He unlimbered his holstered 38-40 Colt SA, and planted a few slugs on the elk's head...he would find later the commercial bullets had been too soft and pointed and had 'slid off the angle of the animals forehead, the one handload penetrated too low into the jaw. But the elk went down again. This time the kid went around the back of the animal, after loading some heavy handloads into the handgun...and poked the elk again. It lashed out with it's hind feet catching him and sending him butt down in the snow again.

From his seated position he brained the elk with his heavy reloads. That incident led him to the 45 Colt and 300 grain cast bullets over 35 grains of black powder for more power against large animals. And he stayed with the 45 and it's power with handloads until 1927. His name was Elmer Keith, and this happened in 1917 or so.

He used the 45 Colt and handloads for all those of years...until he was firing his Colt SA out a bedroom window of a friend’s ranch house, on the Fourth of July 1927. The gun let go, and he had lost the top strap, and three chambers plus doing some damage to his thumb. So Keith then went to the 44 Special. And his odyssey with the 44 Special went on until 1955/56 and the 44 magnum was released. Keith of course deserves the lion’s share of credit for the new round’s development. Most know that story..I won't bore you with it.

But the interesting thing for me, is the near 30 years from the start of his heavy loading the Special and the advent of the 44 magnum. Most of the game Keith took with a handgun was with the 44 Special over those years, not the magnum until after 1956. His Special load is famous...1200 fps per second with a 240 grain bullet he designed, and is forever known as the Keith semi wadcutter. That bullet design by Keith, by the way is now over 70 years old. And as good today as it was then.

I lived in a game rich area of the southeast US for a number of years in the late 60s to mid 70s. I hunted from Florida thru the Virginias. I lived in a wilderness, inside a 1000 plus acres of heavily wooded Virginia back country. We harvested what we and our neighbors could eat. Those that didn't hunt but were in need were always taken care of...and they in turn always help others with labor or what ever they had.

In those days, I never thought of the Colt second generation 44 Special I had as being necessarily valuable in a money sense. It was a tool, a hunting handgun...it had one load...18/2400 under 240 plus grain Keith Ideal/Lyman cast bullet in solid cases. A little more then Keith recommended for the solid cases...but the gun never had a problem and the brass lasted forever. And the deer certainly didn't complain...few of those heavy flat faced Keith bullets ever stayed inside any deer I hit with them. Of course the deer in our area weren't that large. It seems as you get further south the deer get smaller in body. 150 lbs would be a big one for that time and place.

The black bear were not very big there either, 200 lbs would be good size. And I don't remember really ever bear hunting with the 44 Special and I have no mention of it in my old game books. Not that I didn't think it could do the job...there always seemed to be some other caliber I was using at the time. Or some other handgun and load that needed testing on large game.

But I did shoot feral pigs with the 44...and they were and are big. Penetration with this load and other 44 loads with good cast loads, was always excellent. In 1970 I was in a tree stand (pre deer season) repairing it, but I was sitting and taking a break...drinking some coffee when I first heard the noise. I quickly poured the coffee back into the thermos...capped it tight. Their eyes are terrible, their ears pretty good, but their noses are excellent...and I didn't want coffee drifting on the breeze.

Once you hear the noise of a feral pig or pigs as this case, you don't forget it. They are noisy, grunting, rooting, and jostling around. I had a squawker varmint caller in my pocket, carried one most of the time back then. It brought in all kinds of animals close. Anyway if you blew on this thing right it would give a awful loud sound that was close to a squeal. And that's what I hoped for. Sure enough two boar pigs came quickly with their noses up trying to catch any scent the air carried.

I'm not sure why pigs answer squeals, probably think it's piglets...but here in Az. Javelina will do it sometimes. Bears are well known for also coming to the sound. These two porkers milled around below me and the tree I was in. I had the 44 Special that day...and nailed both pigs. The first I tagged in the top but to the side of the head, and immediately shifted to the other, he was already in gear. At my shot, his rear went down and his squalling went into alto hyper drive. A shot between the shoulder blades ended that.

All three of those bullets exited. Using the winch on the jeep I hauled them into an oak tree and let them hang, cut to bleed out and keep them safe from dogs. I went to get some help. Three shots for hundreds of pounds of pork. The kicker is, I had been out of 2400 and the Special was loaded to only about 900 to 950 fps with the Keith slugs. I forget the load but it was certainly a shotgun powder of some sort. Pigs are small tanks...and those slugs still exited. I could understand the head shot...but both body shots on the second pig broke sizable bones and a foot or more of heavy flesh. Penetration....heavy bullets at moderate velocity are hard to stop.

I have always liked 9 grains of Unique under cast bullets in the Special for moderate loads. I seemed to get 900 to 950 fps and a pushing recoil to the heavy bullets from 240 to 270 grains or so. NEI makes a 270/275 grain Keith shaped bullet mold...that is really as close to the original Keith design as possible for that weight. It's an excellent mid weight for the 44 magnums and perfect for the Special. HS6 and 7 are the newer mid pressure powders that do the job very well. John Taffin's article gives all kinds of excellent loads for the 44special.