The Ruger Model 44 is a

semi-automatic rifle A semi-automatic rifle is an autoloading rifle that fires a single cartridge with each pull of the trigger, and uses part of the fired cartridge's energy to eject the case and load another cartridge into the chamber. For comparison, a bolt- ...

chambered in .44 Remington Magnum designed and manufactured by

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

n firearm company Sturm, Ruger & Co. It uses a 4-round tubular magazine and was produced from 1961 to 1985.

History

Designed as a close range carbine for deer hunting in dense woods, Ruger released the Model 44 Carbine in 1961 as the "Deerstalker", a moniker it used until 1962 after which a lawsuit brought by the Ithaca Gun Company prohibited them from doing so. The design influenced the smaller and more popular Ruger 10/22 model chambered in

.22 LR The .22 Long Rifle or simply .22 LR or 22 (metric designation: 5.6×15mmR) is a long-established variety of .22 caliber rimfire ammunition originating from the United States. It is used in a wide range of rifles, pistols, revolvers, smooth ...

that would debut in 1964. The rifle was discontinued in 1985 due to high production costs. Ruger does not offer any parts support for the Model 44. The Ruger Model 44 was replaced by the Ruger Deerfield Carbine introduced in 2000 and produced until 2006. The Deerfield is a brand new design and has little in common with the Model 44. While the Model 44 featured a solid-topped receiver, the modern Deerfield Carbine has an open-top design more resembling the

M1 Carbine The M1 carbine (formally the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight semi-automatic carbine that was a standard firearm for the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The M1 carbine was produced ...

, which offered increased strength and lower production costs. The Deerfield uses a

rotary magazine A magazine is an ammunition storage and feeding device for a repeating firearm, either integral within the gun (internal/fixed magazine) or externally attached (detachable magazine). The magazine functions by holding several cartridges withi ...

similar to that used on Ruger's

10/22 rifle.

Design

The standard model featured a walnut stock and a barrel band similar to the Ruger 10/22 and the

, but using a solid top receiver. The front sight was a gold bead and the rear sight was a folding leaf-type. The receiver was drilled and tapped for

scope mount Scope mounts are used to attach telescopic sights or other types of sights to firearms. The scope sight itself is usually made for only one of two main types of mounts, which can be classified as ''scopes for ring mounts'' (for example a 30 ...

s. The rifle was fed via a 3 round tubular magazine. The chief complaint of the rifle was that the gas ports quickly fouled when using lead

ammunition Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

. This became less of an issue as manufacturers of .44 Magnum ammunition offered jacketed rounds instead of traditional lead. Ruger offered several variants including the RS model that had factory sling swivels and a rear peep

sight Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision (daytime vision), color vision, scotopic vision (night vision), and mesopic vision (twilight vision), using light in the visible spectrum refl ...

close to the rear receiver lug. The International Model was similar, but lacked the rear peep sight and had a Mannlicher-type

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

. The Sporter was the same, but made use of a Monte-Carlo style of stock. These three variants were dropped from production in 1971. In the final year of production, Ruger offered a "25th Anniversary Edition" that featured a Ruger medallion embedded in the stock.

Images

File:Ruger Deerstalker44 r.JPG, The right side of the Ruger Deerstalker 44 Magnum semi-auto rifle. File:Ruger Deestalker44 l.JPG, The left side of the Ruger Deerstalker 44 Magnum semi-auto rifle, bearing the pre-lawsuit brand name, and the low 1000s serial number.

References

External links

User Manual
{{Ruger .44 Magnum firearms Semi-automatic rifles of the United States Ruger rifles Rotary magazine firearms