Hi, I'm the new guy here (second post). Been mainly hunting with handguns for the past 15 years now, and harvested a lot of whitetails during this time with .44 magnum handguns.
Along the way I've tried a lot of bullets and finally settled on what works for me. I don't know if it will apply for you or not . . . for the advertisers don't necessarily agree with what I prefer! LOL
Last year I took it pretty hard when I couldn't find the first deer in 15 years since switching to the Federal Cast Core 300 grain hardcast lead flat nose .44 mag cartridge. The shot was only about 45 yards and the shot was good and clean . . . I simply had no blood trail. A week later we found my buck, about 400 yards away. Still . . . my string had ended, and it HATE leaving a deer in the woods as bad as I do having to track it!
As someone else mentioned, a heavy flatnose hard cast bullet will virtually always do the job, and do it very fast. IF they run at all, generally the deer I shoot run no further than 40 yards. Of course, I've never recovered a bullet . . . you WILL get an exit wound. A non-expanding bullet also doesn't damage as much meat either.
This round proved extremely accurate too for me in my 6" holosight topped S&W Model 29-5 revolver too.