Bond Arms Factory Tour

[JEBar]

I have a .22 magnum barrel for mine. Don't they make a .22 LR barrel?

they used to but had to drop rimfires .... they have perfected the firing pin location to work flawlessly with centerfire ammo .... apparently throwing in rim fire ammo complicated the process to the point they had reliability issues that were totally unacceptable so they no longer offer them .... rimfire derringers were very popular so that's why they are working on a model dedicated to it

[Conax]

I have a .22 magnum barrel for mine. Don't they make a .22 LR barrel?

they used to but had to drop rimfires .... they have perfected the firing pin location to work flawlessly with centerfire ammo .... apparently throwing in rim fire ammo complicated the process to the point they had reliability issues that were totally unacceptable so they no longer offer them .... rimfire derringers were very popular so that's why they are working on a model dedicated to it

Huh. Never heard about that. My .22 mag barrel shoots fine, the center fire ones, too. I must have gotten lucky and got one that worked.
The bores are just drilled so the firing pin strikes at the rim. The little .22 mags are great for getting used to the weird trigger on the old Century 2000 model.

[JEBar]

in response to a question about why purchase a 44 Spec barrel .... the biggest reason is the current primer shortage .... the derringer's OEM barrels will be chambered for 38/357 which takes small pistol primers .... much of the handgun ammo we load requires small pistol primers .... we already light load 44 Mag ammo which requires large pistol primers .... we have a pretty good supply of large pistol primers so by shooting 44's in the derringer, we take some stress off of our small pistol primer supply .... on neat feature of a Bond 3" barrel is the chamber section is 2 1/2" long .... the maximum overall SAAMI length of a 44 Spec cartridge is 1.615" .... the maximum overall SAAMI length of a 44 Magnum cartridge is 1.610" .... no mistake, the SAAMI spec for a 44 Spec is .005" LONGER that that of a 44 Mag .... both easily fit into a Bond 3" barrel .... that said, it isn't designed to handle the explosive pressure of a 44 Mag

[Conax]

in response to a question about why purchase a 44 Spec barrel .... the biggest reason is the current primer shortage .... the derringer's OEM barrels will be chambered for 38/357 which takes small pistol primers .... much of the handgun ammo we load requires small pistol primers .... we already light load 44 Mag ammo which requires large pistol primers .... we have a pretty good supply of large pistol primers so by shooting 44's in the derringer, we take some stress off of our small pistol primer supply .... on neat feature of a Bond 3" barrel is the chamber section is 2 1/2" long .... the maximum overall SAAMI length of a 44 Spec cartridge is 1.615" .... the maximum overall SAAMI length of a 44 Magnum cartridge is 1.610" .... no mistake, the SAAMI spec for a 44 Spec is .005" LONGER that that of a 44 Mag .... both easily fit into a Bond 3" barrel .... that said, it isn't designed to handle the explosive pressure of a 44 Mag

That explains why I could chamber a .44 magnum round in my Charter Arms Target bulldog, a small, lightly built .44 special revolver.
I don't like to eat cylinder shrapnel or having a broken wrist for that matter. Holding onto a Bond derringer when a .44 magnum lights off would be beyond my ability.

[JEBar]

Holding onto a Bond derringer when a .44 magnum lights off would be beyond my ability.

even if the derringer was rated to stand the pressure, no way I have any desire to pull the trigger on one .... arthritic hands makes it painful for me to fire a full power 44 Mag load in our Ruger Red Hawk .... a good while back we worked up a very light load and we mark them by coloring their primers red .... we have a thousand or so loaded and ready for use .... I'm actually looking forward to firing them.... the ones with regular silver primers are full power, hunting level 44 Mag loads ....

[Conax]

I have a Uberti "Cimarron Bad Boy" .44 magnum single action. Even though it weighs 39 ounces it is too much for my old hands nowadays. It surprised me how snappish it seemed shooting Remington 240s and other full power hunting loads. I've shot .44 mags my whole life, reloaded them for my Blackhawks, hunted jack rabbits, deer and groundhog. The Cimarron gets hot specials now when I can find any, and I have a fine time shooting it. All good things come to an end.

[JEBar]

All good things come to an end.

sadly that's very true .... I only own 3 handguns .... 2 were passed down from my Grandfather .... both can still be fired but that doesn't happen often .... the third is my Ruger Redhawk 44 mag .... I simply can't tolerate the pain of firing it with full power hunting loads .... for me the solution has been pretty simple, loading our own ammo allows us to find a load that I can handle .... I just hope this same reduced power load will work with our new derringer

[JEBar]

once small pistol primers return to store shelves, we plan to light load Rose Distribution Zero Brand 110 gr JHP for our Bond derringer .... with a thousand on hand, they should last for a good while ..

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

I bought some 45 LC Cowboy loads for my Rowdy.

They shoot nice.

[JEBar]

that's great to hear .... 45 Cowboy Action loads should be similar to the light 44 Spec loads we will be shooting

[JEBar]

that's great to hear .... 45 Cowboy Action loads should be similar to the light 44 Spec loads we will be shooting .... I'd really like to hear your general impressions of your Rowdy .... it should be pretty much the same as ours

[JEBar]

got word today that the 3" 44 spec barrel should arrive at our home on Thursday .... that is the same day we are due to get there ... per Hannibal, "I love it when a plan comes together."

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

that's great to hear .... 45 Cowboy Action loads should be similar to the light 44 Spec loads we will be shooting .... I'd really like to hear your general impressions of your Rowdy .... it should be pretty much the same as ours

Totally satisfied with it. It is all I was expecting, if not more. As a long time Derringer fan, it is an impressive cool little gun. I hesitated for years, but once I saw the Rowdy offered, I knew it was time to get one.

Even with the Cowboy loads though, it is still a powerful little gun. Just about everyone I know that has one, really likes it.

[JEBar]

Even with the Cowboy loads though, it is still a powerful little gun. Just about everyone I know that has one, really likes it.

that is really great to hear .... we are looking forward to getting to know ours better

[JEBar]

we arrived back home from Texas just before 3PM .... by 4PM we had driven to our local FFL dealer and picked up our new Rowdy .... handling a couple during our tour of the factory was impressive .... being able to take some time and spend with one is much more impressive .... the 44 special barrel that we ordered also arrived today, the picture below shows the difference in the sizes of the 38 and 44 barrels .... no clue when we will be able to take it out for some range time .... until then, plenty of dry firing will hopefully help break-in the action and get us used to the feel of working it

[JEBar]

with continued manipulation our Roughneck's action continues to smooth out .... a couple of small drops of Ballistol seems to have helped .... Bond says its trigger pull is 7 lbs and I believe it .... by design its trigger pull isn't straight back .... its down and back .... that takes some getting used to .... removing the trigger guard involves removing a single screw .... with it removed, the trigger is much easier to pull .... that said, I like the trigger guard and will keep it in place .... the trigger has almost no creep .... we've arranged to spend some time on a friend's range tomorrow afternoon .... while I'm going prepared to fire 100 44's, I may fire a single round and find I can't handle the recoil .... we are also taking along a hundred 38's .... best case would be to enjoy firing all of them ..

[JEBar]

today we fired our Roughneck derringer for the first time .... it was fun shooting light 38's .... NO unpleasant recoil, its performance was flawless ..... I could literally shoot it for hours as it would be with a 22LR .... my plan is to develop point and shoot skills (more or less) from the hip .... switching to the 44 Spec barrels proved to be frustrating .... the barrels would not lock into place so no 44's were fired .... after working with it a good bit, the problem seems to be the depth of the milling of the space where the case rim seats into the chamber .... it doesn't allow the the cartridge to seat fully into the chamber so that its flush .... the tiny part sticking out keeps the barrels from locking into place .... I plan to call the factory the first thing in the morning

[JEBar]

no need to call the factory .. .. the problem has to be that 44 Mag cases are 1.285" long and 44 Special cases are 1.160" lone .... the difference of 0.125" is probably the amount of the case sticking out of the cylinder that prevents the barrels from locking into place .... I don't have any 44 Special cases to load and test this theory but I can cut down some 44 Mag cases and test them .... no clue when I'll be able to test this theory

[JEBar]

Bond Derringer update .... while on the tour I asked about dry firing one of their derringers .... they handed me one that has been taken to many shows and has been dry fired untold thousands of times .... the actions of cocking, firing and opening the barrels were still fairly stiff but unbelievably smooth .... in short, dry firing is OK .... one of my concerns about buying a derringer was the arthritic stiffness and pain in my right hand .... at first cocking wasn't easy, nor was pulling the trigger .... finding a way to hold the grip so that my trigger finger is in place and the web of my thumb and first finger isn't pushing on the hammer when it is cocked took a while .... curling my little finger under the grip was painful at first, specially its knuckle joint .... I'm happy to say that working the action over and over and over and over has been good for both the Roughneck's action and my hand as well .... I hope to be able to run some light 38's through it in a couple of days .... time will tell

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

I don't like dry firing anything, but when my LGS brought in a Cobra for me to check over, he told me that dry firing it was fine. Still felt strange to me and I didn't fire it much, lol, but it seems to be OK.

The Cobra? I didn't care for it and went with the Bond Arms.