i here youall mention 44 russan & 44 S&W & 44 special  so are these cases different lengths or just different names for the same case
my 44mag marlin seems to like 44s&w better than the mag brass. but before i go looking for more brass i thought i better find out the difference in these
thanks

They are the .44 American, .44 Russian, .44 S&W Special & the final culminating in the .44 S&W Mag.
Each one progressively longer then the one before it.

.44 American is the daddy.  However, it used healed bullets and the case is to small in diameter to use in the .44 Russian/Special/Magnum chamber.

Howdy

Here is a photo that might help. This is a bunch of 44s in my collection. Left to right they are 44 Henry Rim Fire, 44 S&W American, 44Russian, 44 Colt, 44 S&W Special, 44 Magnum, 44-40.




Cartridge history is a fascinating subject. Just in this photo alone, we have the Henry 44 Rim Fire cartridge on the far left, which was the ancestor of the 44-40 on the far right. These two were developed as rifle cartridges, the Henry cartridge developed for the rifle of the same name. The 44-40 also went by the name of 44 Winchester Central Fire, or 44WCF. It was developed in 1873 for the Winchester Model 1873 rifle. If you look closely you can see the slight taper, or bottleneck of the 44-40, below the bullet. Even though the original 44 Henry cartridge had a straight case, all the WCF cartridges that came after it had a bottleneck or taper to them. I suspect this is because it was discovered that a bottleneck case tends to feed more easily through the mechanism of a repeater than a straight case. Also, you can stuff in a little bit more powder if the case gets fatter behind the bullet.

Next to the Henry round are the 44 S&W American and the 44 Russian. The 44 American was Smith's big bore revolver cartridge in the beginning of the cartridge era. It used a heeled bullet, meaning the bullet was the same diameter as the case. In order to fit the bullet inside the case, there was a short section of reduced diameter at the rear of the bullet. This was the 'heel'. It was inserted inside the case and the case was crimped on the heel. Because the bullet and the case were the same diameter, this was a true 44 cal cartridge. The disadvantage of heeled bullets was they needed to carry their bullet lube on the outside of the bullet, just like a modern 22 Rimfire, which also uses a heeled bullet. Black Powder lube was a lot softer than modern bullet lube, and with the soft lube on the outside of the bullet they tended to pick up dirt and grit if they were carried loose in a pocket.

Smith & Wesson won a large contract to supply revolvers to the Czarist government of Russia around 1872. But the Russians stipulated they did not want cartridges using heeled bullets, because of the problems with bullet lube and dirt. So Smith kept the outside diameter of the cartridge the same, but reduced the diameter of the bullet to match the inside diameter of the case. They added lube grooves to the bullet to hold the lube, and seated the bullet with the lube grooves completely contained inside the case. Notice how you can still see a trace of lube in a groove on the Henry round and the S&W American round. The lube on the Russian round is all inside the case, and the problem of lube picking up contamination was solved. Inserting the bullet inside the case is one reason we have so many misnomers with modern ammo. It is the reason all '44' cal modern cartridges actually use bullets around .427 or .429 in diameter. Same with the 38 Special and the 357 diameter bullet.

Just as the 44 American begat the 44 Russian, in 1908 the 44 Russian begat the 44 Special. The 44 Special is the shiny one. S&W introduced a 44 caliber revolver with a swing out cylinder in 1908, an overgrown version of the 38 Hand Ejector they had introduced a few years earlier. This was known as the 44 Hand Ejector, New Century, also known to Smith afficionados as the Triple Lock because of the triple latching system to keep the cylinder closed. Smith lengthened the old 44 Russian cartridge a bit to come up with the 44 Special cartridge for the Triple Lock. There is nothing 'special' about the name Special in cartridges. It was just a marketing term that was in vogue at the time.

In 1955 the 44 Special underwent one more metamorphosis when it was lengthened a bit more, stuffed with slow burning powder, and christened the 44 Magnum. We'll save the story of where the name Magnum came from for another time.

A friend of mine likes to call the 44 Magnum the extra, extra long 44 Russian, because it is just the old 44 Russian cartridge that has been stretched twice.

The 44 Special was originally known as the 44 S&W Special. They are the same cartridge. S&W still likes to write out the older version of the name on the barrels of their revolvers.

thanks guys
very interesting driftwood thanks