Ruger 96 in 44 Special

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The Ruger 96 is a light, handy lever action carbine that was met with lukewarm reception during its approximate 14-year time in Ruger’s catalog. Perhaps the reason was due to it being pricey compared to its contemporary Marlin and Rossi competitors. Perhaps it was the somewhat "clubby" stock. Maybe some shooters were disappointed that it was never chambered in 357 Magnum or 45 Colt. One thing is for certain: The Ruger 96 is also one of those firearms that overnight became unobtanium once production was canceled.

Ruger introduced the Model 96 levergun in 1996, offering it as the 96/17 in 17 Hornady Magnum Rimfire, the 96/22 in 22 Long Rifle, the 96/22M in 22 Winchester Magnum Rimfire, and the 96/44, in 44 Remington Magnum. I’ve personally owned every model except the 96/17 at one time or another, and sold a 96/44 because of disillusionment with the 44 Magnum, but that’s a story for a different article.

I consider the Ruger 96 as the hybrid offspring of a Ruger 10/22 and Savage 99, with some genetic material from a Winchester 88 spliced in for good measure. The stock is pure Ruger 10/22, right down to the The ebony forend cap is what caught his eye from a gun show table. The little carbine features a Williams aperture rear sight which the author uses without a peep insert for a ghost ring effect. curved plastic buttplate and that ugly carbine band at the front of the forend.

The lever and its long, curving bolt actuation arm, as well as the tilting bolt itself, are unquestionably Savage 99, as is the rotary magazine, although it’s detachable. Savage offered a detachable magazine in its Model 99 in later years, but it did not incorporate the rotary spool-type cartridge feed of Savage 99s with internal magazines.

The clubby, too-wide-at-theforend stock with ugly carbine band aside, what makes the 96 attractive is its light weight and fast handling characteristics, foremost being the short-stroke lever. Given the low recoil of the four offered cartridges, even including the 44 Magnum, fast follow-up shots with the Model 96 are extremely easy.

The rotary magazines are simple to change, however, the Ruger 96 requires the lever be dropped at least a little bit to allow the magazine release to operate; the tip of the lever actuating arm abuts the rear of the conical magazine catch and prevents the magazine release from being depressed. A brass loaded chamber indicator pops up prominently at the top rear of the receiver and can be sensed both visually and tactilely.

Three models of the Ruger 96 family were skewed toward the small game/varmint end of the ammo spectrum, with the 44 Magnum version being the only cartridge chambered that had any appreciable "oomph." Many Ruger 96/44s provide yeoman service year after year taking whitetail deer for their owners. It’s a great rifle for forests here in Pennsylvania where shots rarely exceed 75 yards. Those 96/44s are joined here in the Pennsylvania Wilds in late November by their familial relative, the Ruger 77/44.

My experience with the 96/44 entered a second chapter a few years

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With the lever closed, the magazine release cannot be depressed and a magazine cannot be inserted into an open magazine well. ago after I rekindled along interest in the 44 Special. The 44 Special begat the 44 Magnum, with Elmer Keith serving in the midwife role. That tale has been told ad-infinitum over the years in the firearms press. Back to the 44 Special, it is an inherently accurate cartridge and loads for it can push a 200 or 240 grain bullet from 700 to 1000 feet per second.

I can hit pretty much anything I aim at using any of the several 44 Special revolvers in my safe. But I didn’t have a 44 Special rifle… The slight nose-up orientation of the topmost of four cartridges is in near-perfect alignment with the chamber mouth. The rails in the steel magazine insert suitably guide the cartridge up and out of the magazine, allowing the bolt’s extractor to capture the cartridge rim for controlled feed.

Spending some time wandering about the tables at a central Pennsylvania gun show, a Ruger 96 caught my eye. This one was especially appealing because someone had cut off the forend just behind the despised carbine band and attached an ebony forend cap. Picking it up and glancing at the muzzle, it was instantly recognizable as a 44, given the huge black hole in the muzzle. The 96/44 was clean, the metal free of rust, and the stock free of dents and nicks.

Looking at the magazine, I envisioned the cartridge sitting at top center, with a slight upward tilt at the front end and wondered if a 44 Special would feed reliably, given the almost-perfect alignment of the cartridge nose with the chamber opening. My Streamlight Microstream lit up the chamber through the ejection port, and I could see that leade tapered into the rifling nicely, but the edge of the chamber mouth looked sharp.

The price was right, so what the heck; I took anew project home, this time a personal one. With free time some months later, boxes of several different types of 44 Special ammunition and the 96/44 went to the range, primarily to try feeding reliability and to get a handle on accuracy. Making along story short, those 44 Special cartridges with decent to heavy crimps fed 100% without failure.

There were two factory loads that were not crimped, and the cartridge case mouths on those rounds presented a sharp edge circling the bullet. Those two uncrimped cartridges hung up all-toofrequently on the relatively sharp edge of the chamber opening.

In addition, my standard 44 Special bullet is a Keith-style coated 240 grain semiwadcutter from Steel Valley Casting in Beaver, Pennsylvania (SteelValleyCasting.com, and the edge of the bullet at the base of the truncated cone section caught a few times on the chamber opening, requiring "double-clutching" the 96/44’s lever to get the rounds seated. My mild OCD being what it is, 100% reliable functioning is important, regardless of the amount of crimp or style of bullet.

While at the range I fired the 96/44 with a few of the loads, finding it grouped nicely at 50 yards and allowing me to dust clay birds on edge at 100 yards. So it passed the field accuracy test and was cer-

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When the trigger housing is pinned to the receiver, the bolt pin is captured at the sides by the receiver skirt. tainly worth the time investment to tune it to handle 44 Specials. Disassembly came next. To anyone familiar with the 10/22, a disassembly guide is not particularly necessary. One screw in the underside of the stock holds the barreled action in place. The screw mates with a lug dovetailed into the underside of the barrel. Removing the screw allows the barreled action to be withdrawn from the stock.

The 96/44 differs from the 10/22 and the three rimfire Model 96s in that the 44 Magnum barrel is screwed into the receiver, as opposed to being held in place with the familiar two cap screws and a tapered wedge block. The edge of the chamber was much sharper in reality than the photo conveys, causing uncrimped cases to catch and not feed. The author also polished the factory bevel chamfer at the top of the chamber mouth.

Before lifting the barreled action from the stock, be sure to place the crossbolt safety button in a "centered" position so that one side of the protruding button doesn’t dent the lower edge of the stock. The lever is retained in the trigger guard/fire control group housing by means of a flat head twopiece capture screw with a thin slot, but removal of the lever from the trigger housing is not necessary for basic disassembly.

Knocking out the two pins holding the trigger housing to the receiver permits withdrawal of the trigger housing with lever and bolt attached as an assembly. Since I intended to tune the extractor, I knocked out the pin connecting the bolt and lever link. All three pins are loose fits and are readily removed with an appropriatelysized punch. As is my practice, they went into a magnetic steel bowl to keep the small bits corralled.

Examining the chamber opening from the bottom of the receiver and the ejection port, it was even more evident that the intersection of the chamber and the rear face of the barrel was fairly sharp. In addition, Ruger had machined a chamfer above the chamber mouth from 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock and the machining marks were obvious to the unaided eye.

Slipping a cartridge case rim under the extractor hook as with the 1911 pistol, there was considerable sideways force on the case rim such that the rim would not fully seat against the recess at the top of the boltface without upward force. When that force was removed the case would slip down a few millimeters, sometimes falling completely out of the boltface. Note taken, the bolt was set aside for later extractor tuning.

Given that the loads with uncrimped cases would feed some of the time, it was suspected that only breaking the edge of the chamber opening would be necessary. A conical mild abrasive rubber tip was fitted to the rotary tool and the opening in the bottom of the receiver provided more than adequate access to all 360 degrees of the chamber opening.

Polishing was performed in three stages, with partial reassembly of the bolt and trigger housing to the barreled receiver following some polishing, but with the firing pin removed from the bolt for safety’s sake. Inserting a magazine filled with the uncrimped cartridges, the lever was cycled and the magazine filled and emptied a number of times.

Additional polishing of the chamber edge was needed twice more before both types of uncrimped cartridges and the Steel Valley 240 grain SWC handloads would feed 100% repeatedly with all magazines.

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The bottom corner of the extractor hook was rounded slightly to prevent it gouging into the side of the case. Above center: A cartridge is shown fully seated in its recess in the bolt face following tuning of the extractor hook in the same manner as is customary for that of a 1911 pistol. This eliminates glare and accuracy-killing reflection that plagues older eyes; it’s poor man’s ivory bead.

Attention was next paid to the extractor tuning which was treated as that of a 1911 because the 96/44 utilizes controlled feeding just like Browning’s ubiquitous pistol. First, the groove in the extractor just behind the hook was relieved with a Swiss pattern file and radiused at the bottom so that the case rim entering control of the 96/44’s extractor from the magazine would neatly "slide" into that groove behind the extractor hook.

The bottom corner of the extractor hook itself was then slightly chamfered to prevent it from digging in to the cartridge case. With the relieving of the groove behind the extractor hook, a cartridge would fully seat in its recess in the bolt face and was retained solidly in place by the extractor force. Upon assembly, ejection was much improved; cases would be thrown to the side four or five feet instead of all but spilling out of the ejection port and falling at my feet.

Another trip to the range was in order, but first in deference to my aging eyes I applied a drop of almond-colored Rust-Oleum Appliance Touch-Up paint (Amazon. com/Appliance-Touch-Paint-Almond-0-6/dp/B000KEXWU6) to the brass bead in the front sight. Brass and silver beads "bloom" in direct sunlight, sometimes with a bright reflection at an edge of the bead.

A quick wipe of the brass bead with a cotton swab dipped in acetone and careful application of a dab of the almond touch up paint effectively transforms a metallic bead into a "poor man’s ivory bead." So treated, the now off-white front sight bead stands out sharply, round, and without reflection to my eye, greatly aiding accuracy since a glint at the periphery of the brass bead causes one to align the sights off target.

At the range on a sunny fall day, the tuned 96/44 action cycled 100% without fail on uncrimped cartridges and those reloaded with the Steel Valley SWC bullets. I had no problem again dusting standard diameter clay birds standing on edge at 100 yards with the almond front bead and the Williams aperture rear ring without an insert installed.

The Ruger 96/44 and its rimfire siblings are sweet-handling, lightweight carbines and it’s no wonder that demand has pushed Internet auction prices to levels ranging from around $800 to $1,200. That’s what happens to guns that are largely ignored while in production, with demand going through the roof shortly after the guns are no longer cataloged. But that’s supply and demand at work. The best thing about my 44 Special-tuned 96/44? No furshlugginer carbine band! AG