The Colt Frontier Six Shooter needs to be on your list.

 

It is a great gun with a lot of history. Trying to figure out the most famous one ever made is fairly difficult. Several were supposedly carried at the Gunfight at the OK Corral but there is some dispute over who carried what on either side. I would probably go with the 2 carried by George S. Patton in his battles against Pancho Villa before he became a General.

 

Wild Bill's revolvers, at least his favorite, were twin .36 caliber cap and ball 1851 Navy, not .44 caliber.

 

Those were his favorite, that is true but he also occasionally used .44s and he did it enough times to warrant mention in several historical accounts and even though Wyatt Earp probably did as well, there is not definitive proof so we just have to assume. With Wild Bill, at least we have a few eye witness accounts.

 

IIRC he was gifted these and was very accurate with them. Used one to kill a guy in a gun fight at some range with a single shot, after the fella had fired at him a few(?) times.

He continued to carry them despite having cartridge revolvers.

 

A few others that deserve mention.

• The British Bulldog was made in .442 Webley and .44 Bull Dog. One was used to assassinate President Garfield and Gen. Custer had two on him at the battle of Little Bighorn.
• The S&W Schofield in .44 American and .44 Russian. It was the standard service pistol in Russia for many years and they actually reverse engineered it and produced it there. It was US Army issue before the Colt SAA. Some historians believe it was a better pistol overall than the SAA and if S&W had agreed to produce it in .45 Long Colt, the SAA might not have been adopted and be as famous as it is today.
• Mark III Adams revolver in .442. It was the handgun issued to British troops in the 1870s and it was the gun that Dr. Watson often carried in the Sherlock Holmes novels.

 

A few others that deserve mention.

• The S&W Schofield in .44 American and .44 Russian. It was the standard service pistol in Russia for many years and they actually reverse engineered it and produced it there. It was US Army issue before the Colt SAA. Some historians believe it was a better pistol overall than the SAA and if S&W had agreed to produce it in .45 Long Colt, the SAA might not have been adopted and be as famous as it is today.

The S&W Schofield was not a .44 but a .45. .45 S&W. Shorter than the long Colt ammunition, it would chamber in the Colt's, but not the other way around. And the Colt SAA's were being purchased by the goverment before the Schofield's were ever produced, they came later. You are correct that it was considered a better pistol by some, certainly much faster to reload, but the logistics of having two cartridges caused the government to survey off the S&W's. Although for a period of time they tried to deal with the problem by buying only Schofield ammunition.

 

What about the .38............
Jack Ruby, used to kill Oswald.........???

 

....is that a .44 cal....................geeezzz.

 

Seems like the best known 44 cal pistol, was the one Elmer Keith used to develop the high pressure 44 Special loads, that lead to the 44 magnum.

I would also consider the Ruger Super Blackhawk in 44 mag, that lead to wide spread adoption of handgun hunting.

Plus, the 14" Thompson Center Contender, Ruger Redhawk and Super Redhawk, which now dominate handgun hunting.

Btw, the film Dirt Harry was not filmed with a 44 mag. The director could not obtain the gun he wanted in time, so they substituted a 41 mag instead.

 

The new replicas have folks little messed up, there was not such a thing as a 44 caliber Navy back in the day,the designation Navy ment 36 cal,designation Army ment .44 caliber,in colt and remington possibly other makes also,I dont know nearly enough about history of other makes and really not much about colt and remington. I do try to stay historicaly correct in my purchases of replicas,such as I have purchased a 60 Colt Army with 5.5 barrel,I do not believe Colt ever made the shoorter barrel,However it would of been possible to have had barrel shortened and I would bet a few folks did to make little handier to carry then the 8" barrel,I know there were quite a few historicle examples cut to snubnose,if you kept barrel 5" or longer the loading lever would still be useful so in my mind I figgure lot of outdoorsman type of guys very possibly had their Navys,and Armys shortened to 5-6" barrel,handier to carry and also usable loading lever.

 

I believe Colt did make a 'police' version of the .36 Navy but with round (5-1/2" or 6" can't remember) barrel and fluted cylinder in 1861. Then the last cap and ball Colt made was the 1862 .36 cal pocket police. It was a 5 shot and had between a 5-1/2" and 6" barrel, rounded and the cylinder was fluted as well.

 

Will Bill Hickok killed Davis Tutt in Springfield, MO over either a gambling 'debt' or a woman. Rumors had it that Tutt took Bill's pocket watch as collateral for a debt, but Bill told him no to wear the watch about in public. Well, Tutt wore it. At about 90 feet apart, Bill called Tutt out, Tutt fired and missed, Hickok fired and killed him through the heart. But that was with a Navy 6.

What about the Colt's Walker???? It was the most powerful handgun until possibly the .357 magnum.

 

That one I know lol started with baby dragoon,ended with 1849 Colt pocket model I believe,I do know they made and sold more pocket model 31's then any other model,enough thread drift I'll move up to blackpowder thread where I should be now.

 

lol I enjoy black powder as well and included some in the top 5

 

I was thinking I was getting OP's thread off track,and meant the black powder discussion might be best in black powder thread,I enjoy all firearms however my favorites are generally older style, revolvers,lever action,bolt action.

 

90% of what I shoot are lever actions and revolvers (including a few black powder). Of those, over half are various shades of .44 lol