Maybe a RUGER NO. 1 MEDIUM SPORTER .44 MAG | 44 SPECIAL. I don't own one - looks to be pretty expensive.

 

Also HEAVY! My H&R .44-40 backpack gun by John Taylors weighs 4 pounds, 2 ozs. and is accurate too!

 

H&R made them so did NEF. Rossi and a Ruger #1, maybe the Browning 78.

Make a 12" long steel rifled aux chamber that fits in a 12 ga 3" mag top break.

Get a 45-70 single shot and load for it - can be a big 22 LR up to almost 458 Win mag equivalent.

444 Marlin I think will shoot 44 Mag/Special.

 

Some good suggestions. I think a few of these manufacturers stopped making them though I have seen some used ones

 

You should be able to find a carbine barrel for a contender or one of the Thompson Center weapons

 

I'm curious why you'd want a single shot instead of a lever. 44 Mag is no slouch, but you can get more powerful cartridges that don't have much recoil, with better range. I'm not saying you should get something else, I'm just curious.

 

I have a .44 mag lever Henry. The single shot will be more of a challenge for me and to be honest, I pretty much use the Henry as single shot anyway. I almost always only load one bullet at a time straight into the receiver. I do this for several reasons. I like to test pressure loads, bullet sizes, different manufacturers, specials vs magnum, penetration depth, etc. Shooting is almost spiritual to me, whether hunting or just shooting targets. Shooting one bullet at of time just takes a lot more preparation and thought depending on what you are doing with it. Similar to scoped shooting but with iron sights. No room for error with single shot break barrels.

 

Why not get a Ruger 77/44....

 

Look for a used H&R Handi-Rifle or barrel to fit your Pardner Shotgun.

Alternately you can have a .44 barrel fabricated from scratch top fit your donor single-barrel, NOT doing a "stub job" so that you retain the shotgun barrel in its original condition so that you have a rifle-revolver combo. John Taylor has done numerous rifle barrels in various revolver calibers to fit my Beretta folder and also a pre-war H&R .44/.410 Garden Gun.
Depending upon which handgun I am taking along I can choose .38 Special/.357, .44-40, .45 ACP/.455 or .45 Colt in the H&R and either .357 Mag., .44 Mag. or .30-40 Krag on the Beretta folder.

Using one of the small Turkish copies of the Beretta folder you could have a very light backpacking rifle which weighs about 4 pounds, and do so for much less than the cost of a new lever-action rifle which will weigh nearly twice as much.

 

I bought one of the CVA .44 Magnum and one of the .45-70s. Pretty good quality but, no open sights. I will have to drill and tap them both for sights.

Al

 

I ordered a 21" 357max barrel from fox river years ago for my contender. At 50 yards it will shoot the manhood off a fly. At 100 yards it takes the whole fly, pattern opens. I like 357. Not a 44 fan. 454 and 45 colt are nice. If you truely want a 44 barrel, contact Thompson and see what they offer. the TC is a nice carbine and nice big pistol. the main issue is barrels. one is never enough. I have 357 max in a 10" as well as the 21". Put the first round where i belongs and you will not need a second.

 

that sounds good, I’ll check it out

 

I have a CVA. Great rifle purchased a while back that had the fixed rings. I believe now they just have a rail and you provide the rings. It is a great rifle.

I also have a Henry single shot in 45/70 and wow that is a great rifle, I know they also make a version in 44 Mag. Those single shots are excellent.

For me it would come down to $ and if you are going to slepppp it in the woods and take a beating, I would go for the CVA, just because I have no problem scratching up a synthetic stock. I love wood stocks but the Henry is too good looking to beat up. Your mileage will very.

 

Had one of the 10” TC barrels, it was very temperamental about any “headspace” or pressure on the breech face.
Accuracy went from decent to just trying to spot where on the berm the hit was.

 

A reloader might want to get a 44-40 instead of a 44 mag. The 44-40 has more case capacity and can be loaded hotter than a 44 mag (if your gun can handle it). Also after shooting many, many 44-40 chambered guns I feel it is an inherently accurate cartridge.

 

I like the .44-40 and have several rifles and revolvers which use that cartridge. However, unless you already own a .44-40 rifle and/or revolver, the .44 Magnum is a better choice. The .44-40 is really a handload-only proposition, due to the expense and scarcity of factory loads. You must also be aware that only the Ruger Vaquero, Davidson's Super .44 Blackhawk Convertible with dual-cylinders, and the S&W Model 544 Texas Wagon Train Commemorative of 1986 are strong enough to handle heavy .44-40 handloads up to 23,500 psi suitable for the Winchester 1892 rifle, about 1200 fps revolver and 1700 fps rifle with 200-grain bullet.

In older Colt revolvers, the Winchester 1873 rifles and their modern Italian clones you are limited to loads not exceeding about 14,000 psi, similar to factory ammo, producing about 900 fps revolver and 1200 fps carbine with 200-grain bullet.

 

I have looked into this pretty extensively and from what I have seen reasonable priced options are CVA (and Rossi if they still even make one). TC Contender or Encore is an option as is the Ruger bolt guns. neither all that budget priced. NEF and H&R used to make a great gun but Remington pretty much killed them off. I wished I would have gotten several of those accessory barrels when they were available....unfortunately I missed that boat!

 

You forgot to mention finding proper bullets for the 44-40. Brass is also ~50% more expensive than 44 Mag.

 

Modern .44-40 rifles use barrels of the same bore and groove dimensions as the .44 Magnum so you use the same .429-.430" jacketed bullets or .430-.432" lead bullets. My 1903 Colt Frontier Six Shooter and 1920 Colt New Service both have .4295" cylinder throats and I size cast bullets for them .430". My Winchester 1892 is .430 groove diameter.
Starline .44-40 brass and .44 Magnum brass cost the same when you are buying direct in lots of 500 cases or more.

 

is there any merit to reaming a 44mag rifle out to .444? A singe shot specifically.

 

No, wrong twist for the velocity. I’m the Marlin you have 1:38 for the Microgroove and 1:20 for the Ballard generally.
The magnum is generally 1:38’ish.

FYI, the 265 grain bullets are the best compromise for accuracy and weight for the .444

 

I think it could be done, accuracy may suffer due to excessive bullet travel before engaging the rifling.

 

I have a 92 winchester in 44-40 and have often thought about converting to 44 mag. Probably not a real good reason to.

 

You could probably sell the .44-40 and net enough to buy both a .44 Mag rifle and revolver.

 

as a general rule I never sell a gun. I'll just buy a 44 mag rifle and revolver.

 

Outpost75 I like your converted rifles. Do you have contact information for John Taylor? I already have a 357 and 44 mag lever action but would love to have a small, lightweight single shot rifle in 32 long. I am a big fan of Rook&Rabbit rifles and have read all I could find on them. Those look like perfect rifles to build an American version of the Rook&Rabbit rifle on. This article did nothing but make me want a R&R rifle even more.

https://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris/articles/32calsmallgamerifles.htm

If I couldn't get one of those then the new Henry single shot in 357 magnum would be a great second choice. I shoot and plink with my 357 probably 10 times more than I shoot the 44 mag.

 

Outpost75 I like your converted rifles. Do you have contact information for John Taylor?...I am a big fan of Rook&Rabbit rifle...Those look like perfect rifles to build an American version of the Rook&Rabbit rifle on. This article did nothing but make me want a R&R rifle even more.

https://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris/articles/32calsmallgamerifles.htm

John recently moved out of Communist Occupied Washington and is settling into his new digs in Idaho.
He will be out of pocket over the winter building the new shop and house. When I get his new contact info and confirmation that he is accepting work again I'll post the info here.

 

Can only respond by what I sell online...... Star Line direct sold 44 Mag. at $110 for 500, 44-40 for $145. Graf was $115 for 44 Mag and $140 for 44-40. Try buying today. Typically I get .15 each for fired 44 Mag. and .25 each for fired 44-40.
.08 for .430" cast and twice got .17 for .428". There are a lot more "old" 44-40 than "new". Too, 44 Magnum components are easier to acquire by several orders of magnitude than 44-40.

 

Just did a search for completed Gun Broker auctions. 15 listings for 44-40 brass with bids. 82 listings for 44 Magnum brass with bids.

 

I like the martini cadet as a rook rifle, have one in .310 cadet and 25-20 wcf

 

There are books and vids for making your own single shot weapons.

 

Thompson Center in either the Contender or Encore. They tend to be tempermental until you find the right load and then it can get near to MOA at 100 yds. My 10" TC Contender was minute of deer off hand at 100 yds. Lost my data book years ago, but it really liked a 225 gr. truncated jacketed flat nose with lead tip. Belm has posted his 40 years of expertise in tuning the Contender on his website. TC is spiritual!

 

+1 for the CVA. I love mine. I have had several of the H&R over the years and they were fine but I prefer the release on the CVA.
I also find it to be very accurate.