50 years of the Smith & Wesson .44 Mag.: it's hard to believe, but the gun that started it all is no more

Guns Magazine, Feb, 2005 by John Taffin

When Smith & Wesson introduced the first Magnum, the .357 in 1935, there were sixgunners who did not accept it as the perfect sixgun. Elmer Keith had pushed the .44 Special since 1927 as the number one cartridge. Using Smith & Wesson Hand Ejectors and Colt Single Actions. Keith came up with his pet load using a bullet of his design--Lyman's No. 429421--loaded over No. 2400 powder for 1,200 fps. Keith took big game with his .44 Specials and wrote about the results in Outdoor Life and American Rifleman.

A small but dedicated group grew around heavily loaded .44 Specials. Their contention was the .44 Special with a 250-grain bullet at 1,200 fps was, for all practical purposes, better than the .357 Magnum with a 158-grain bullet at 1,500 fps. The .44 Associates were formed and corresponded by mail, trading loading data for the .44 Special. Imagine what they could have accomplished with e-mail.

For nearly three decades Keith lobbied for a ".44 Special Magnum" in a longer cartridge case so it could not be used in older guns. Finally, in 1954, Remington came up with a new .44 round and, in January 1955, Smith & Wesson chambered five .44 Special 1950 Target Models for the .44 Magnum using specially heat-treated cylinders and frames. The 1950 Target handled the new load fine but not the shooters. The recoil was too heavy with the relatively lightweight sixgun and some weight had to be added. The cylinder was lengthened and the barrel diameter increased to add one-half pound and create a truly beautiful profile.

The .44 Magnum Arrives

By mid-December 1955 the first 61/2" Smith & Wesson .44 Magnums were being produced. Among the first to receive the big beautiful new .44 Magnum were Remington Arms, Major Julian Hatcher at the American Rifleman and Elmer Keith. It is interesting to read the reviews on the new .44 Magnum by Hatcher and Keith. Keith said recoil was not as bad as shooting the .38 Chiefs Special, while Hatcher likened it to being hit in the hand with a baseball bat. Col. Askins jumped into the fray and accused anyone not able to handle the recoil of wearing lace panties. Then, as now, recoil is mostly subjective.

I was 17, still a teenager, when the Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum arrived. By this time I had a couple .357 Magnums, the Ruger Blackhawk and the S&W Highway Patrolman, a .38-40 Colt Single Action Army, and a .45 ACP S&W Model 1917: I thought I knew what recoil was, but I was definitely not prepared for what was about to happen. It was 1956 and the first .44 Magnum I saw was a 4" version. In those days most of the gun shops had an outdoor shooting range, Instead of selling that first .44 Magnum, the enterprising owner rented it out for a nominal fee. I was already a fairly experienced shooter and worked outside every day unloading semi trailers and boxcars. I thought I was pretty strong and tough. I was about to meet my match.

Several of us invincible teenagers had graduated in 1956 and were now working together and spending our leisure time shooting. We normally worked a half a day on Saturday and spent the afternoon smelling gunpowder. Sure, we wanted to shoot the new .44 Magnum. We were young, we were tough, we were invincible, and we were about to be tested to the limit, We all shot a cylinder full of factory .44 Magnum ammunition, which in those days was rated at 1,570 fps with a 240-grain bullet from a 61/2" sixgun. That would give well over 1,400 fps from the shorter 4" Smith & Wesson. No matter how long we live there are some things we never forget. Shooting that first .44 Magnum is one of those. I fired that first round and my immediate thought was five more rounds were left. Every one of us fired our six rounds and not a single one of us would admit to the others how bad the recoil was. It would take a lot more shooting and experience with heavy loads before any of us could even come close to handling a .44 Magnum. But learn we did.

Taffin's First .44 Magnums

The Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum is one of the best looking sixguns ever produced. All of the .44 Hand Ejectors and the .357 Magnum are very attractive revolvers, however the addition of the heavier barrel and cylinder to the 1950 Target to increase weight resulted in beautifully flowing lines and a classic look rivaled only by the Colt Single Action Army. For years I dreamed of having a fully engraved sixgun, and 20 years ago my wife offered to have one of my sixguns engraved for my birthday. The first choice for that first engraving was a 4" Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum. The .44 Magnum Smith & Wesson is one of my favorite sixguns and not far behind the Colt Single Action Army. I still have my first Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum, a 61/2" I purchased on time payments while in college in 1962, and it was an early favorite hunting handgun carried in homemade leather consisting of a wide belt and Mexican loop style holster even before Cowboy Action Shooting made such a leather design popular again. The advent of the S&W .44 Magnum opened up a whole new era for handgun hunters.