The .44 Remington Centerfire (often referred to as .44 Remington C.F. or .44 Remington) was a
centerfire
Two rounds of .357 Magnum, a centerfire cartridge; notice the circular primer in the center
A centerfire cartridge is a firearm metallic cartridge whose primer is located at the center of the base of its casing (i.e. "case head"). Unlike rim ...
revolver
cartridge
Cartridge may refer to:
Objects
* Cartridge (firearms), a type of modern ammunition
* ROM cartridge, a removable component in an electronic device
* Cartridge (respirator), a type of filter used in respirators
Other uses
* Cartridge (surname) Ca ...
with a
heeled, externally lubricated bullet produced by the Remington Arms Company from 1875 until 1895. Only one weapon, the
Remington Model 1875
Remington Model 1875 Single Action Army (a.k.a. Improved Army or Frontier Army) was a revolver by E. Remington & Sons. It was based upon the successful New Model Army (Remington Model 1858) with both revolvers having the same size, appearance, an ...
, was chambered for this cartridge.
History
Remington introduced its first large-calibre centre-fire revolver in 1875, although many
Model 1858 percussion revolvers had been converted to .44 Rimfire or
.46 Rimfire cartridges, the latter with five-shot cylinders. The new Remington Model 1875 was initially produced in a cartridge of the company's own design, the .44 Remington Centerfire. The first customer for the new revolver was the Egyptian government, which ordered 10,000 of them.
[ However, due to Egypt's failure to pay for an earlier order of Remington Rolling Block rifles, the order was never delivered. Remington apparently sold the revolvers on the open market to recoup its expenses.
Later examples of the Remington Model 1875 were chambered in ].44-40 Winchester
The .44-40 Winchester, also known as .44 Winchester, .44 WCF (Winchester Center Fire), and .44 Largo (in Spanish-speaking countries) was introduced in 1873 by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. It was the first metallic centerfire cartridge m ...
and .45 Colt
The .45 Colt (11.43×33mmR), is a rimmed, straight-walled, handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It was originally a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver. This cartridge was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1 ...
calibres, and production of the .44 Remington Centerfire ended in 1895.
Technical background
Information about the .44 Remington Centerfire cartridge is rather scarce, with even firearms cartridge encyclopedias failing to mention it. Some sources claim that the cartridge was very close in dimensions and ballistics to the contemporary .44 Colt
The .44 Colt is an American centerfire revolver cartridge that was produced commercially from 1871 to 1940.Barnes, p.169, ".44 Colt".
History
The cartridge was developed by Colt's Patent Firearms for use in cartridge revolvers based on the 1860 ...
, to the point of the two being interchangeable, but others dispute this (see below for more information on the dimensions of the two cartridges). The .44 Remington Centerfire may also be confused with the .44-40 Winchester, due to the former habit of some US firearms companies of producing identical copies of their rivals' proprietary cartridges under their own designations.
The .44 Remington Centerfire and .44 Special
The .44 Smith & Wesson Special, also commonly known as .44 S&W Special, .44 Special, .44 Spl, .44 Spc, (pronounced "forty-four special"), or 10.9x29mmR is a smokeless powder center fire metallic revolver cartridge developed by Smith & Wesson in 1 ...
or .44 Remington Magnum are not the same cartridge.
Case dimensions for the .44 Remington are: 0.480" rim diameter, 0.448" base diameter, 1.065" length. The cartridge contained a 0.447" diameter heeled bullet over 32 grains of black powder.
The .44 Colt cartridge has a 0.456" base diameter, slightly wider than the .44 Remington, and this prevents it from being fully inserted into a .44 Remington chamber.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:44 Remington Centerfire
Pistol and rifle cartridges
Remington Arms cartridges