.44 Special
Introduced 1907Smith & WessonCIP standard
Also known as 44 S&W Special — the same cartridge under different names, all of which find this page.
Dimensions and pressure
Generated from the schema, like every specification table on this site, so a figure recorded on this entry cannot be missing from the table.
Identity
- Designed by
- Smith & Wesson
- Introduced
- 1907
- Production
- not recorded
- Standards body
- C.I.P.
- Case type
- Rimmed
- Case shape
- Straight
Dimensions
- Bullet diameter
- 10.98 mm0.4323 insource
C.I.P. G1, maximum bullet diameter.
- Bore diameter
- not recorded
- Case length
- 29.46 mm1.160 insource
C.I.P. L3, maximum case length.
- Overall length
- 41.02 mm1.615 insource
C.I.P. L6, maximum cartridge overall length.
- Rim diameter
- 13.06 mm0.5142 insource
C.I.P. R1.
- Neck diameter
- 11.6 mm0.4567 insource
C.I.P. H2.
- Base diameter
- 11.6 mm0.4567 insource
C.I.P. P1.
Pressure
- Maximum pressure
- 100 MPa14,504 psisource
C.I.P. Pmax 1000 bar; 1 bar = 0.1 MPa exactly.
- Pressure standard
- C.I.P.
SAAMI and C.I.P. measure pressure differently and their figures are not interchangeable, which is why the body is always named beside the figure.
Loads
Velocity is recorded per barrel length as published. A gun page interpolates between these points and never projects beyond them.
Federal Champion Training 200 gr semi-wadcutter hollow point
Federal
- Bullet mass
- 12.96 g200.0 grsource
Published as 200 grains.
- Cartridge mass
- not recorded
- Bullet type
- SWCHP
- G1 BC
- not recorded
- G7 BC
- not recorded
| Barrel | Velocity |
|---|---|
| 101.6 mm4.000 in | 265.2 m/s870.1 fps |
Chambered in
Computed from every entry that lists this cartridge. Nothing here is hand-maintained.
No entry on the site is chambered in it yet.
Gallery
Image credit
- Title
- File:40sw 38-40 44spl-highlighted 45acp.png
- Author
- Tad Marko(attribution required)
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Source
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:40sw_38-40_44spl-highlighted_45acp.png
Detail
The .44 Special is a rimmed, straight-walled revolver cartridge Smith & Wesson introduced in 1907 as a longer, higher-pressure development of the .44 Russian, built for the New Century “Triple Lock” revolver. It shares its 10.98 mm bullet diameter with the .44 Russian and, decades later, the .44 Magnum, which Remington and Smith & Wesson created in 1955 simply by lengthening the .44 Special case and loading it to far higher pressure — the .44 Special still chambers and fires safely in any .44 Magnum revolver, though the reverse is not true.
At a 100 MPa C.I.P. pressure ceiling, roughly a fifth of the .44 Magnum’s, it is a comparatively mild round for its bullet diameter, which has kept it in production for target shooting, and for compact carry revolvers such as the Charter Arms Bulldog, where the shorter case and lower pressure suit a small, lightweight frame the full Magnum load would not.
This entry carries the full C.I.P. dimensional standard and one factory load, Federal’s Champion Training 200-grain semi-wadcutter hollow point rated at 265.2 m/s from a stated 4-inch vented test barrel. No ballistic coefficient is published for that bullet, so the cartridge computes a muzzle energy figure but no trajectory, and no rifling twist specific to a commercial .44 Special revolver barrel was found published free.
References
- .44 Special · 1368969599 · read 2026-09-01
- C.I.P. TDCC datasheet — 44 S&W Special · 2000-06-07 · read 2026-09-01
- Champion Training 44 S&W Spl, 200 gr SWCHP (product page) · read 2026-09-01
Last verified 2026-09-01 · review status: agent-populated