Maybe a dumb question, but it has me perplexed: What's the difference between .44 Magnum ammo and .44 REM Magnum ammo?

Are these the same thing?

quote:

Originally posted by SapperSteel:
Are these the same thing?

Yes.

American cartridge nomenclature is very erratic and therefore confusing. The full, original designation of the cartridge was 44 Remington Magnum because the Remington company developed the round. When other companies chamber their firearms for a cartridge, however, they often drop the developer’s identification part of the name because of laziness, lack of room on the barrel, or—most likely, it seems—they don’t want to give credit to another company on their product.

The full original designations of two still-popular cartridges are 38 Smith & Wesson Special and 357 Smith & Wesson Magnum. Many (most?) revolver manufacturers these days leave off the S&W part. The 45 Automatic Colt Pistol (ACP) cartridge is more often than not turned into 45 Auto. Glock does the same to the 357 SIG cartridge and makes it 357 Auto; S&W, however, uses 357 SIG even on their M&P pistols, thereby demonstrating some degree of integrity (and perhaps as a way of indirectly pointing fingers at those who don’t use “S&W” with 38 Special and 357 Magnum).

It seems to be less common these days, but not unknown, for companies to change the name of a cartridge by putting their own name on it. The 38 Smith & Wesson (not 38 S&W Special) was developed by S&W, but when Colt adopted the exact same round for their revolvers they dubbed it 38 Colt New Police.

Thanks for clearing that up, Sigfreund!

You’re welcome. I’d make some modest comment about its being useless trivia, but it’s actually far from it for a gun owner. Because of the problems that can occur, it’s important for us to at least be aware of the issue.

I once had a student show up for training with an S&W model 28 revolver (chambered for 357 S&W Magnum). The ammunition she brought was a box of 357 SIG. Another time I was contacted by a guy who couldn’t eject the fired shells from his J-frame revolver chambered for 38 S&W Special. The 38 Smith & Wesson cartridges he had pounded into the cylinder are larger in diameter than 38 Special, and that took some effort. He’d even managed to fire a few rounds before things got jammed up. In both cases the people had been sold the wrong ammunition by gun store clerks.

So yours was a good question; we can’t be too careful.

And some plain old changed the name. The Winchester Center Fire rounds .30WCF,.32 WCF, .38WCF, .44WCF for example... when companies like Marlin made rifles for them, they made their own designation which eventually became more common and that more people are familiar with today. .30-30, .32-20, .38-40, .44-40