For all the people that want to protect against bears ... this 44 special would do the trick on a bears skull !

I am really starting to like 44 special and. 45 colt as revolver rounds. I never would have gave them a 2nd look before but I could definitely see getting a revolver in either caliber.

Geez i would have never expected that much damage out of a wadcutter

I love Buffalo Bore ammo!

7:03 is why I invested in a rubber cage and outer lens on my camera. Came into play for once lol.

When I lived back East, I loaded a 180 gr. wadcutter in .44 mag brass, over 10 gr. of Unique, (around 1000fps) that load was devastating on wood chucks.

Just finished filming a video of my own, sign on to edit it, see in my notifications that Gun Sam is doing a comparison shoot of revolver rounds - my priorities for the evening have changed!

the hard cast wad cutter is a wonderful defense load. NYPD detective John cerilo proved that surviving 21 gunfights I'm told.he preferred the wadcutter over hollow points for pure bone busting to get through the vitals. even a lot of companies including buffalo bore makes medium to heavy weight flat face dangerous game ammunition. I have reloaded hollow base soft cast wad cutters backwards but never achieved the accurate loads I wanted. but now the thought of hardcast hbwc is stirring my reloading juices. papa enjoyed the video

Those 44 Magnums are The Beast, on average.

Nice, still saving to buy myself a S&W in 44Mag ..

Love it when the bologna pack explodes

I didn't even think they made these rounds. Makes me think of the 44 special differently. Thanks for the video Sam!

44 special and 44 magnum makes my Friday! Yeah!

Looks like both would be a good woods carry ammo for both two legged and four legged threats. Maybe a little more penetration that I would be comfortable with in a crowded urban environment though.

The penetration by either flat face slug is very good for a self defense load. Even those wearing body armor would have some 'wind' knocked out of them being hit with 400-600 + foot pounds of energy. That kind of impact is almost akin to that of a sledgehammer. If I'm overstating, I'll welcome a correction by those better versed in impact (terminal) ballistics. Great presentation Sam.

The specials really are.

Interesting! Good options for crazy places like New Jersey where hollow points are outlawed. You might carry a hatchet and split out the bullets when you do the wood test. Makes me want to dig out my 116 grain .44 wadcutter mold and see if I can stack two into a case.😀

I would like a box of that to just put on shelf and look at it.

Years ago I was at the range with wadcutters, SWC and roundnose. I expected elevation differences where they hit. But I also saw a windage difference.

Love the hybrid testing! I find your bologna gives a much better experience of the power of these two loads than just another gel test. Keep up the great work!

Being in a big city my 4” 29-2 is always stoked with 6 of those specials, nothing but.

Got my ruger super redhawk 44 magnum 2 weeks ago.yesterday got my 340+P+ buffalobore...yay... KingJesus

Great job! I love all the TECH you use now, takes the reviews to a whole new level.

After watching this video 44 special was pretty decent I believe it when you said that it can handle almost anything I like the ballistic gel your test are pretty good and accurate I like it alot ...... keep with Jesus Christ

I predict big holes and very violent transfer of energy.

Flat front punch. Pow! ✊🏻👊🏻👌🏻

Another good show. Enjoyed it.

I had just picked up a couple boxes of that stuff a few weeks ago. 👍🏻😁 the 44special that is.

Results from 45 colt 240 gr W C , from Matts Bullets , med hard cast > In a line of jugs , rather than the 1st bow up & the 2nt & 3 rd not so much . The first 2 blew up nearly the same ( like the first jug in common GOOD ammo ) the next 2 still got a good jolt .

Awesome video. Glad I subscribed. I'm a revolver fan & .44 Special owner & this is much appreciated.

Great test!

Glad I found this video! I missed this one somehow!?! I’ve been carrying the Buffalo Bore 44spl hardcast In my Charter arms “On duty” Bulldog and it’s nice to see it tested. Thanx! 👍🏻

Great test. I was waiting for this one too

Some really powerful ammo.....thanks for sharing.

Great Video, Sam!

Outstanding video, thanks!!

Very cool test! Always wondered about these 2 loads. Surprised by the gel test between the 2 loads. Very similar. Great video!

After watching your great videos, I decided to order full Wadcutter bullets for my .44 mag. 200 grain weight was my choice.. All the years I've owned and shot a .44 mag I've never fired Wadcutter bullet through my S&W 629.. My bullet of choice is the Keith design 255 grain SWC... plus I carry 310 grain bullet load in bear country.. Time to shoot full Wadcutter bullets.. Great information, thanks for this one..

I love the fact that your testing is done with the same gun as mine, bought mine on a bit of an impulse due to it being used and fell in love with it. Too many people do ammo tests with far larger guns and don't give the model 69 fair credit. Was given flack for carrying a 5 shot wheel gun till they all fired it compared to the nines and 45s everybody else has. Add that to the fact it's accurate and fairly easy to carry, nobody giggles at my old man gun anymore.

Brother Sam / THIS was one of my Favorite videos that you have done. Because I purchased 3 revolvers last month that shoot these. A Charter Arms Bulldog/external hammer, a New S&W Combat model 69, and the gun I was hunting for, The Alaskan, by Ruger, in 44 Magnum. For those interested, Ohio show price was $1,375. and then another Ohio show it was $1,200. thanx for great , in depth videos

Thanks for proving my point once again. The .44 mag is still the King of hand cannons. In my opinion of course. Look at that devastation and you still can make accurate follow up shots. I swear that baloney pack was a red mist... Great visual, thanks.

This was a great test .. All the years i have fired a .44 mag i have never loaded full wad cutter bullets in it . I have for years now fired 148 grain full wad cutters in my .357 mags , just last year i started loading 155 grain full wad cutters and am very pleased with the results .. Like what you experienced , compared to SWC , HP, SP , RN i have found the POI is off around 1" with the full wad cutters .. The shock would be a lot with the size of the Meplat size of the bullets nose.. When i'm in bear country i carry my .44 mag loaded with 310 grain True Shot bullets by Oregon Trail Bullets which are gas checked ,that bullet has a huge Meplat ..It like launching a plow through the air , damage it does .. As always a good video ..

Honestly, If I were going to be carrying a .44 Mag for bear defense, this would NOT be my choice of revolver. A bigger, heavier gun (S&W N-frame, Ruger Redhawk, etc.) helps tame that recoil for quicker follow-ups, AND offers one extra round in the cylinder. And against a charging bear, that one extra round means a lot more than you might think.

Interesting. Good info. Thank you

Special ammo for sure. Great testing and shooting. Excellent results. Worth having in your ammo collection. ♠️☯️🎩

666 FLBs of energy!?! 😱 44mag is the DEVIL!!!

As Mr. Quinn said Buffalo Bore don't short you on powder none!

10:34 SWEET side by side comparison of the rate of fire achieved with each type!

At this point, I'd say, whatever you can find since they perform so similarly. Ammunition prices and availability is ridiculous, and I know not one shooter is unaware of that.

I just started the video & Know this will be Good !! That's got to hurt !

Always a good and interesting video. Everything but the gel seemed to showed the .44 Mag hits harder. Take care.

Thanks.

I love big bore wadcutters. I have molds in 44 and 45 colt and I'm pondering the idea of one one 475 Linebaugh. The way they hit is all out of proportion to their weight and they make really cool hole in paper. I'm glad you did the video as I really am close to buying a Smith 69. Thanks for a great video and ad always you make learning fun

Been looking into S&W M69 or a Taurus Tracker in .44 mag for a daily carry. Stoked with a 200g .44 special SWC will take the fight out of anything encountered here in the central part of my state, two or four legged.

The more I watch your videos, the more I like your 44 Special content and miss my old Charter Arms Bulldog. I think I need another 44 revolver. Is there any interest in testing some slower-moving soft lead semi-wadcutter loads?

My edc is a S&W THUNDER RANCH .44SPL. MY HANDLOADS ARE 240 SWC AT 850 FPS. GOOD ENOUGH. 😊

Would love to see you take on the 44 Russian. I have looked at hand loading data for it and it seems to be not that far behind the 44 special. It could fill a similar niche to your work with the 38 Colt.

Awesome!

Just picked up a model 29 yesterday with a 6.5” barrel. I haven’t fired it yet but I’m hoping I can handle the magnums in that big gun and don’t have to step down to specials. Of course this video proves specials will still get the job done

Funny you should do this exact video exactly right now LOL,,,I just got done watching a few videos on ballistics tests using the Speer gold dot 200 grain, the bullet they use in either the Speer factory loaded 44 special loading doing about 950 or right close to there FPS,,, and they also load it or used to anyhow because if I heard it correctly they dropped that loading from their offerings,,,,but anyhow it seems from the testing done by a few guys (the main one was Loads fo Bacon) that bullet does by their testing anyhow real good at a range of 900 to no more than 1100 (however even at 1100 it started to fragment a bit more than i like to see),,,,,,so as per what loads of bacon found to be about the best was 10 grains of Unique gave right at 1050 or just a tad less FPS, That seems to be the sweet spot velocity wise for that bullet it expands very well to almost .750 or 3 quarters of an inch diameter (most of the six he fired into the gel were in the nieghborhood of .600 and pretty much all the same)and went 14 to 15 inches for a six round string into balistic gel ,,,,so I'm gonna load up some exactly at that and I am also going to load up some at about the same or should be same velocity with some Titegroup and Hodgdon universal powders just to see if some other powder options cane exactly equal it just for options sake,,,,should make a much easier on the shooter carry load than what I currently have around right now,,,my hands are as I'm now 55 are not what they used to be and are sufering from a life of hard use (LOL) so I'm needing to look for a less abusive carry load for my shorter barreled guns (like my 2.750 model 69 or a couple of my sub 3 inch model 629's and even my 329pd can make good use of some lighter loadings) anyhow my lightest loading I currently have for the 44's (not including some plinking loads,,,,my carry loads wise) is still doing 1200 fps+ (a couple of my loadings are still cranking along right at 1400 FPS from those short barrels) from the shorter barrels with a 200 grain bullet (either the Nosler or XTP or Sierra bullets pushed by a big old charge of 28 or 28.5 grains of H110 has a habit of coming back at you HARD),,,,,,so I have had a few hundred or close to a thousand of those 200 grain gold dots laying around for a few years now so it's high time to use some of them (been meaning to do this for a couple or more years now),,,,anyhow I like what Buffalo Bore did with those wad cutters,,,,that would make a good round for personal deffense without any dought in the 44 special loading as well like you say being rather good also against larger 4 legged nasties in the woods,,,and you could step it up a tad by throwing some of the 44 magnum loadings in if you need a bit more for in the woods and not be stupidly over powered for 2 leeged vermin,,,,I'm sure the bullets Buffalo Bore uses in that loading is the ones that Rimrock bullets makes,,,I was just on Rimrocks sight and they have them available but with a wait of 6 to 8 weeks, they must make them at order time right now, or they just are that backlogged due to the current state of things, because I've order lots from them in the past and if it says available they usually get them to you really quick,,,anyhow I might just have to order some of those from them, they aren't bad priced either at $61 per 500 so I might just put in an order for a thousand or so to play around and expreiment with,,,they should be able to run about the same powder charges as for the 200 grain gold dots or real close to it and get just about the same velocities as the Buffalo Bore 44 special loading but in the magnum case,,, or maybe just slightly warmer and split the difference in velocity between the special and the magnum loading and come in right at say 1100 FPS might just be a real sweet spot for that wad cutter bullet (tad more than the special loading but just enough less than the magnum loading to be a bit easier shooting????? I think I need to play with that one a bit))),,, anyhow after all the years i played around with all this i thought i was done LOL,,,guess when it's in your blood you never get done playing with it,,,anyhow as always thanks for the videos Sam take care.

Another great video. Try the 44mag 305g hardcast +p, out of a 3 inch barrel! It will knock your socks off! Especially one handed! I've never had a problem with BuffaloBore in 15 or so years of buying from them until this month. April 2021. I've sent two Emails and 3 phone calls no reply! Two boxes of 380 lead free loaded with the Barns Bullet were too long to fit in chamber and magazines of both my 380 guns. Not knocking them but just a heads up to people. I'm sure they'll get around to me soon, but hey it's been 6 days. DB

Great comparison. Both packs a punch or lower 48 especially here in the east. Definitely say 44 mag had more punch. But 44spl load u Definitely stay on target better able make fast fallow up shots.

Nice..really appreciate your "hybrid" ballistic test..tired of seeing plain Gel... A suggestion for shooting fast with Magnum revolvers...a "hammer" grip with the right thumb down and wrapped over with the left thumb... The gun won't shift in your hand near as much as with the semi-auto thumbs forward position...

If I ever get any of ammunition I have a good idea what to expect .👍 The down side is it would only work good one of my revolvers. 🤷‍♂️

Icant find 44 spec in my country. Finde it is sience fiction here in Croatia. Its hard to find 44mag amo to. Tray 44 mag from Sellier&bellot, or Prvi partizan (wolf) if you can find it.That amo is Al you can get here, maybe some cci blazer or hornady👍

Very nice. Was hoping you would test these. The Special seems like it would be excellent for animal defense, probably up to and including black bears (who are reputedly not a big problem anyway). For true self-defense, i wonder if a softer bullet (say BHN of 10 or so?) would give significant expansion. You want some penetration of course, but 23" is too much against a biped, i should think. Any bullet casters out there want to make up some handloads? I like the hybrid test- it seems very logical- muscle, bone, and fluid tissue. The Magnum use is probably more limited, but it should be good for intentional hunting or grizzly defense. Let's hear it for Buffalo Bore.

I would have liked the test to be the same as your others (no water jug or place the jug last to catch the bullet). That way we can compare to other cartridges.

I am wondering what Rim Rock 270 grn SWC in 45 Colt would do on gel.

so many people are getting old /etc and are fearful of wrist injury----> somebody should start offering low energy 44 specials/ inexpensive clean burn lower noise

Great test once again, Whats the fastest 240 jhp 44 mag ammo you have tested ? what numbers you got out of that 4 inch barrel? 1250?

Sam, Could you do a review on your thoughts, likes, dislikes, of that revolver? I thought I was done with 44 but thst particular L frame has me kinda twisting.

@1:41 Did you say Corona-graph? That was a sick pun. LOL, I'm not even a real dad.

I figured out #3 things when searching for the ultimate woods pistol. #1 Ammo and gun costs are supreme. And what you get for your money is 44 mag. # 2 finding ammo anywhere anytime is very important. 22 L.R. 38 special and 44 mag is what can be found anywhere , even Tom's hardware. #3 If a 44 mag won't kill it , you best leave it alone. 44 mag is the best go anywhere ,anytime , and survive pistol , barr none. The 44 mag is a one and done gun. And it costs the same as most any other gun as well as ammo . Simple.

How about Buffalo Bore 44 magnum 265 grain Dangerous Game Lehigh Defense flat point solid copper loading versus the Buffalo Bore 44 magnum 265 hardcast gas-check flat meplat bullet loading.

9:16 if you are shooting a brown bear you should not be using these loads. Buffalo Bore makes a 340gr hard cast +P+ that moves at over 1400fps which I would deem more appropriate for a bear. These rounds are intended more for self defense against two legged threats

Can you do a video on the Underwood .44 Special 200 gr Hard Cast Wadcutter? It's cheaper than the Buffalo Bore and I'm curious if the performance is the same

I'm not sure how I missed this one. It looks like elasticity of bologna is not good. I also kind of want a 329 now.

I know you do not want to get your model 69 Mag-na-port treated but your grip was broken by recoil and that is why you should do so. Jerry Michelick (spelling?) says Mag-na-port is like cheating. Everything else on that model 69 is top of the line. Maybe an action job and fixed overtravel trigger stop...

Think you might be handier with the N-frame in a 5 or 6" barrel with the magnum?

Could you please do the same Test with the .38 Spec./ .357 Magnum Cartridge ?

As much as I like your M69 ( I was thinking of buying one at one time ) I don't think people that fear bear attack would pick that Model . Too many other better choices . For MOST in the US that don't have bears , 44 Special in a M69 S&W is far better choice , than a Ruger Super Redhawk in 480 , 454 , 44 , 10mm .

Fairly light ammo for buffalo bore

4:52 ".44 Mag = 666" - That fits.

It was surprising that ballistic gel is heavier than a tripod

i getting the model 69 for the 44 special and in case the shit hit the fan i will carry a load of 44 mag i will never buy a 9mm i hate them as much as the 5.56 round

@10:33 well isn't that Special !

1200 FPS seems light f a 44 mag.

How dirty was that Smith when you got done? I'm a real fan of Buffalo Bore and lead wadcutters in general, but they're cruddy things to shoot.

Rad

I say rounds wont go through all fell. Water hard when hit fast.

A little more than pew pew pew. 😉

👍✌️😃🇺🇸

Kill vs over kill

Today we are doing a ballistic gel test with a civil war cannon..... yep, over penetration, 7 yards gel penetration.

Next video 9mm rivals 44 special...😆

Doesn't the 69 have adjustable sights

Lack of accuracy cuz ur shooting soup can projectiles 😆

I think the balona is pretty ridiculous ! It throws off the testing capability of the ballistic gel!