The 44 Magnum Rifle Round Part 1

The Marlin Model 1894 seems to languish in the shadows of the Model 336 and Model 1895. Languish may be a bit strong, but I thought of the word, kind of liked it, and decided to use it somewhat inappropriately. In 1893, L.L. Hepburn revised his Model 1889 design with several patentable enhancements with a central focus on a new locking bolt systems and revised two piece firing pin. The 1894 was a follow-on, a short action derivative firearm, publicized by Marlin as “…the successor to our well known Model 1889”.

Common to both the 1893 and 1894, the two piece firing pin prevents discharge unless the action is fully closed. The automatic safety catch is located forward of the lever and out of the way, rather than projecting downward at the rear of the lever. The locking bolt’s movement is contained within the receiver so only the lever is exposed when opened. The trigger is one piece rather than a separate trigger and sear assembly which does away with pre-travel.

Initially, the Model 1894 was chambered for .25-20, .38-40 and .44-40; the .32-20 followed shortly afterward when existing Model 1889 inventory was depleted. A short action, but not a short rifle, the Model 1894 was available in rifle, carbine and musket versions. The standard rifle had a 24″ octagon or round barrel, the carbine received a 20″ barrel and the musket received a 30″ barrel. Barrels were available optionally up to 32″ in round, octagon and half octagon profiles. Rifle receivers were case hardened, carbines were blued 1).

During the first two years of production, prices were $19 for the basic 20 inch carbine and $27 for firearms with the optional 32″ barrel. Using the Consumer Price Index (1665-2100), in today’s dollars the prices would be, respectively, $674 and $951. I wish I had something profound to say regarding price, however, the revelation left my thinking somewhat… apathetic.

The Marlin Model 1894 was listed on Marlinprice lists until 1935, however, primary manufacturing probably ended prior to 1924 when the company went bankrupt. The product remained on the price list of the new Marlin Corporation through 1935, probably product assembled from old inventory. In 1963, Marlin introduced a 44 Magnum version of the Model 336, modified to cycle the short cartridge. By 1969, after ineffectively struggling with Model 336 44 Magnum cycling problems, Marlin reintroduced the short action Model 1894.

In 1973, the 44 Magnum Model 1894 was altered to cycle 1.710″ long cartridges, as opposed to the SAAMI 1.610″ maximum length, as a publically stated benefit to handloaders. Since that time the Model 1894 has been chambered in: 22 WMRF, 38 Special, 357 Magnum, 41 Magnum, 44 Special, and 45 Colt. In 1988, a Classic model, or 1894CL was produced that brought the return of the .25-20 and .32-20.

The pictured firearm is a 2010 Model 1894 Deluxe, barrel stamped Marlin North Haven, CT. Ignoring the labor and shrieking fan boy politics as I always do, the metal finish is clean and uniformly dark blued, the wood fit is tight, the wood tone is good and the grain is fancy smancy… which is a technical designation for walnut with good color and contrast with lots of figure. It is not a show pony. It gets used on rotation for range duty and hunting.

The 44 Remington Magnum…

As a cooperative effort on the part of Remington and S&W the design of the 44 Remington Magnum cartridge was completed in 1954. S&W produced five prototype revolvers for the cartridge in early 1955 and the first production revolvers is December of that year. The Model NT-430, N Frame, Target, 0.430″ groove diameter, was publically announced in January of 1956. In 1957, the revolver became the Model 29 in 1957 and it is reported to have quickly become a favorite of big bore sport shooters 2).

The first company to jump on the notion of a 44 Remington Magnum rifle appears to have been Ruger with its “Deer Stalker”, which became the .44 Magnum Carbine, in 1961. It was Ruger’s first long gun venture, one that nicely complimented the company’s 44 Magnum handguns. Quite an innovative autoloader, the carbine has been used world wide, even securing some sizable game in Africa. Much later, there was the Ruger 96/44, 1996 – 2009, lever action carbine. Today, Ruger offers only the well made and accurate Model 77/44 bolt action in the 44 Magnum long gun category. For as well as both the .44 Magnum Carbine and Model 96/44 were received, cost of manufacturing retired both models.

Chambering the short action Winchester Model 1892 and Marlin 1894 Models as 44 Magnums would have been a natural step, as both had been chambered for similar physical size cartridges by original design. Instead, Marlin chambered their long action Model 336 for the 44 Magnum in 1963 and Winchester chambered their Model 1894 in 1967. The reason for the direction was that neither short action model was in production concurrent with the advent of the 44 Magnum cartridge. As previously indicated, Marlin returned to market with their 1894 in 1969. Winchester did not bring the Model 1892 back until 1997, and even then only as a special run of High Grade and Grade I models. So why would anyone hunt with a rifle that shoots revolver cartridges anyway? Glad that you asked…

It is interesting how the opinions regarding the 44 Remington Magnum’s lethality change in a way that doesn’t necessarily follow exterior ballistic defining criteria. Mainstream manuals, period publications, and current publications seem to speak of the cartridge with great reverence as a handgun cartridge and its achievement at downing some of the largest game. However, in rifle form, the philosophy of application seems to coalesce around the notion of 100 yard cartridge, deer and black bear limits as a routine. There are, of course the narratives that wander off into the sunset representing the cartridge as a kill combination for elk at 300 yards, Alaskan moose and brown bear.

You can’t see me now, but in regard to the closing sentence of the prior paragraph, my head is shaking slowly side to side as the international symbol for, “Nooooooo”. At which point 173.4 people, sitting in green and white vinyl lawn chairs are putting down their beers and angrily shaking their fists at me, evoking the name “Elmer Keith”. Yes, Elmer Keith is credited with shepherding the development of the 44 Magnum and he no doubt hunted big, dangerous game with the .44 Magnum, from horseback and maybe even while riding sidesaddle. But Keith was a tough guy, young and old, who favored the 338 Winchester cartridge for elk, moose and big bear and he probably could have been just as effective of a hunter with a pointed stick. From my vantage point, the 44 Magnum rifle pushes a large and heavy bullet 100 to 150 yards to effectively kill deer and black bear.

Let’s go to the charts. Joe, we can make anything look good…

 

So it would be best to move up above a 240 grain bullet, let the increased bullet weight drop velocity a bit, use tougher bullets, and get controlled expansion and good penetration…

 

 

Hmm… velocity dropped a bit with the increase in bullet weight, point blank range is 150 yards, energy is about the same, but momentum is way up and that means a significant increase in penetration. While a 30-30 WCF offers flatter trajectory out to 200 yards, within 150 yards, both the 30-30 WCF and 44 Magnum are point blank cartridge, the 44 Magnum has greater retained momentum and the 44 Magnum leaves a much bigger wound channel.

Where to begin, where to begin?

Based on five minutes of exterior ballistics calculator output, and a review of the bullets sitting on the shelf between the 44-40 WCF bullets and 45 Colt bullets, I came up with 3 1/2 bullets I thought might prove interesting. 

The SAAMI spec for the 44 Remington Magnum cartridge overall length is Minimum 1.535″ Maximum 1.610″. The Marlin 1894 can actually handle 1.710″, which makes the Sierra 300 grain the problem child in the bunch, but then it isn’t positioned by the manufacturer for this application. First I thought I might just load the Sierra into a 44 Special case, but the difference in case length is 0.125″, capacity loss is near 25% making it an overcorrection of the problem. Then I figured I would take a page from the Hornady FTX bullet case modification and trim the case back 0.035″ or so to make the maximum rifle COL of 1.710, which sacrifices only 0.4 grains of capacity. Energy lost to reduced capacity should be recoverable with powder selection. All conjecturer at this point, so this is where I am going to stop to sort it all out, work up some handloads and see how they perform.

1) Marlin Firearms, a history of the guns and the company that made them – Brophy
2) Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson – Supica and Nahas

The 44 Magnum Rifle Round Part 1
The 44 Magnum Rifle Round Part 2
The 44 Magnum Rifle Round Part 3