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I was thinking over Christmas about new projects for the new year, and remembered back to a film I saw recently - Sudden Impact, with Clint Eastwood. In there was a 44 Auto Mag pistol, a huge cannon of a thing. Obviously, given the hand gun ban getting one for the UK would not be possible, but it got me wondering - would a 44 Auto Mag bolt action carbine be possible and if so how would you go about it? I have one of the Armalon 45 ACP 'Delisle' carbines which is a joy to use, and I'm guessing a 44 Auto Mag version could have some similarities to that. Does anyone know whether something like this have ever been done and if so how they went about doing it?

The 44 automag case is a shortened .308 win case so any 308 bolt face will work . You may have fun with feeding from a mag but even that should be possible

The 44 auto mag is basically a cut down 308 case so building a gun would be a simple matter of getting the reamer, headspace gauges and barrel blank. Any 308 rifle action (or 243 etc) would do the job.

Or try a rimmed version of the round....44 Magnum
Then buy a Ruger 77/44

Jobzaguddun

Interesting, thanks guys. I had read about 308 cases being cut down and used so thought that a 308 action would work. Sounds like it is a possiblity then. The 44 mag is a possiblity, but I had in my mind, looks-wise, something based on the original 44 auto mag - stainless and wood. And of course I could just go and buy a 44 magnum, where's the fun in that

I guess it'd be fun paying for a chamber reamer for it!

The advantage of the rimless design was easier feeding in a semi-auto....so running it through a bolt action loses that requirement.
Saw an old Ruger 44 Carbine a few years back, which addressed the rimmed case issue by using a rotary magazine. ...and gave spawm to the ginger haired step-child that is the 10/22

Another more modern project could be a .450 Beowulf or the .458 SOCOM

saddler wrote:Or try a rimmed version of the round....44 Magnum
Then buy a Ruger 77/44

Jobzaguddun

Nothing near equivalent, Jon!
I shot one once - muzzle flash was a ball of flame over 1 metre in diameter

saddler wrote:I guess it'd be fun paying for a chamber reamer for it!

The advantage of the rimless design was easier feeding in a semi-auto....so running it through a bolt action loses that requirement.
Saw an old Ruger 44 Carbine a few years back, which addressed the rimmed case issue by using a rotary magazine. ...and gave spawm to the ginger haired step-child that is the 10/22

Another more modern project could be a .450 Beowulf or the .458 SOCOM

My dad has the 44 mag 96/44 which is a nice rifle, only drawback is there were never any mags above 4 rounds for it.

saddler wrote:I guess it'd be fun paying for a chamber reamer for it!

Reamers are easy enough to source and not hugely expensive all things considered, they are even manufactured here in the UK these days.

Hmm, actually another thought - lever action instead of bolt action. I wonder if one of the stainless Marlins could be modified to 44 Automag?