Ok, tell me your thoughts on this...

[Fishguy]

Bear with me now, but I am brainstorming here:

What comes to mind when I suggest single-action revolver in 44 Magnum as a home defense/night stand implement? Pros and cons, please.

Thanks.

 

[joppaj]

Piss poor choice. Muzzle flash and noise will be disorienting beyond words at night. Fast follow ups won't happen due to the single action and heavy recoil, but it won't matter as you'll be blind anyhow. .44mag is a phenominal hunting round, but of very limited use as a self defense round in a handgun.

 

[Diesel Kinevel]

If you are dead set on the .44 Mag round. I would look hard at the lever gun with a 16" barrel. You will have less muzzle jump less muzzle flash more capacity and the same knock down power. But if I were you, I would get a 9mm, 40 cal or 45.

-Z

 

[mikec]

Even Hollywood got the .44 Magnum right. In "Magnum Force" they had Eastwood's character carrying the Model 29 but loading the gun with .44 Special ammo. Callahan mentions it in the range to several of the young motorcycle cops.

As for the single action wheel gun, try reloading it quickly.

 

[fivepointstar]

I'm not too concerned w/ the caliber other than over penatration in to the walls but unless you train with the SA Revolver excessively I would sway against it. In times of stress, you will lose fine muscle motion where you may forget to pull back the hammer after every shot. Stick with the DA/SA revolver.

 

[Huckleberry]

You should use 44 Special instead of 44 Mag. More manageable recoil with the same large and lovely bullet.

It is very doable, just read Elmer Keith.

Now the SA compared to DA/SA or DAO revolver should be more of a concern considering reloading one round at a time (unless your shooting a breaktop like a S&W Schofield) versus six at a time, especially utilizing a speedloader.

 

[Jimbob2.0]

Bad choice, single action takes more thought in a situation where every second counts. They are difficult to reload and unload. Think of it this way when you leave home for a weekend do you leave a loaded gun in the house/ I dont a double action you just pop it open and dump the cartridges, a single you have to extract them one by one.

A .357/.38 of which there are many affordable double action models available would be a better choice.

If you are stuck on .44 you can always run specials but I would really recommend the double action. Ruger Redhawk is a good choice, in a 4" barrel. Mine is a .45LC but they are more common in .44.

Dont discount a Dan wesson, especially if you can find one ina 4" inch barrel. If you can get a pistol pack all the better then you can switch between target and defense barrels. These guns tend to be really really good bargains at the moment.

You can also go DW in a .44 but I have never seen a shorter than 6" barrel on one. Mine is a target gun so the 6" and 8" barrels are just fine.

 

[JSW]

keep the gun-- loose the ammo -as stated above go with 44 special great round, easy to handle. to me single action is no big deal unless there is more than six attackers. I have a SA in 45 colt that was my go to gun before. biggest advantage it has-when you point that at someone it is HUGE from their view point

 

[Markp]

Piss poor choice. Muzzle flash and noise will be disorienting beyond words at night. Fast follow ups won't happen due to the single action and heavy recoil, but it won't matter as you'll be blind anyhow. .44mag is a phenominal hunting round, but of very limited use as a self defense round in a handgun.

+1. For a the ultimate nightstand gun, you want something with a silencer. Something big bore is a great idea, however you want it to be subsonic.

I think for ultimate nightstand gun... I would probably want a .45 with a silencer. You don't need huge power, you need decisive power. I would suggest that ~400 ft/lbs is decisive. An intruder will not be doing the happy dance if you shoot him with this.

If you think I am nuts for suggesting a silencer, go out somewhere dark and fire a .44 mag in a cave... you'll quickly believe that something a little less ridiculous might be appropriate.

Mark

 

[Fishguy]

Awesome thoughts and insights. Thanks I appreciate it. The go-to gun in the nightstand will continue to be the Glock 17, I suppose.

The reason I was asking is because I will shortly be in possession of a Ruger Super Blackhawk that was a family members and will be passed down to me (as soon as we get the transfer done). I don't have much use for it except to play around with it at the range and gawk at it, but was just curious if was completely out of the question to keep it available in some way as a secondary back-up weapon. Maybe something stashed elsewhere in the house, but that seems a bit unpractical. Thought maybe I would get somebody on here to maybe respond "hell yeah, single action, assault, tacticle, super quasi attack revolver is the way to go and I have several to keep out the marauding hords", but I guess not.

 

[joppaj]

Yeah, I have a SBH, love the gun. My Glock however is a much better nightstand gun.

 

[mbz300sdl]

Very bad idea as a primary but if its all you were to have of course something is better than nothing. Back up yeah maybe a garage gun?

 

[hvymax]

If it was all ya had silver tip specials would be more than effective as long as you can solve problem in 6 shots. Otherwise too many better choices to count.