.44 mag ammo for deer

[308WinGuy]

I used to hunt with a Ruger .44 Deerstalker in .44 mag in my boyhood days, my Dad just bought 240 grn soft points for me, took lots of deer and a black bear at 30 yards, the hunting ammo from Buffalo bore is great.

Deer Grenade .44 Magnum. +P Pistol & Handgun Ammunition

Deer Grenade .44 Magnum +P Field Proven pistol and handgun ammo. Maximum firepower bullets. Best ammunition for pistols and handguns for sale. Buffalo Bore. Strictly big bore. Strictly Business.

www.buffalobore.com

 

[ccc23454]

Another vote Ruger SBH hunter edition, h110 and 300xtp!

 

[44hunter45]

Update on my handgun expedition, looked around trying to find ammo and ended up settling for hornady leverevolution FTX 225gr, took it out and shot some before my hunt. Well it did the job on a basket rack whitetail buck at 43 yards and a whitetail doe at 11 yards. Absolutely leveled both.

Awesome Deer! Thanks for the report.

 

[tacticalslings]

I run 240 grain soft point through a 16” lever gun. I call it the death Ray.

 

[Butcher]

My kids have shot a bunch of iowa whitetails with a cva 44. 240 grain jsp. None have gone further than 30 yds and shots so dar have reached out to 90 yds. They all prefer the 44 over the 350 legend fwiw

 

[Raccoontrapper]

I have a S&W 629 Classic 6” that really likes Hornady XTP 240gr. I don’t think you could really go wrong with just about any 240gr lead soft nose round within realistic handgun ranges.

 

[A207X2]

Don’t mean to hijack this thread but as I read it, it got me to thinking what else can this caliber do?

I just bought a Henry Big Boy Classic lever in .44 Magnum. I would like to have a better understanding of the lethality (and practically) of this on big game, specifically moose.

For example, shooting a Buffalo Bore Dangerous Game mono bullet (265gr) from a lever gun with a 20" barrel. Assuming good shot placement, what would be the minimum terminal velocity to ensure a clean kill? Per the manufacturer, here are the ballistics for this round:

100 yards: 1,356 fps
150 yards: 1,220 fps
175 yards: 1,163 fps
200 yards: 1,114 fps
225 yards: 1,072 fps
250 yards: 1,037 fps
275 yards: 1,006 fps

For all of you shooting 44 Mag, how far out would be comfortable shooting (with a Leupold VH-5HD scope)?

 

[Gunner46]

I can tell you a couple of brands not to waste your time & money on ! UMC 180's and any Blazer ammo.

I had a Ruger Black Hawk 8" and was lucky enough to hit on Hydro-Shocks the 1st go round. Some pretty bucks fell to that load.

Now I have a Ruger 96 Lever. Wanted to see what would work out of it so I bought a box of UMC 180's, Blazer 240'and some plain Jane Win white box 240's. (couldn't find any Hydro-Shocks, nor XTP)

Results at 25 yds: UMC 4 inches : Blazer 5 1/2 inches: White box 1 inch.

50 yds: UMC 7 inches: Blazer missed a 9" target with 5 shots: White box just at 1 3/4".

100yd White box under 2 3/4". Good enough for Ohio brush & woods hunting.

 

[HandgunHunter]

Don’t mean to hijack this thread but as I read it, it got me to thinking what else can this caliber do?

I just bought a Henry Big Boy Classic lever in .44 Magnum. I would like to have a better understanding of the lethality (and practically) of this on big game, specifically moose.

For example, shooting a Buffalo Bore Dangerous Game mono bullet (265gr) from a lever gun with a 20" barrel. Assuming good shot placement, what would be the minimum terminal velocity to ensure a clean kill? Per the manufacturer, here are the ballistics for this round:

100 yards: 1,356 fps
150 yards: 1,220 fps
175 yards: 1,163 fps
200 yards: 1,114 fps
225 yards: 1,072 fps
250 yards: 1,037 fps
275 yards: 1,006 fps

For all of you shooting 44 Mag, how far out would be comfortable shooting (with a Leupold VH-5HD scope)?

When you bring up moose everything changes a bit. Their bone structure is quite large. I’d max out at 80-90 with a handgun. Roughly 125 with a carbine.

44 will take critters quite a ways out. I took white tail at 240, 186, and 98 yards this year with a 7.5” handgun and quite a few other longer range handgun critters in years past.

 

[A207X2]

After reading the posts here, I've decided to keep it to 100 yards or less, and use a good 240gr soft point bullet. I'm not even going to put a scope on it, so as not to tempt me to do something stupid.

 

[Walkathon]

Not sure it's relevant, but I've used the 240 gr .44 Hornady XTP bullets on deer out of a sabot in a .50 cal muzzleloader and had great results. It was my go-to bullet about 20 years ago. Good penetration, wound channel and never had one come apart on a shoulder.