.44
Oh yeah.....I've got two of them. One with what appears to be a walnut stock from earlier in production, the other with a birch stock produced later on. I put a Skinner peep and blade on the older carbine, the more recent one has a Leupold 1-4x. I've killed about a dozen deer with the scoped model, one with the peep. So much for my collection, now about the guns.
Ruger no longer supports that carbine, so you might want to limit how much you shoot yours. Break something and it might not be easily replaced. One reason I have two. One sometimes sees used parts from assorted sources. Although Ruger is, or at least was, known for building durable firearms, I have seen more than one of the old carbines out of service for want of an unobtainable part. I shoot mine to confirm zero and at game, period.
My pair have always been reliable with factory ammo or my reloads, accuracy has been another matter. I wish my carbines would shoot 240 gr bullets with acceptable accuracy, but they do not. I'd get 6-8" at 100 yds, barely keeping 5 rds on a paper plate. I've been all over the chart with bullet weights and have settled on the Hornady 200 gr XTP. With the 180-200 grain bullets, II routinely shoot 3" groups at 100....good enough. The carbines have a very slow twist rate, 1:38". My experience has been that the shorter lighter bullets group better in my rifles. Others report differently about their carbines, as well as Marlin and Win levers, which also are twisted slow as well, and report good accuracy results with 240 gr slugs, but that has not been the case for me. I'll add that my Dad's M94 Win in .44 mag was slow twisted also, and did not group worth a hoot with 240's either. I could not keep 265 gr slugs on a paper plate at 100 yds....forget about them. The proof that the carbine needs a faster twist rate is two fold: .44 mag revolvers, known for accuracy, have always been twisted somewhere in the neighborhood of 1:18. and when Ruger reintroduced the "new" .44 auto carbine, they twisted it 1:20. I think Henry rifles their lever carbines 1:20 as well.
I killed 2-3 deer with 180 gr XTP's, but the carbine can drive those bullets, intended for .44 spl velocities, too fast for satisfactory penetration as a game bullet due to explosive expansion in some close range cases and I quit using them. The 200 gr slug has a much higher velocity rating and is suitable for the carbine. I started getting pass through wounds with the 200 gr bullets on occasion, something that never happened with the 180's, that sometimes just fragmented on up close deer. Dead deer, but not the performance one wants. My dad shot 240's from his Winchester lever and pass throughs were the norm, but accuracy with 240's was pie plate size in his M94 as well.
The .Ruger .44 carbines are wonderful thick cover, short range hunting guns, easy to carry. with semiauto fast followups. I use mine from climbing tree stands, where their short light characteristics are also appreciated. There seems to be a real interest in the semi .44 carbine, both in the old tube feed model, and the later, box fed Ruger 99, but neither are no longer available, and used ones bring a fortune. Ruger says there is not a sufficient demand, or so I read,...... translation, insufficient profit.
In "Ruger and his Guns" whose author I cannot recall, there is a pretty good write up by one of the Ruger engineers, and comments from Bill Ruger Sr, concerning the development and testing of the original carbine. Bill Ruger took one to Africa and shot warthog and a gorilla with one, and received a ton of grief over an add/phohto promoting the carbine with the dead critter.
Seems I've read they had to disable the semi function to allow Bill to hunt with the carbine.
Long post, I hope it is satisfactory to all, I've been a fan of those little carbines for years.
