I just purchased a .44 ruger carbine. The guy I bought it from says it was made in 1971 or so. does anyone know of a good site I can go to get date of manufactuer info or just any info in general on this rifle. Also I am running 240 gr.JHP backed with 9.0 gr. of Titegroup through my blackhawk right now-do you think this will cycle ok in this carbine? Will this carbine cycle .44 special cardtriges. Any help is appreciated.

http://www.ruger-firearms.com/Firearms/SE-H-Rifle.html

Ruger has a page on their website for this information.

http://www.ruger-firearms.com/Firearms/SE-H-Rifle.html

Ruger has a page on their website for this information.
thanks for the info i found out the gun was made between 73 and 74 i am still wondering what the better loads will be for the gun so if you have any opinion please let me know

Ben,
I bought an older Ruger .44 Carbine last year and enjoy shooting it. It needed a good cleaning and I suspect someone shot lead cast bullets through it.

My reloads of Unique and 240 grain jacketed bullets were disappointing, inaccurate and did not reliably cycle the action. The correction was to switch to a healthy charge of IMR4227. That powder proved to be accurate with 240 grain bullets. It cycled the action properly. Good luck. All the best...
Gil

I just purchased a .44 ruger carbine. The guy I bought it from says it was made in 1971 or so. does anyone know of a good site I can go to get date of manufactuer info or just any info in general on this rifle. Also I am running 240 gr.JHP backed with 9.0 gr. of Titegroup through my blackhawk right now-do you think this will cycle ok in this carbine? Will this carbine cycle .44 special cardtriges. Any help is appreciated.



the one i own will not cycle .44 specials.this one was made in the early 70's.

The Ruger carbine won't work with 44 Specials, IME.
When Ruger brought that rifle out in the early 60's, they recommended jacketed ammo only, so the gas port doesn't get plugged with shaved lead.
In the early '60's, there was far less choice of loads for the 44 magnum cartridge than there are now. Jacketed ammo then was full power 240 grain bullet- no other loads available. And that's what the Ruger was designed to use.
My Ruger shoots full power 240's very well. I use Hodgdon 110 powder.
I have not tried lighter or heavier jacketed bullets, so I dunno how it'd cycle with them.

The Ruger .44 mag carbines don't do well with anything but full power loads. they were designed with that in mind so 240 grain .44 magnum PISTOL loads tend to fail to eject and fail to feed. My friends and I have shot three different ones of this vintage and all have the same issues. They do fine with hotter loads but light to moderate gives us fits. Which is too bad because they are a really fun gun.

Michael, Most gas operating firearms are designed around a set pressure. An increase in pressure can dammage the receiver due to excessive speed in bolt travel. To little pressure, and the firearm will not completely cycle the bolt. If you must use loads exceeding the manufactures design limits, it would do best to use a lever action or bolt action firearm. A friend in Italy liked his Ruger carbine, but wanted to use heavier loads, so he de-activated the gas system and used it as a manual operated weapon, and was quite happy with it. Since Ruger has come out with the lever action carbine, he ordered one of them, as they have the same feel, and he can load both light and heavy for it. His only complaint is availability of magazines over there. (sent him two last week, along with a 265 grain mold. Should be a big supprise when they get there.)

Lee L.

M1894, you are right about hot loads. I should have been more specific. We have found that the .44 magnum loads with the word PISTOL on the box you find for general use tend to be too low in pressure to reliably cycle the carbine. Corbon, Buffalo Bore have no such problem. But I dont want to spend that kind of money when all I am doing is going to the range so I find myself stuck with either underperforming 240 grain factory loads or handloading 240 grain jacketed bullets to a level we know will work and not beat the rifle to death. That is all I really wanted to say the first time and blew it. These are a great little carbine and sadly, most factory ammo will fail to feed or fail to eject 40% of the time. That is most likely what Ben's problem is.

240gr Sierras and Hornadys ahead of 18.5-21.5gr of 2400 never failed in my early carbine. With new 2400, 20gr should do fine. Very uniform brass trimming will go a long way toward tight groups. They will group better than supposed. Articles in Rifle in the 70's on bedding brought suprises.

I have found that PMC 180 gr JHP feed and shoot remarkably well in my 44 carbine. They are also cheap.

I use 180 gr XTP's and max charges of H-110 in mine and have no problems. It's my favorite woodchuck gun.