A Plentitude of Perfect
Packin’ Pistols

It’s a story nearly as old as time itself. The newer, younger, stronger replaces the older, more experienced, battle proven veteran. In this case, it’s not men we are talking about but rather sixguns and sixgun cartridges. The .44 Special had been doing everything asked of it for nearly half a century and now it was being pushed aside. The flashier, more powerful .44 Magnum basically killed off the .44 Special, although it took 10 years for the funeral to occur.

Up & Down .44 Special

Skeeter Skelton also embraced the .44 Magnum even to the point of selling his S&W 4″ 1950 Target .44 Special. It did not take him long to realize the S&W .44 Magnum was larger, heavier and more powerful than he needed for LEO duties. He went back to the .44 Special. By 1967, S&W officially dropped the 1950 Target, by then known as the Model 24, .44 Special from production. Meanwhile over at Colt, the 2nd Generation .44 Special Single Action Army would be produced from 1957 to 1966 with the companion New Frontier arriving in 1962. Colt closed the lid of the coffin and S&W nailed it shut.

Skelton began writing in glowing terms about the .44 Special when no factory .44 Specials were available, so he took another road. In April 1972 Skeeter’s article, “Converting .357s to .44 Specials” appeared outlining the conversion of both the Ruger Old Model .357 Blackhawk and the S&W Highway Patrolman to .44 Special. The first conversion required a re-chambered cylinder and a custom barrel, while the latter worked best when using a 1950 Target/Model 24 barrel, which was still available at the time.

That one article started the ball rolling both in having other gunsmiths convert .357s to .44 Special, and in a few years resulting in the return of the Colt Single Action Army .44 Special. In February 1979, Skeeter announced “Victory At Last” with the return of the Colt .44 Special. It didn’t last long. By 1986, both the 3rd Generation Single Action Army and the New Frontier .44 Specials were gone once again. In the early 1990s, I was told by Colt we would never see the New Frontier or .44 Special again. Times and people change.

Meanwhile, over at S&W, a special run of blued Model 24s arrived in 1983–1984 followed by the Model 624 in 1984 only to disappear again in the early 1990s. However, the .44 Special is a survivor. S&W offered five-shot .44 Specials in both the Models 396 and 696 and, just perhaps, both the Mountain Gun and 329PD Scandium make better .44 Specials than .44 Magnums. Thanks to Clint Smith, S&W returned the 4″ N-Frame, fixed sighted 1950 Military/Model 21 as the Model 21-4. Since the turn of the century, 21st that is, Freedom Arms has offered the Model 97, five-shot single action in .44 Special, and USFA offers American-made single actions sixguns, both the standard Single Action Army and the Flat-Top Target in .44 Special.

Perfect Packin’ Pistol?

Skeeter started a trend more than three decades ago resulting in many shooters having Ruger Flat-Top and Old Model .357 Blackhawks converted to .44 Special. I have experienced several such conversions from Andy Horvath, Ben Forkin, Hamilton Bowen, David Clements, Bill Grover and John Gallagher over the past 25 years. Just recently, I have been privileged to shoot three more versions of what could very easily be regarded as the ultimate Packin’ Pistol.

Both the Flat-Top .357 Magnum Blackhawks (1955–1962) and the Old Model .357 Magnum Blackhawks (1963–1972) are the same basic size as the Colt SAA, which means they are just about perfect for most hands and they can be converted to .44 Special. Shooters are privileged to have the best gunsmiths whoever lived practicing their craft today. Three of those men are David Clements, Ben Forkin and Andy Horvath. We take a look at three totally different .44 Special conversions by the three master gunsmiths in alphabetical order.

Clement “New Frontier”

David Clements’ rendition of the .44 Special starts with a .357 Magnum Ruger Old Model Blackhawk and two Ruger cylinders. Both cylinders have been line-bored and re-chambered, one to .44 Special and the other to .44 WCF, or as it is more commonly known today, .44-40. Both cylinder throats have been cut for 0.429″ bullets. For a not so common look, instead of a custom barrel, this conversion now wears a 4¾” Colt New Frontier barrel resulting in a most beautiful combination. The finish is all blue including the hammer. I never could understand why Colt stopped finishing the sides of their hammers nor why Ruger never even started. Sides of hammers should be blued or case colored.

As a nice contrast to the rest of this “New Frontier Ruger,” an XR3 grip frame from a Ruger Flat-Top has been fitted. This original Ruger grip frame was identical in size and shape to the Colt Single Action and, at least from my perspective, it is unfortunate Ruger ever went to the XR3-RED with more room behind the trigger guard. Clements polished the aluminum XR3 grip frame to a nice bright finish so we now had a deep blue finish contrasting nicely with the silver look of the grip frame.

Clements turned to stockmaker Larry Caudill, specializing in extra fancy wood for stocks. Clements sent the grip frame off to Larry who fashioned absolutely gorgeous hidden screw-style extra fancy Walnut stocks. This style of grip has the screw coming in from the left side with the nut hidden in the right panel giving a completely smooth uncluttered look on the right side.

The action was tuned and smoothed with a 2¼” trigger pull with a full-strength mainspring for positive ignition. The smallest feeler gauge I have is 0.002″ and it would not fit between the front of the cylinder and the back of the barrel. The aluminum ejector rod housing was replaced with a steel housing complete with a crescent shaped ejector rod head to replace the little button head found on Ruger single actions beginning with that first Single-Six in 1953.

My most used bullet for any .44 Specials are Oregon Trail’s 240-grain semi-wadcutter, which does exceptionally well in .44 Specials. In fact, over 8.0 grains of Universal clocks out at over 1,000 fps and places five shots in 3/4″ at 20 yards. A machine cast commercial bullet has no business shooting this well but such is the beauty of the .44 Special. The most popular bullet for the .44 Special for the last 75 years has been the Keith bullet. In the past I have cast these from Lyman’s #429421 mold as well as NEI’s 260.429 and the RCBS #44-250KT

Forkin Masterpiece

Ben also started with a .357 Magnum Ruger Old Model Blackhawk. I picked up a like new, probably unfired, 6½” Ruger Flat-Top .44 Magnum barrel. Shortly after this Ben and Kelye Schlepp of Belt Mountain Base Pins stopped by and, naturally we got to talking great sixguns and especially .44 Specials. When they left, Ben had the Old Model .357, the .44 Magnum barrel, and an XR3 grip frame and grips sent to me by a good friend to be used for just such a project.

The cylinder was converted to .44 Special with the throats cut to accept loads using Dry Creek’s .44 Keith bullets and these same bullets over 7.5 grains of Unique were used to regulate the sights. The Ruger Flat-Top .44 Magnum barrel was cut to 5½” and installed along with a steel ejector rod housing with a crescent-shaped ejector rod head.

Kelye added a Belt Mountain #5 base pin, which is patterned after the original pin on Elmer Keith’s #5SAA. From Hamilton Bowen came one of his adjustable rear sights, which had been matched up with a special post front sight.

The XR3 grip frame was re-anodized and fitted perfectly to the Old Model mainframe. Right now it wears Ruger factory black eagle walnut grip panels; however, off in the future I see ivory panels fitted with the black eagle medallions. The action was totally tuned, the trigger pull set at 31/2# and matched with a full-strength mainspring for positive ignition. This .44 Special also does not accept my 0.002″ feeler gauge between the barrel and cylinder. Ben and David both build ’em tight!

The barrel and cylinder have been finished in a high polished blue. The grip frame, as mentioned, was re-anodized to a matte black finish, and then to top everything off, Forkin had the mainframe and hammer beautifully case colored by Turnbull. The case coloring, bright blue, and walnut grip panels all come together to fashion another piece of sixgun artwork.

Horvath .44 Special

How about a custom Ruger .44 Special with an S&W barrel? This custom .44 Special is Andy Horvath’s personal sixgun. He picked up a beater .357 Magnum Flat-Top Blackhawk for $75 at a gun show with virtually no finish left and parts missing. A perfect project pistol.

The cylinder was re-chambered to .44 Special, a heavy ribbed Smith and Wesson .44 Magnum barrel was cut to 5½”, the ejector shroud was removed, and an undercut post front sight on a ramp base matching the barrel rib was fitted. An extra-long steel ejector rod housing along with a matching crescent head ejector rod was fitted and a custom #5-style base pin was added. The Old Model frame was Flat-Topped by welding and re-contouring the front of the frame to match up with the new barrel. The action was totally tuned and smoothed with a 2# trigger pull, and, once again, the barrel/cylinder gap will not accept my 0.002″ feeler gauge.

Horvath fashioned a new trigger and hammer with a wide, oval, finely checkered spur, which from the side gives a very thin profile. The hammer and mainframe were case colored by Turnbull, the balance of the sixgun, including the steel modified Super Blackhawk grip frame, were finished in high polish blue, and fancy walnut grips were fitted.

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