Recoil - .36 vs. .44

[dcriner]

I have a .36 cal Colt Navy. Does a .44 Army have significantly more kick? I know it depends upon the load, but assuming a typical load of, say, 15-20 gr for the Navy and whatever is typical for the .44 cal.

I'm thinking about buying a repro Remington revolver, and wonder whether to stick with .36 or go to .44 cal. At my somewhat advancing age :surrender: I don't need too much more kick.
Doug

 

[DanChamberlain]

Hardly any kick at all, particularly with loads mentioned.

Dan

 

[Zonie]

A .36 cal C&B pistol with the loads you mentioned has about 85 ft/lbs +/- 20 ft/lbs of muzzle energy.

A .44 cal C&B pistol with a 20-25 grain powder load has about 115 ft/lbs +/- 10 ft/lbs of muzzle energy so the recoil is about 40% more.

Probably a bigger difference is in the sound the .44 cal gun makes.

Rather than the "Pop" of the .36 it is more of a "Boom".

 

[CaptainKirk]

On either gun, the recoil is barely noticeable.
Like Zonie said, the difference is more audible than felt recoil.
On the average, I would say my .44s shooting 30gr Pyrodex is less felt recoil than a .38 spl. The Dragoon; even less with 45gr due to the weight of the gun.
On the other hand, I taught my 11 year old granddaughter to shoot last month using 20gr Pyro P in my Colt Navy .36 and she loved it.

 

[arquebus]

I was shooting my 6.5" Pietta Remington '58 in .36 caliber at the range the other day. In the next booth was a guy shooting a .44 caliber Uberti Remington '58 with the 7.5" barrel. He poked his head around the partition when I started shooting as he said it sounded much louder than he expected a .36 would.....I was using 20gns of 3Fg, CofW filler, .375" RB & Wonder Lube smeared on top, so not a heavy load by any means. One thing we did notice, my .36 was noticeably heavier than his longer barreled .44, which must be due to the smaller diameter chambers & bore.
So, to answer the original question, a .36 will recoil less (in same model revolver) simply due to it's lighter weight projectile & powder charge, but this will also be magnified by the fact that the same model revolver in .36 will weigh more than one in .44 caliber, further helping dampen felt recoil.

 

[cowpoke1955]

I have a .44 Euroarms 1858 Remington. My flask throws 27 grains of FFFg Goex and recoil is very mild shooting .454 round balls. The only time I got any strong recoil was while shooting a 200 grain .450 conical for revolvers. This conical over 30 grains of FFFg Goex will really give you a BOOM. Round balls are very accurate and a pleasure to shoot :thumbsup:

 

[Dphar]

I have a .36 cal Colt Navy. Does a .44 Army have significantly more kick? I know it depends upon the load, but assuming a typical load of, say, 15-20 gr for the Navy and whatever is typical for the .44 cal.

I'm thinking about buying a repro Remington revolver, and wonder whether to stick with .36 or go to .44 cal. At my somewhat advancing age :surrender: I don't need too much more kick.
Doug

In a relatively heavy revolvers such as the 1851 Navy even with max loads and a RB the recoil is hardly enough to significantly raise the muzzle. The 60 Army is lighter and has more power with the bigger bore. It produces about the same stopping power as a good 38 Special load.
Likely better than many.
This based on not just a formula but by testing in ballistic gelatine, in Sanow and Marshall's Stopping Power Book.
Funny part is that the old Hatcher formula for calculating stopping power told me this same thing decades before the gelatine tests were done.
In either case the recoil is mild.
The only C&B I ever shot that made much recoil was a Ruger Old Army with all the FFF that would fit behind a 260 gr Kieth SWC. This recoiled about the same as a full house BP 45 Colt, naturally.


Dan

 

[Rhett Griffith]

Recoil in both calibers is pretty light. My 7 year old son will unload my .44 caliber revolvers for me as fast as I care to load them! :surrender: He doesn't seem to prefer the .36 over the .44 or vice versa.

 

[MSW]

i agree. the .36 and the .44 feel pretty similar to me ... the only one i've noticed an increase was the walker, which was a big gun shoving a big ball pretty quick

 

[Zonie]

I also agree that the recoil is pretty mild for either the .36 or .44. A lot of that is due to the way black powder (and the synthetic black powders) create their pressure, it being much slower than modern smokeless powder.

That doesn't mean these guns are not lethal.
Over the years many thousands have died after being shot by either caliber.

 

[markmahaney]

I have both a .36 and a .44 and the recoil difference is not as noticeable as the difference in sound when fired. The recoil from the .36 is a bit less but loads are a factor. Neither gun is as much of a jolt as my Smith and Wesson 38 special with a 6" barrel.