The .44 Ruskie

American Handgunner, July-August, 2009 by Mike "Duke" Venturino

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After writing a feature for this issue on why the .44 S&W Special isn't so special, now I'm going to detail why I do like its ballistic twin. the .44 S&W Russian. At least I like it in this one particular revolver. That's the Navy Arms' replica of Smith & Wesson's Model #3, 3rd Model .44 Russian.

Circa 1872 the Russian Government wanted to start buying Smith & Wesson's new top break Model #3 revolvers. Very important to the company was the fact they were willing to pay in gold. But the Russians wanted nothing to do with Smith & Wesson's own .44/100 cartridge because it used a heel-type bullet That's where a reduced diameter shank fits inside the cartridge case while the full diameter of the bullet is the same as the outside of the cartridge case. Just look at a round of .22 Long Rifle. They're still made that way. The Russians explained if the bullet fit inside the cartridge case with revolver chambers bored accordingly things would work much better. They certainly did, and still do. Of course with all that gold in the balance Smith & Wesson said, "you bet!"

The result was the .44 S&W Russian. Smith & Wesson's own cartridge then gained the name of .44 S&W American. Case length for the Ruskie one was set at .97" with bullet diameter at .429". Through the decades the .44 S&W Russian was loaded with bullets as heavy as 275 grains over black powder charges as heavy as 23 grains. By the smokeless powder era in the early 1900s. factory loads were standardized with a 246-grain roundnose bullet at about 755 fps. And when the .44 S&W Special came along in 1908 it was given the exact same bullet at the exact same speed bnt in a case 1.16" long.

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