Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

Picked it up a few days ago. I remember seeing them when I was stationed in Alaska. They were very popular. Lots of us had .44 mag. handguns, so a rifle in same cal. was cool. I didn't own one but got to play with one often.

I don't think this one has ever been cleaned. It was the dirtiest gun I have ever had to clean (except for my Win. 1873 which used black powder cartridges for over 100 yrs.)

But after a good scrubbing it seems to cycle just fine. Doesn't seem to like my hand loads but factory ammo works good. It will need another good cleaning or two before it is truly CLEAN. It was awful.

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

Thats one of my "Gotta have one day" rifles

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

They only like jacketed. Lead shavings and bullet lube does not play nice with its gas port.

They only like full power. Mid-range loads? Waste of time.

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

owned one when they First came out ,,loved it,,used it as my Brush Gun when i Hunted in the UP

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

I havta agree....
Full-blown loads and jacketed projectiles.
Sweet little carbine, bought one the week Ruger had them available
and maybe the best brush gun ever made...
I don't know why Ruger doesn't make them now. In my aged mind
it would be a good seller.
To acquire another one about ten yrs ago and not having any luck,
I settled for a model 96 lever action Ruger, and she is nice.....but....:(
The 96 though will shoot anything !

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

RKsteve......
you probably need to lube her up with some SBGO......:cool:

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

I just gave mine to my Grandson for his HS graduation. He always liked to go deer hunting with it. Going to give him the Ruger Redhawk for this 18th birthday next week.

They are right about having to load it up pretty hot to have it work the action. I have never liked to load anything even to mid range, but I had to go real close to max load for the little .44 Carbine. It is a heck of a shooter!!

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

Ruger needs to re do this rifle but magazine fed...like a 8-10 rounder.

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

Everyone called it a brush gun. I think it was built for hunting in the brush. 100 yards max. They say you only need ONE SHOT!

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

Earlier this year I went with my dad to his favorite sporting goods store because he is like Norm from Cheers when he walks in(retired life, gotta love it I guess). While there, he asked one of the sales guys if there was anything unique to check out. The guy set down a Ruger 10/22 on the counter. I just looked at it and wondered to myself what the heck was so unique about this little .22 rifle. I rolled it over on the counter and immediately noticed something was jammed in the magazine port and I was WTF is wrong with this thing.

I then looked at the barrel end and WHOA, this is not a .22! That is when I begin to scrutinize the entire thing, and noticed "RUGER CARBINE 44 MAGNUM CAL" stamped on the left side. From that point I just couldn't get enough of this little rifle and the sales guy was getting a chuckle out of it because it does fool people who are unaware of it's existence into thinking it is a 10/22.

Well after chatting about it a little with the sales guy I let him return it to the shelf and I went to checking out other things, and then noticed my dad was buying the carbine. When the purchase was complete he turned and handed it to me - said I seemed to really take a liking to that rifle and given the unique history and hard to come by nature of it, figured it was either get it now or it would be a long time till one is seen again.

I wholeheartedly agree with the assertion that it is a fickle rifle when it comes to the power of the load. Using 1200+FPS it cycles just fine, but dropping down to 1000FPS turns it into a single shot carbine.

What is really interesting though is that the 10/22 was modeled after the .44 Carbine. The .44 began production in 1959 whereas the 10/22 debuted in 1964. Makes me wonder how many others have completely otherlooked the Carbine thinking it was a 10/22...........

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

I'm jealous.

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

Well after chatting about it a little with the sales guy I let him return it to the shelf and I went to checking out other things, and then noticed my dad was buying the carbine. When the purchase was complete he turned and handed it to me - said I seemed to really take a liking to that rifle and given the unique history and hard to come by nature of it, figured it was either get it now or it would be a long time till one is seen again

I hope that you are kind on fathers day! I too am jealous.

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

You have the best dad in the land.

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

Thanks guys, dad is a good one no doubt. Didn't mean to hijack the thread from RoadKingSteve though, my apologies mate.

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

The great thing about that 44mag was the fact that a small branch wouldn,t deflect the round ,,it would just plow right thru it and keep going,,wish I still Had it

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

roadkingsteve: My SON and I have 2 44mag ruger carbines. A lever and one like yours an auto. We used them to pig hunt with NE Texas. The Auto is very quick and a dream to carry no recoil to speak of. I can`t remember any feeding problems, but we load to factory spec`s. I use to cast bullets and have a bunch of 240gr LSWC with a gas check`s left over, and we still use them. We have enjoyed our 44MAG carbines very much and I hope you will yours. They are getting hard to find any more. But they must have not sold well or Ruger would still be making them. Good Luck To You: ken

Re: Ruger .44 Mag. Carbine
 

I have an older tube fed Ruger .44 cal semi-auto. I'm going to head the advice given about the type of load to feed her....she locked open. I called Ruger customer service. They advised they would not fix it but would exchange it for a current version (rotary box magazine) of their .44 carbine. I believe lever or semi-auto. This was a couple years ago. I took it apart and cleaned her up good and reassembled it. Haven't shot her again since. They did suggest feeding it factory ammo, saying that the early ones were partial to pistol ammo.