The Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Remington Magnum has always been a favorite revolver for sport and pleasure. Filled with .44 Magnum cartridges, it is ready for target practice or hunting. After a while, however, even the most recoil-tough shooter looks forward to toning things down a bit. Having always been a fan of moderate loads using lead bullets suitable for casual paper punching, the .44 Special naturally comes to mind for use in .44 Magnum revolvers. It is easy to load and shoot while being easy on the budget.

Granted, with modern revolvers the .44 Special can be loaded close to magnum standards for serious hunting duties when needed. Though to me the .44 Special is not that special, and I don’t need oodles of powder choices behind it for a particular use in the field. The fun is in the fact that I can use one powder, Unique. I like to load the .44 Special using moderate amounts of powder thus providing a very economical cartridge to use any time in any .44 Magnum.

For this assignment, a Smith & Wesson Model 629 with a 4-inch barrel was used, because it is modern, hefty and well-made. I have revolvers with longer barrels, but the shorter barrel makes more sense when carried on the hip, and a slight velocity loss is unimportant. Besides, a carry revolver can always be charged with four .44 Specials and a pair of .44 Magnums.

With a satin stainless finish, this Model 629 is built on the traditional N-frame and weighs 41½ ounces unloaded. Overall fit and finish is good, the front cylinder edges are rounded for easy entry into a holster, belt or backpack. This revolver is equipped with the usual target trigger, target hammer, and adjustable target sights complete with a red insert on the front blade and a white outline on the rear notch. While in the past fancy Goncalo Alves grips were standard, now weather-resistant neoprene panels are standard. Trigger pull on the test sample was set at 4 pounds. With the grips removed, it was an easy task to install the model in a Ransom Rest for testing using an insert for the N-frame, round-butt gun.

The .44 Special was formally introduced by Smith & Wesson in 1907. Though the .44 Magnum is an offshoot of this cartridge, the Special was based on the older black powder .44 Russian. The Special’s case was lengthened to accommodate the use of emerging smokeless propellants. While the original intent of the .44 Special may have been as a target round, savvy handgunners have long since used the cartridge for informal shooting and the taking of small to medium game at moderate ranges.  

Factory loads are readily available and range into the dozens, but reloading is the way to go.  Phil Sharpe, in his book Complete Guide to Handloading, used Unique for 38 of 160 .44 Special loads to include bullets weighing from 145 to 260 grains. When considering an all-purpose .44 Special powder, Ken Waters, in Pet Loads noted, “I’m pretty sure my choices would be Unique and Blue Dot.”  

Unique is a great powder to use and have on your bench. If economics are important, a one-pound can of Unique (7,000 grains) will fetch you 1,000 loads using a 7.0-grain powder charge. Introduced in 1900 by Laflin & Rand of Haskell, New Jersey, later to be absorbed by DuPont, Unique was the “Johnny on the spot” powder to help the .44 Special move right along the popularity scale in subsequent years. Unique is still one of the most versatile powders on the market today.

Looking at the accompanying data table, it is obvious I made the choice to use the .44 Special at lower velocities and work toward loads with jacketed and lead bullets that would be fun to shoot. Rounded up was a selection of bullets from Hornady, Remington, Sierra, Speer and Winchester. Bullet weights ranged from 180 to 240 grains. As to the heavier, 240-grain lead bullets, samples from Hornady and Speer were included.  

New Winchester cases and once-fired cases from Remington were used for load development. If I was consistent in my work, both the new and used brass worked well. In the case of the once-fired Remington brass, I did make sure that all were the same overall length after running them through the sizing die. 

Primers included CCI 300 Large Pistol and Winchester WLP. There were no significant differences in velocities or accuracy downrange. The .44 Special proved fully adaptable to choices in powder, primers or cases.

I’ve used both RCBS and Redding die sets with equal results. For sizing, tungsten carbide dies are the way to go with pistol cartridges, as the absence of lube makes for cleaner results. After sizing, I checked one out of every 10 of the once-fired case, and if cases did not come in line with an overall length of 1.160 inches, they were trimmed back to 1.150 inches. While some handloaders may say case length is not a big deal in the cylinder of a revolver – it is a big deal when you go to crimp all the rounds. 

Priming goes fast, and when I bell the case mouths, I usually settle when the outward bell at the mouth is around .454 to .455 inches. This is more than sufficient to seat both lead and jacketed bullets, and once set on the press makes for a speedy workflow. When making up rounds for this article, each charge was checked on a scale before it was dumped into the case. 

When it came to testing, a Ransom Rest was used to shoot groups at 25 yards.  Throughout the testing, I tried to pick days that were close together in temperature and with little or no wind.   

In all of the loads, there was no indication of pressure signs, and all rounds were crimped right in the die.

Starting with 180-grain bullets, the Hornady XTP HP with a 7.0-grain charge provided a velocity of 745 fps and groups that averaged .602 inch. The Remington 180-grain SJHP bullet gave a .720-inch group while the 180-grain Sierra grouped just over an inch with a comfortable velocity of 864 fps.  Moving on to 200-grain bullets, the Speer JHP grouped .590 inch at 813 fps and was the third best group overall. The Hornady 200-grain XTP HP bullet provided a .710-inch group with a velocity of 619 fps. When it came to the 210- and 225-grain bullet weights, I used one option from each manufacturer: a Winchester 210-grain Silvertip hollowpoint and a Speer 225-grain jacketed hollowpoint. While the groups spread out to an inch or more, velocities were a little better than average at 790 and 854 fps, respectively.   

No matter whom you ask, whether shooting the .44 Special or .44 Magnum, heavy, 240-grain bullets seem to win out in popularity. The second best test group fired measured .475 inch using the Remington SJHP with a charge of 7.2 grains of Unique. Next up was the Hornady 240-grain JTC-SIL bullet at 710 fps with a .785-inch group. Finally, the 240-grain Speer JHP and Sierra JHC bullets grouped close to an inch with the latter chronographing 914 fps with a Unique charge of 8.1 grains. 

As for lead bullets, the Speer 240-grain SWC provided the best group of the entire testing program. Lumbering along at 711 fps, I was indeed impressed with consistent accuracy that came in under a half inch. This load was outstanding and with a mild charge of 6.0 grains, the group measured .395 inch. 

Factory loads were also shot, and while both the Winchester 200-grain Silvertip and Remington 246-grain lead SWC grouped around the one-inch mark, the Winchester 246-grain lead roundnose grouped .640 inch. While the other factory loads had higher velocities, this Winchester lead bullet was more accurate at a slower 647 fps.