Advice please .44 Russian or 56?

[Judah]

I'm thinking (always dangerous) of getting a Spencer.

I have my eye on a NIB Taylors in .44 Russian. I already shoot that round in my open tops so I'm leaning that way.

Question is will a Spencer in that caliber feed and eject reliably?

or should I go with a 56?

thanks

Judah?

[Two Flints]

Hi Judah,

If it were me, I'd go for the 56-50.  If you look around on SSS, you will find a few people who had chambering and ejecting problems with the .44 Russian.  This was one of the first Armi Sport Spencers and some say the round was too small to work correctly in the innards of the Spencer mechanism.  Others, who have the .44 Russian Spencer swear by it, and have learned to overcome its shortcomings.  I've never fired the .44 Russian Spencer, but have shot the next sized .45 Schofield Spencer and that has worked great for me. 

The 56-50 will cost money to shoot unless you load your own, and we have plenty of 56-50 loaders and shooters on SSS.  The .44 Russian seems to cost about the same as a 56-50 Spencer, if you shop around.

It's your call, but I'm sure others will add their opinions as well. 

Whichever Spencer you get, consider joining the Spencer Shooting Society

Two Flints

[Major 2]

The 44 Russian Chambered gun took a bad wrap over feeding & ejection, some deserved , some not . They were the first offered with the The 45 Sch. & 56/50 promised to follow.
The 45 Sch. came next and was better suited and works quite well.
By the time the 56/50 arrived ArmiSport had replace the ejector with the Lane ejector.
The 44 Cal. ( and I believe the 45 Sch. ) has since been discontinued, and a 44/40 with the Lane is now available.

44 Russian's have a bit of a reputation so they are hard to move... unless it's a real bargain.
On the other hand unless you reload 56/50 is $$ to shoot....

I suppose the 44/40 is the best choice for reliable action and cost efficient shooting, but if you can pick up a 45 Sch. at a good price
you will be quite satisfied.

Other opinions may vary

[Harve Curry]

If you plan to do anything with the Spencer besides cowboy action shooting , then get a 56-50, 2nd the 44-40.

[Appalachian Ed]

Only the 56-50 is allowed in the N/SSA.

[Major 2]

Only the 56-50 is allowed in the N/SSA.

good point   

however, some local SASS clubs don't allow the 56/50 even though SASS does approve it, claiming target damage 
I suppose that is their prerogative.

I'm not sure about NCOWS (it's legal) but local clubs may still have to contend with perceived target damage.

[Judah]

Thanks for the advice gents.

[Gus Hall]

Judah,

Take all this for what it's worth ($.00). My Spencer is not due to arrive until Monday or Tuesday so I have not loaded or fired a live round from a Spencer yet. However, after reading a good many of the current and past posts on this forum, I offer these simple observations:

56-50: As close to what this action was originally chambered for as you can get in a repro, plenty of loading info here, pretty spendy to reload for, coronary inducing to buy loaded ammo for, while SASS legal it may be frowned on (especially if the match director and the rest of the "TOP GUNS" shoot light .38 and .32-20 rounds.)

.45 Schofield: Good round, fairly easy to reload for, components fairly cheap and easy to find, not to hard on targets, seems to be fairly reliable in Spencers, another round to buy and load for.

>44-40: Arguably best combination of reliability( Lane extractor and manufacturer's accumulated experience in making these guns work), readily available and numerous components, loading tools, and recipies, and being of thin and bottle-necked brass probably the best with black powder.

.44 Russian: You already shoot it and presumably have brass, bullets, dies, etc., same caliber for rifle and pistols is always a good thing at the loading bench and loading table, as far as functioning problems go- do a search in this forum, try the fixes that are posted and, if all else fails, contact the manufaturer.

All this being said, They aint nuthin' quite like holdin' your very first 56-50 round ! (GIGGLE, GIGGLE, DROOL, DROOL)

[major]

Judah
One thing that hasn't been pointed out to you yet is that the Spencer in .44 Russian has been discontinued and I don't' think that even Taylor's has any left.  I have an original in 56-56 and one in 56-50.  I have a repro in 44-40 and I like the 44-40 the best.  I had one in .44 Russian and never could get it to cycle reliably.  You may want to wait for the new version in .45 LC.  It should be in the country within 2 months.
Major

[Drydock]

THe .45 S&W is still being made, and works quite well.  Purely for CAS it may be the best chambering, as it holds one more round than the others (8 vs. 7) and the blade extractors usualy throw the empty clear of the action.  The Lane often leaves the case setting atop the action.

The .44 Russian would be a gamble.  Might work, might not and be fixable, might not even be fixable.

My recomendation if you decide not to take the risk, thus not having a caliber to match your pistols, would be to go with history and get the 56/50. 

I have both a .45 S&W and a 56/50.  Use one for CAS, the other for Military matchs and hunting.

[Sgt Scott]

Judah,

I use my .44 russian mostly for reenactments. I have put about 600 blanks through it and about 200 rounds through it. Making the blanks is cheap and easy. The rounds don't seem to stick as much as the blanks do. Biggest problem I have found is keeping the chamber clean. It gets real messy with black powder and needs to be cleaned after about 60 or 70 blanks. Haven't shot that many rounds in a row yet.

Sgt Scott

[major]

Scott
Do you use .44 Magnum brass for your .44 Russian blanks?
Major

[Sgt Scott]

Terry,
Yes, as long as the chamber is clean they work well. After about 60 or so rounds they sometimes stick and cause a real train wreck while I try to clear the jam.

Sgt Scott

[Major 2]

Sgt. Scott

what unit do you ride with ?

[Sgt Scott]

Major 2
I ride with 1st Tennessee Cav (US). We roleplay the actual 1st TN, a union group from East Tennessee (Knoxville). I don't think our group actually carried Spencers (at least not until the end of the war with Wilson), but I've researched their movements and have a story to match. Rosecrans was looking for repeating rifles in late 62 (Colts, henries etc...) and wanted to outfit one or more regiments with them. The actual 1st TN was diverted to Nashville shortly after that (Jan '63) for an unknown reason so I role play that we were diverted from a KY campaign to Nashville to pick up a few spare Spencers (Barrowed from the flotilla trying to safeguard the Mississippi).  Wilder's group does get them shortly after.

It is a real hoot to shoot these things from the back of a horse, and you do get some strange looks from the other side when I keep shooting. Caught a sharpshooter in a tree that way. The biggest problem in doing so is at a trot when you post and find yourself coming down on one of the spent cases.

[Ed Clintwood]

Since no Spencer is going to win ANY speed contest and most rifle matches are 10 round, my way of thinking is that STYLE does count, go with the .56-.50 and have fun.  And, if you are going to go for style, then go for reloading as well.  I'm still looking for a handgun that will chamber the 56-50