Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 44 mag results not impressing.

Have shot a few deer with my 44 mag Marlin. Never tried more bullet than 240 Nosler JHP or XTP. Shots 80-100yds. Never stopped one in an animal, but I did dig 2 out of the dirt behind after the shot. Both bullets went 5-6" in the dirt after angled broadside pass-through. For deer, I would not go heavier or tougher than a JHP in 240, and for lung shots a 200 XTP would likely be ideal, though I've never done it. Deer are soft, and more bullet just isn't required.

Only shot one doe with a 240gr XTP and it was a bang-flop-twitch for a while. Right above the heart broadside as I remember.

I have no direct knowledge of the .44 Rem Mag on game. I do know it's popular with our hardwoods hunters.

If I hunted anything, and I mean anything, where shots were limited to around a hundred yards or so, I'd buy a small barreled .44 Rem Mag rifle. a 270 grain .44 Mag bullet ought to work on everything including the largest bears.

I do own a Guide Gun .45/70. There ain't nothing that walks that it won't kill. It might work on blue whales. I will tell you that when powder charges increase behind a 400 grain bullet, recoil gives brutal a new definition. I ain't so sure that a .44 Rem Mag gives up enough to the .45/70 when used on North American big game at appropriate ranges to make much difference.

If you happen to run across "40 Years with the .45/70" it might be worth your while to read it. Matthews shot a lot of deer with a .45/70 rounds that he had loaded to around .44 Rem Mag performance.

The 44 mag, like other large handgun cartridges, is a few different critters. The first and most well-known guise is the 180-240 gr shooter, the one we are talking about for deer hunting.

The second guise is more recently developed, and it is all about shooting heavy bullets 300-400 gr. A 44 loaded this way is a behemoth of killing power, punching animals end to end. Pioneers with heavy bullets in the 44 mag took all manner of big, dangerous game with it. I'm sure it still happens.

Probably another example of choosing the wrong bullet. I kill elk with a 44 mag carbine ,240 gr Speer semi jacketed flat point. I can't imagine it not being sufficient for any deer at appropriate ranges.

As for not DRT kills, animals will run as long as their brain has blood or you take out the running gear including the spinal shots.
90 yard is easily done by a deer lung shot, even with one shoulder broken. Even a higher lung shot, the chest cavity has to fill with blood until it reaches the hole to give a blood trail or at times hide,fat,tissue cover the hole when the animal moves or runs, so no blood can escape.

In most instances, unless a fast explosive bullet is used, one will not see any blood for the1st 10-20 yards after a deer is hit and runs.

Gauging a bullets effectiveness by the amount of blood trail or how far the animal runs shows inexperience.

Usually those factors are due to shot placement rather than the effectiveness of the bullet.

The last bit of advice I would heed would be from someone who has no knowledge and has not hunted and killed with a 44 mag

If you're shooting factory stuff, the Federal Hydra-shock 240 works pretty good too.

Lots of good .44s out there.

With holler points, I suggest shot placement in the bottom 1/3 of the chest. The doe I took with a H-S, looked like she took a hit from a .270.

I took a button buck at 60yds. last fall with a Ruger 77/44 and Winchester 240gr., it was a bang flop. My brother in law and his two sons have used the same combination to a dozen or so deer over the last 5-6 years or so. Only one deer was not recovered, most were bang flops. I shoot 240XTP's over a charge of H110 in my 77/44.

I'm shooting a Marlin lever in .44 mag and having trouble getting it to group consistently. I'm trying to run 180 gr. loads (factory) but am just about ready to give up on these and try something else. Scope's a Redfield 2x-7x. At 50 yards the windage is good-right down the middle, but the elevation tends to be all over the target, from 2" high to 2" low. I don't think I'm asking too much to expect better than a 4" group at 50 yards. I've previously checked all the mounting screws on the base and rings, but will do that again. The scope seems to be parallax free as best as I can tell. I checked it off the bags out to 100 yards, and the crosshairs don't shift a bit. Other than playing with the loads, does this seem like a scope issue or what?

If you can check each shot POI, it will be more significant in diagnosing the problem. Do they jump back and forth high and low,or is it random. Back and forth I would think indicates something is loose.

Another thing is the rifle might not shoot the180's well. Try a few std 240 gr.

My 44 Marlin will do better than 4" at 100yards shooting Speer Semi Jacketed Flat points. I use to do that with the iron factory sights before when my eyes were better and now I have a cheap $50 NcStar scope on it and it will do the same as it did before, maybe a little better.

One thing I did find out when fiddling with scopes is that the typical mount that fits a Marlin 94 will not hold a standard length scope that you might put on a full size rifle. I had an old Weaver V7 and then a a Leupold and they both hung out there too far unsupported . I could litterly move the objective lens end around. Problems went away when I put a shorter scope on it

I have killed a few deer with 44 magnum most from a pistol and one from the Marlin 1894. The pistol kills have all be done with 250 gr Keith Bullets and the rifles was the Hornady 240 gr HP before they were labeled XTP. The rifle kill was back around 1979 and it was a big doe facing me at about 30 Yards, i shot her in the center of the chest and she just sit down on her butt and rolled over and kicked a couple of times. Most pistol shots they run about 20 to 30 yards and lay down and don't get back up. I still have a couple boxes of the Hornady 240 gr's not labeled XTP'S. I still have a Marlin 1894 in 44 mag and may use it this year in the pines.

I prefer the performance of the Speers that Saddlesore referred to but my Marlin shows a marked preference for the XTP�s. With H110 and a 1X3 weaver I get consistent 2 inch groups or better at 100 yds. Everything else is in the 4-5 inch range. I read somewhere that the Marlins prefer a .430 bullet vs the .429. I bet a .431 hard cast would shoot even better but I don�t want to mess with leading and feeding issue of a Keith style SWC.

DJB. I would try the XTP's , but I have not seen them on shelves for 2-3 years at least. Ditto with the.357's. I bought 500 of these Speers quite a few years ago. Mostly for elk. Don't know how the XTPs would work on elk though.

Hey Vince! Funny, I haven�t found the Speers in years and now H110 is tough to find locally.

For elk I would bet the Speer SP would be a better as the XTP�s are softer in my experience.

I have dumped elk with that bullet and H110,and it doesn't leave anything lacking, that is for sure

With what I have left of bullets and H110,I'll never use them all up.

I have been trying to sell my Marlin, Ruger SBH and all the dies, bullets, brass,ammo etc.as a package, but have had no bites

I have taken my Marlin (with 270g Speers) as my back-up rifle to CO for years. Finally put a scope on it this year since we can now use pistol caliber rifles for our deer season and my eyes aren't what they used to be.

I am sure the XTP's would work fine broadside but I have seen how far a 240 Speer will penetrate a cow skull/neck when putting them down for meat.

Good luck selling your stuff. If you want to try a box of the XTP's PM me your address . You have been more than generous with your time and advice.

ye olde 240 g XTP and H110 combo is quite the deer killa.

The XTP is markedly more accurate than other bullets in my gun, but I haven't shot any of the 240 persuasion that shot so badly that I couldn't use them for hunting. The other plus with XTP is they have shot better with hotter charges than others in my Marlin, as in 25.0 H110 is the most accurate load.

This does seem to be a hot load, 24gr H110 is the max I'll load. Plenty shout enough load.

As I said, 25 shoots much better than 24 or 24.5 in my Marlin. Velocity is more uniform, and the shots cluster more than string. Primers make a difference too. CCI350 are much hotter than WLP, for example, and using 25gr with WLP seems to be less in peak pressure than 24 with 350's.

The data for H110 in 44mag and 240 XTP goes up to 25.9gr in the Hornady Contender data in the #7 manual. Even that isn't a max load. Hornady doesn't list max loads in their data, just loads up to a particular velocity category. Example: the 1750 velocity column in the T/C data for H110 lists 25.3gr, and in the 1800 column, 25.9 is listed.

The best shooting load with Nosler 240's out of my rifle is 23.1gr H110 and CCI350. Speers like 24.0gr and 350's.