[Zoidberg]

Is the dakota 44-40 more of a hunting weapon or more of a home defense weapon, what are your thoughts?

[robocop10mm]

generally speaking, neither. the 44-40 is a cowboy action caliber. mostly used now a days for punchinig paper and steel.

[FALPhil]

Originally Posted by robocop10mm

generally speaking, neither. the 44-40 is a cowboy action caliber. mostly used now a days for punchinig paper and steel.

Yeah. Because it is a black-powder era cartridge, the 44-40 has never seen its true potential in commercial loadings and modern firearms. A lot of the old brass was what the call "balloon head", and therefore not suitable for anything but low pressure.

Here is a good article on the cartridge:
The 44-40

The article says it will put a 205 gr pill out the muzzle at 931fps. That is adequate for self defense.

[Dutch]

I read an article about a year ago where the author made the assertion that the 44-40 was the 19th century version of today's 40 cal. He made his point pretty well.

[robocop10mm]

IMHO the 38-40 was the .40 S&W of its day. The .38-40 used a .40 caliber bullet, not a .38. The ballistics were very similar to todays .40 S&W. The .44-40 used a .427 bullet and was much more similar to the .44 spl in ballistics.

[cnorman18]

Colt-style single actions aren't the best choice for self-defense, but they beat the hell out of nothing. They're slow to reload, and more complex to operate; on the other hand, they're probably the best natural pointers, and they kill BGs just as dead as they did in 1880. If a .44-40 were all I had, I certainly wouldn't feel disarmed.