot more practical in comparing these two guns the river GP 100 and river SP 101 the 44 is a lot bigger and heavier than the 357 they're both five-shot revolver z' the 357 because of its size and weight is going to be a lot easier to carry it's more powerful the ammunition is more available and less expensive why would someone choose to carry a 44 special I'm sure there's many reasons but I want to cover what I think are the top three the first one being availability the 44 special just might be the gun that person it's what they inherited it's the gun they have the second reason is because 44 special is a fairly low chamber pressure round and so it's not going to have the loud report that a 357 magnum or a 44 magnum will have and there are some people who are very concerned about the potential for hearing loss in a self-defense shooting now what I mean is in a self-defense shooting you're probably not going to have time to put your earplugs in and there are some people who are concerned that in the three four or five shots they're going to be exposed to they're going to have hearing loss now is that point valid this takes a minute to explain a while ago I was in a situation where I was sitting down and someone was standing up behind me shooting over my head with a 30.6 rifle that was pretty loud and it made my ears ring and with each shot the pitch of the ring change ring-ring ring-ring did it damage my hearing a couple years after that I had a hearing test and my hearing was rated by their scale as h1 well the best you could be as h0 in the large group of people there were only a few of us that had h1 and only one or two that @ h0 so my hearing was considered pretty good I'd have to say having 30.6 fired over my head didn't do any significant damage and whatever damage it did heals in comparison to the thousands of rounds of 22 long-rifle of fired without hearing protection back before I was smart enough to do such things the main cause of hearing loss is exposure over a period of time to ongoing noise not acute exposure like one or two rounds of gunfire unless of course that gunfire is a loud firearm right up close to your head and even the hearing loss that I've suffered from gunfire still pales in comparison to the hearing loss I've suffered from driving hundreds of thousands of miles and cars with insufficient mufflers so the point of view that we should be concerned about in our concealed carry gun hearing loss due to being exposed to just a few rounds a very high chamber condition like 44 Magnum or 357 Magnum may not have a lot of merit and we may argue with their point but again what we can't argue with is the reality that they do believe that and that might be a reason why someone would choose a 44 special now the third reason is something called intimidation factor and everyone please before you send me any nasty emails listen to this segment in its entirety there's an idea that if you are a citizen with a concealed carry permit and you are accosted by a criminal that you may just have to show a handgun and that will defuse the situation yes happens all the time but there are some people of the opinion that the type of firearm you have may enhance your ability to defuse that situation this is something that some people call an intimidation factor I've heard people say that a stainless-steel handgun will have more intimidation factor than a blued steel handgun but a large handgun will have more intimidation factor than a small handgun and there are some people of the opinion that a large caliber handgun with a large bore will have more intimidation factor than a smaller bore now is there any validity to that point of view let's put that in the guise of a hypothetical let's say you're going to the ATM you 4x20 someone comes up shows you a knife demand your money instead you show them your handgun and tell them just walk away in that situation you tell someone to walk away they're either going to do that or they're not if not there's going to be a whole lot of factors that go into that time of days light or dark are there witnesses around how close are they to you the list goes on at Astra in my opinion one of the biggest things on that list is does that criminal really believe that you're going to shoot him if you have to now there are some people that think if the gun you have is a very large war that you're more likely that that person's gonna walk away I think that might have some validity in comparison to a very small handgun such as if you have a really little pocket 25 when one of those North American arms and mini revolvers in 22 long-rifle and you're trying to just show that handgun and defuse the situation there are going to be some criminals that don't believe such a small gun is real there are some people who think that really small calibers like 25 and 22 there are some people who think that a.22 can't penetrate heavy clothing I've actually had someone tell me that 22 long-rifle wouldn't penetrate a leather jacket yeah that's not correct but there are people who believe that and so with a very small handgun you might reduce your ability to defuse the situation with it but is a 44 really going to enhance your ability over a 38 caliber revolver I'd have to say the chances of that are at best minimal I think the real thing that goes into that is the criminals belief as to whether or not you would actually shoot if you had to so we can again argue the point of intimidation factor but what we can't argue is the reality but there are some people who believe a large caliber handgun has that intimidation factor over a smaller caliber so puts short the reason someone might choose a 44 special is that's what they have that they're concerned about hearing loss or they think it has intimidation factor now is there any real bottom line to all of this a couple of them this Ruger GP 100 revolver in caliber 44 special is a big robust well put together a high quality firearm it's got big high visibility adjustable sights I love the size and shape of this grip yes it does fit my hand better than this one does but there are some real downsides to 44 special initially the cost of the ammunition and the fact that it lacks power compared to some more conventional calibers now we have seen that with the right choices of ammunition that can be effective but with the wrong choices it was really disappointing and I would say the bottom line is if you have a 44 special and that's what you're going with because that's what you have make sure you make the right choices in ammunition but if you're looking for a handgun to buy I would say there probably are a lot better choices out there so as always don't try this at home on what you call a professional and thanks for watching the 44 special video [Music]

Channel: Paul Harrell

Views: 266,268

Rating: 4.9691362 out of 5

Keywords: paul harrell, paul harrell 44 special, paul harrell 44 magnum, paul harrell 44 mag, paul harrell revolver, 44 magnum, 44 mag, 44 special, paul harrel concealed carry

Id: zBivAAota1g

Length: 25min 6sec (1506 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Archleon]

Paul Harrell is a fucking treasure.