*pics added*Smith and Wesson Second Model American, caliber and value??

I would suggest that it is important to not only take a chamber cast of the cylinder and measure with a micrometer or accurate machinist type calibers but also slug the bore and measure that. A couple of years ago I bought a revolver with a RCMP letter describing it as a 44 russian. Like a fool, I did not slug the bore and when I shot the gun I could not hit a bull in the bum at 10 feet. Back home and slugged the bore; bore was .451 and cylinder was actually 44 russian. The gun is now a 45 Scofield. Point is however, that the gun could just as easily been the reverse numbers; 44 barrel and 45 chamber. Relative to your bore (not groove) diameter of roughly .42 inches, most modern 44 cals use .429 slugs. Allowing for depth of rifling they would have a bore diameter in the .420 range while most 45s would be considerably larger

cheers mooncoon
 
To explain the new pictures a bit, the two rounds sticking out are .45 LC and .455 Colt. No 45 cal rounds will fit the chambers.

The picture showing space around a nearly chambered cartridge is a .44 Russian round. Its a bit hard to read the head stamp. Looking at the dimensions of a .44 American cartridge it appears it is smaller in case diameter than the .44 Russian. Info from the interweb says base diameter of .44 American is .440, my .44 Russian measures .457 at the base. So if anything a .44 American cartridge would be even looser in the chambers.

That space around the .44 Russian is certainly more than most revolvers but could it be "normal"??

I'll quit guess and speculating and try and get to casting the chamber.
 
My Frontier Bulldog is about the same IIRC ( away at work). It was designed for sale in USA in the 1890's.
If all else fails...try the trimmed 444 Marlin trick. I don't know what the caliber is; but I know what fits the chamber and the size of bullet req'd, a full load of ffg is around 35 grains in this configuration.
And keep us posted pls :)
 
Well I'm pretty confident its a .44 Russian. I dug into another bin of collector cartridges and found a couple old Dominion .44 Russian rounds. They fit perfect.

I have 3 cartridges that are .44 Russian, one is a cut down .44 Mag. It fits sloppy. The other is head stamped REM-UMC .44 S&W R, also sloppy and probably based on the .44 Mag case.
The 3rd is the old Dominion rounds stamped D.C.CO .44 S&W .R. and they both fit like like they should. If I had tried them first I would never have questioned the chambering.

As the .44 American has a slightly smaller case base than even the .44 Mag based cases, and they fit so loose, I think I can rule out the .44 American cartridge.
The below info clarifies it for me, especially the explanation of the tapered chamber, which this revolver has.

"To prevent the new high-pressure .44 Russian ammunition from being fired in .44 American revolvers with disastrous results, the overall cartridge case length was increased by .02 in to 0.970 in.[1] In addition, the cylinder design of the No. 3 revolver had to be changed from the straight bored .44 American configuration to a stepped arrangement which was .457 in at the rear of the cylinder to accept the case, and narrower from the case shoulder forward to give a tight fit for the smaller bore .44 Russian bullet.[5]"

Looks like .444 Marlin is a bit big at the base. Lee makes .44 Russian dies so maybe trimming and resizing .444 would work.

I'm in agreement that the revolver would be in the $600-$800 range.
 
sapsk said:
So you can buy new .44 Russian brass and its not expensive, not sure why I hadn't checked. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Rusty Wood is where I sourced mine.
Funny how one remembers selectively; just checked my Frontier with 44 Russian brass and it fits the same as 444. Perhaps the rifle brass being thicker, didn't fireform to the chamber like the 44 magnum cased stuff did. Gave my F & W Bulldog to my son, Lyman 310 with it. May have to borrow the 310 back to brew some 44 Russian up
 
Hello SAPSK,

I'm not meaning to hijack this thread as I see it is from February, but I just found it looking for further info on .44 Russian. I enjoy shooting the calibre and just want to mention that Bullet Barn will make new .44 Russian loads with new Starline Brass, Lead Bullets and Pyrodex. I went this way to get shooting quickly and to get the brass. I thought they were reasonable in cost. I would like to know where you ended up with this pistol? Did you get to shooting it?

I happen to have a couple of vintage S&W top breaks in .44 Russian and .44-40.

Regards.
 
I now own this great old pistol.
I'm not sure about firing it, the cylinder is inconsistant when it comes to locking up and the top latch spring is broken. I'm sure i could confirm lockup for each shot, at least to say I've fired it. We'll see, for now it will join the guns "I need to actually shoot someday".
Either way, I never thought I'd own one, and I'm glad to have one with such character and history.
 
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