would really rap my knuckles with the full-power Black Hills and Win- chester loads. No matter how tightly I held this pistol, my middle knuckle would hit the back of the trigger- guard. We’re talking black-and-blue bruise recoil here. This is not a gun you want to shoot full-power .44 Mag loads through on a daily basis unless you’re into punishing yourself. I asked Jeff Hoffman, at Black Hills
Fixed-rear sight on the Charter Arms Bulldog was a bit hard for Cascio to pick up, but it’ll get the job done.
the 329PD. On sunny days, it looked like the front sight was glowing bright red. I liked it, a lot! I liked this gun so much, I opted to pack it for several weeks in a hip holster. I would forget I had this lightweight gun on most of the time. Now, to be fair, I did put the wood grips back on the gun for some shooting — six shots to be exact! Back to the Hogue rubber grips — the re- coil was too punishing for a steady string of shooting with the wood grips. For daily carry, as in self-defense, or packing on the hiking trail, I think the wood grips would be okay, but for a lot of shooting, go with the rubber grips.
Super Blackhawk Next up on my agenda was the
Ruger New Model Super Blackhawk, single action revolver, in stainless steel. Living on the wet side of Oregon, I can really appreciate stainless steel guns. Even with maintenance, stainless steel guns will develop some specs of rust. Coming in at 45-oz with its 5.5" bar- rel, the Ruger was the heaviest revolver tested in this 6-pack. I can appreciate this, as you can really load-up some heavy hand loads in the Ruger, you wouldn’t dare fire in most other .44s. The New Model Super Blackhawk
came with some beautiful rosewood grips that were a perfect fit. I also ap-
Rear sight on the 44 Tracker is fully adjustable for windage and eleva- tion. Like all Taurus firearms, the 44 Tracker has the Taurus Security System built into it.
preciate the fully-adjustable rear sight on the Ruger. Matter of fact, it was di- al-in perfectly for 240-gr. loads. One of my favorite handloaded .44 Mag load is with a 240-gr JHP bullet, over 23-grs. of H110. This gives me about 1,400 fps velocity. I might have got- ten this load from Taffin — but don’t quote me on that. The Ruger gobbled up all the 240-gr. JHP and 300-gr. JHP Black Hills fodder without any problems. I also ran quite a bit of Winchester’s USA-brand 240-gr. JSP though this gun, and it was giving me about 1,150 fps. The gun rode is a nice western-style holster/belt combo that was made by John Taffin — yeah, he makes a lot of his own leather too.
Bounty Hunter The European American Armory
(EAA) Big Bore Bounty Hunter was up on my list next. This was a real beauty with the 4.5" blue barrel and cylinder, along with the color case- hardened frame. The 1-piece walnut grips were nicely fitted as well. This single action revolver came in at 40 oz, not lightweight, to be sure. It came with fixed sights too. No ad- justments so, I was hoping the gun would hit where I aimed it. To be sure, the EAA was the worst offender in the recoil department. It
Ammunition to ship me some of his .44 Special cowboy loads for the EAA Big Bore Bounty Hunter. With a 210- gr. FPL bullet, these sedate loads were averaging about 700-fps out of the EAA. Now, we’re talking about a gun and load you can shoot all day long — no recoil to really speak of. No wonder this Black Hills load is the top choice for cowboy-action shooting.
Taurus I waited a good long time to lay my
hands on a 4" barrel, Taurus Model 444 Ultra-Lite DA revolver. The wait was worth it. This is a big revolver, built on the Taurus Raging Bull frame, except the gun is manufac- tured out of lightweight Titanium al- loy and aluminum. The gun weighs in a mere 28.3 oz, making it really light — you can pack this gun all day long in the hunting field, and not know it’s there, until you need it. The rubber grips, with the red cush-
ion insert in the back of ‘em really help tame recoil
in this big beast. I also
liked the red fiber optic front sight. The rear sight is fully adjustable for windage and elevation. However, I was not able to crank the rear sight down low enough to hit point of aim with the Black Hills or Winchester 240-gr. loads. I was printing a good inch and a half high at 25 yards. With the 300- gr. JHP Black Hills load – as they say in Jersey “fuggedaboutit.” I wrote to Taurus several times, and asked about this problem, but never got a reply. Still, I wouldn’t look back packing this revolver with any 240-gr., .44 Mag load out in the field. I liked the Taurus 444 way too
The red fiber optic front sight was easy to pick up under most lighting conditions – the Taurus 444 is one tough gun, and easy to pack all day long.
60
much … did a helluva lot of shooting with it. I loaned this gun to several people, and they all commented on the recoil being not as harsh as ex- pected. I also laid claim to a Taurus 44 Tracker .44 Mag in stainless steel. This little DA revolver is built on the Taurus mid-sized frame — the same frame you’ll find on their .357 Mag revolvers. Only thing is Taurus can only get five holes in the cylinder of this little gun. I can live with that, I really can. The 4" barrel also is ported — this is something I didn’t care for. This gun was horrendous to shoot even with double hearing protection
AMERICAN HANDGUNNER TACTICAL • 2011 SPECIAL EDITION
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