Guyz/galz---if you were gonna take out a moose with a 44 mag handgun (Shiras) what bullets would make the top of your list?

Many thx

Dober

Dober, I have a 480 Raging Bull. I have been shooting 2 different types of bullets. First are the speer 325gr Gold Dot bullets. These bullets have preformed very well on deer sized game with pass throughs on all 5 deer shot with them. They hit like a hammer. The next was a Barnes 275gr Barnes XPB and these were also a very good bullet but the accuracy wasn't as good but very close so not really concerned. I had a chance to take 3 deer with this bullet and it performed very well also, with all three deer dropping in their spot. The 44 will definately be a moose killer and I would opt for the barnes if they shot well, also I have heard good things about the hornady pistol bullets. I would also consider if not using the barnes bullets to use a heavy 44 if possible. Are you going to be handloading or just buying some factory loads? Whatever you choose handgunning is a fun time that is for sure. Good luck HAPPY HUNTING

I've killed two bison with a .454 . One using 300 gr Swift A-frames and one using 300 gr Hornadys. The Swift's were notably better in terms of retained weight and penetration.

45-70 contender pistol -- 405 hard cast lead at 1500 ft/sec. Go big or stay at home.

500 S&W Performance Center with Barnes 375 gr XPB FB's.

Since your title states "44", I assume your asking for bullets for the .44 magnum.

You're going to want plenty of penetration, so I'd lean hard cast over jacket. Start this one at least 1200fps, and it should penetrate a freight train.

Cast Perfomance 300 WFNGC

Oops! I missed that part.

I'd use hard cast bullets of at least 270 grains or so. The 44 is never going to be too much for moose, but it might be on the small side. Penetration helps to overcome minimalism. (Hows that for gacking it?) I DLPed a small brownie this summer. After I finally decided to poke him with the 12, it was a 3" Brenneke "original" which I used, broadside. It stuck in the offside shoulder; incomplete penetration. I went back after a few minutes - after I put clothes on- and took the 45 Colt Trapper carbine which was loaded with 320 home, hard casts alternating with 300 Sierra SP which are very hard cored. Two shots running longitudinally from the front on the struggling animal. Both exitted.

I know Sierra makes a similar 300 for the 44 though it is a bit longer and more tapered up front. It would likely work as well as a hard cast if you were intent on using jacketed.

That'd be the one.

I'll put in another vote for the Cast Performance 300 WFNGC.

I carry these in my Titanium 329PD when in bear country (My hand hurts just TYPING that!) As did my last brown bear guide on the Alaska Pennisula. If you can't do it with that bullet pushed hard, you really need(ed) a rifle.

Thx for the comments so far guys and I did mean in the 44 mag.

Safariman--try getting a pair of grips from a 500 S&W and stick them on your 329, it'll help a bit.

Dober

Great idea. They will fit that grip frame, eh? Biggest problem is that the S&W grips, even aftermarket, leave that metal backstrap exposed to chew on one's hand. Sheesh, my hand is hurting AGAIN and the gun is in the SAFE!

Yepper rock on!

Dober

While unfortunately we don't have the option of handgun hunting in Canada, an acquaintence of mine used a Marlin 1894 .44 mag to take a good sized bull moose. He used 300 grain XTPs loaded to something around 1600 fps. When he caught up with it he was about 60 yards away in the brush. The first shot staggered the moose and it started to get wobbly. He levered in another round, fired, and dropped it within a few steps of where it was when the first shot was fired.

Dober: Hard cast is the way to go...never shot a moose with a .44 but tipped over a couple elk with one.
Get him in a double lung situation, be prepared to shoot him more than once..and off you go!!!
BTW: When are you leaving for WY??
Ingwe

Man that thing look's like a flying tomato juice can, effective I'm sure!!

Ingwe-we leave either the 29th or 30th of Sept and will be down there for a few days.

Presently I have Beartooth 250 Keiths in the old 44 for personal home protection...

The old Mashburn is as always the go to, but if the hunt became a paddle bull hunt I could maybe try to sneak up on one and give him the old Dirty Harry.


Dober

Double Tap Ammo has a ready-made load with 320gr WFN at 1300 fps. I've been meaning to try out some of these but haven't yet.

http://www.doubletapammo.com/php/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_35&products_id=118

Yep thats what the smart ones do.

Anyone here got a set for sale? Where would a guy look for such?

Dober the 250 gr. Keiths would work just fine...its all I shot and the penetration was super...never felt the need for a 300 grainer..
Shot 2 elk, a couple cords of deer and three bears with that boolit..recovered one....from a lengthwise shot on a deer I went "Hogan's Alley"on..
Ingwe

aside from the hard cast stuff , it would be well to also look at the 270 gr Speer or the 300 gr Hornaday xtp . I am sure either one would do the job.........

I've got some old steel jacketed Normas that I would use. Way back when Bob Peterson of Guns & Ammo fame went to Alaska, he used those on both a Brown Bear and a big alaskan moose. The 240 gr. bullet penetrated the moose almost all of the way lenthwise !
Any of the heavier jacket bullets that work well in the .444 should work. Even the 240 gr. stuff.
The 270 gr. Speer ? That's what I have to replace the Norma bullets.
Keep in mind that if you go to a different bullet, the gun's zero may well be quite different. E

I'm with Ingwe. They're not bullet proof.

I just posted in Classifieds my hope to find a grip from a 500 or 460 S&W. Or other aftermarket grip that covers the back of the grip frame. MARK

I might, after reading above, go down to a 250gr bullet from this gun. Hardcast flatnose at full speed.

That 270 Speer is a good bullet. If more is needed than this bullet in a 44 mag, then it is time to go with a bigger "hammer".

Mark,
I have put quite a few 1300-1600 pound cows down with the 44 mag.
The Speer 270 gr. gold dot is very impressive with a forehead shot going deep down into the neck and breaking it as well. FWIW.

I have no moose experience, but have quite a bit of experience killing game with .44 and .45 caliber revolvers. I think my first choice would be one of the 300-grain bullets with a good, wide nose. I wouldn't feel terrible using a 250 Keith either.

I would want an alloy that was fairly hard, but would not shatter. My understanding is that some amount of tin helps with this. I would also shoot for bone and NOT expect it to go down right away, but would keep shooting until I had four feet in the air.

Yep.....my 300gr. WFNHCGC bullets are made by Beartooth Bullets. I get 1,250 fps and I think that they would do a fine job, if I do mine.

I've a feelin' that it would pulzerize every bone it came in contact with while still leaving a heck of a blood trail as it exited....still weighing 290+ grs.

Magnumb, my experience is they will do exactly what you say, but as with any hard cast bullet, I expect the animal to run about 3 or 4 times as far as if they were hit with a rifle (say a .30-06, .270, .300, etc.). I have seen two large wild boars drag their front legs for a couple of hundred yards with 3 or 4 WFNs through their shoulders. And, having shot or witnessed the shooting of 30 or so animals with hard cast bullets through .44 Magnums, hot-loaded .45 colts and .454s, I would say somewhere between 100-200 yards is an average run if hit through the lungs or shoulders.

While I still like shooting and hunting with handguns, my experience is modern Rifles do more damage and put them down quicker.

As with the solid coppers, one of the big advantages of hard cast bullets is that they will generally plow through whatever is beyond the "lethal portion" which is being targeted. That means you can take out big bones on the way out. A moose hit in the big bones will not get far.

http://www.rimrockbullets.net/catalog/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=79

You could just call these guys and have them stuff as man as possible into a flat-rate box (because they will) They cast all the stuff that Buffalo Bore uses in their ammo. I've only sent about 3 cylider fulls of the 305's down range over 23 grains of WW296. They clocked a healthy velocity, killed on one end, and maimed on the other... I'd use them on moose. If you follow my advice, you'd also better order a Redding Profile Crimp die and make full use out of the squre crimping groove on the said pill...

I've been shooting their gas checked 255 Keiths in my 44 Special for a couple years, they work really good on schitt at 1100 FPS. Can't imagine what a 305 at 1250 would do to critters...

I've only killed deer with .44 mag revolvers, always with Hornady XTP's. I've never recovered one. Wound channels seem to indicate rapid but limited expansion. They are very accurate in my revolvers. I would probably go 300 grains for moose.

I'd use the 250 grain Partition. I have never tried the handgun Partitions, but my experiences with them in quite a few rifle chamberings has me holding them in high regard.

I sure wouldn't argue with your contention.....rifles with proper placement and bullets rarely play second fiddle to the more common hand cannons.

I load the 300gr. Beartooth WFNHCGC in my .44 for a specific reason......bear protection. My thinking, and perhaps only my own, is that I want to penetrate, pulzerize and cause as much devastation as quickly as possible. An expanding, conventional bullet may cause and leave a larger wound channel, but I'm most interested in trying to stop one's approach as quickly as possible. My feelin' is that my choice of bullet, for those purposes, has a better chance of doing that, in a shorter amount of time. I don't know that my choice is the definitive answer nor the best, but after bouncin' multiple bullet choices off of many here and from guides that I've had occasion to discuss this stuff with, it seems, at worst, a good choice.

Placement is always the key, but when under a bit of a time constraint (say...being attacked!!!...), placement can be less than desired. A well put together HC just might give you an edge under those circumstances......YMMV.

A friend/guide who I initially met during a hunt 2 years ago in the Bob Marshall showed me 3 perfectly mushroomed XTP's out of his .41 Taurus. These were recovered from a blackie that his hunter had only wounded and that he then had to dispatch at 10 yards to eventually arms length away. He hit it four times as it quickly closed the distance on the both of them. The 3 perfectly mushroomed XTP's were the first of 4 shots fired, all being eventually recovered just beneath the NEAR side hide. The fourth, launched at arms length as the bear veered left directly in front of this guide towards the frozen hunter, was placed on hair directly behind the bears ear. This ended the adventure.

I must admit, the 3 XTP's Dennis showed me, with 3 other guides in attendance, were picture book perfect. No bullet manufacturers advertisement could have been more convincing. He kept them to show others their performance, or lack thereof, depending. I am sold on their performance on thin skinned animals and 2 legged vermin, but when thicker hide comes into play, I'll pass. So will he, as he now carries only HC pills and has moved on up to a .44, which to my way of thinkin', especially in "the Bob", isn't a bad idea.

Good luck this upcoming season...........

Good info on the 500 grips... may have to see if brownells sells them as parts... my 329 isn't horrible with 300 cast, but its really close to horrible.

We are loading 270 hard cast GC right now so it doesn't beat the gun up quite as bad.

If not that I'd go barnes of course, but moose seem to not take a lot of killing... Me, I'd grab my 329 and our 270 cast or the mentioned 300 cast, put the first one in the crease through both lungs low, and the second in the shoulders and be done with it.

I do know our 329 is very easy accurate enough for 50 yards though the sights leave a bit to be desired when I'm shooting paper at 100 with it.

I load Speer 300gr Uni-core in my .44's for bear protection. The Uni-core are supposed to limit expansion and act more like a cast. I have a magna-ported Taurus so I don't shoot cast bullets. I'm also playing with some 240gr silhouette bullets to see if they work any better out of my 2" tracker than the Uni-core, I'll post my penetration results soon since both loads over penetrated my last test of a sand bag and two 2x8's .

My 629 wears those grips and has since my first range trip with the stock grips....... They do wonders for one's confidence and truly do soften the blow a bunch.

As to where to get them.....I tried several different sites (a few years back) and the only place that I found to make such a purchase was directly from S&W. That might have now changed, but I remember them being of reasonable cost, which surprised me a bit (being directly from the manufacturer and all).

Good hunting............

Well since all I use is cast slugs I'll have to say.........use a cast slug, there's no bad angle's with cast, just make sure you are lined up on the vitals on the other end. I like 2 holes, one in & one out & I've had that for 45 years of using cast on big game, I've never recovered a bullet, ever! I used a Ruger 480 & a 370 gr cast slug on my moose, he went about 15 yds, I've taken many elk, bears, deer, antelope, mountain lion & african game, I don't understand all the running, I've never, not once had an animal run 100 yds when shot with a cast slug. I did have one run a long ways once when I used a 270 gr Speer Gold Dot on a cow elk but it wasn't the bullets fault it was mine, another elk bumped into her just as I made the shot & it hit her to far back, she ran maybe half a mile, laid down 3-4 times & I finished it. A bullet thats 1/2" in diameter at 1000-1200 fps thats put in the right place is unbeatable. I took 11 animals last year with revolvers, hogs, 3 deer, a bear & an elk, all with cast, none ran 10 yds, most didn't run at all!
Use that 44 with confidence on that moose.

Bear, 6' 9", Ruger 44 magnum 250 gr Keith



cow elk, Ruger 45, 260 gr Keith



Record book warthog, FA 475, 370 gr. LBT



Forkhorn muley, Ruger 357 maxi, 173 gr Keith



Mountain Lion, S&W 357, 173 gr Keith



I take it back, one animal did run 40 yds, this Wyoming buck, shot him with my Bisley 41 magnum & 230 gr cast, thats the entry hole, he was facing me. Also took 2 whitetails in Montana with the 41 & 230 gr Keith, then there were 6 hogs in Texas, all with a 41 blackhawk & 230 gr cast, you get the idea, most died in their tracks.



Dick

Dick

Great photos! Thanks for sharing.

Dick is right on the money on "shoot them from any angle" with good cast bullets. You will never recover one either. The one thing I don't like about hard cast bullets, is the narrow wound channel "if" you don't hit bone. I have had better luck with the plane old 240 grain Remington flat nose jacketed bullet. They are very robust, simply will not shed their jackets and penetrate like crazy. I haven't recovered any of these either on hogs and deer with shoulder shots, but the wound channels are pretty darn impressive! I have shot them into clay, dirt, rocks, trees etc. trying to destroy them. Haven't done it yet and they are EXTREMELY accurate. I shoot them at a smidge over 1,500 fps in a 10.5" Super Blackhawk. I can't see how an elk or moose would stop one either.

My second choice by a slim margin is the Hornady XTP in 240 and 300 grain. Hornady really nailed it with this line of bullets. I really dig the 180 grain XTP's in .357 magnum. What an awesome hunting bullet and super accurate. In the end, there really aren't any bad .44 bullets, just bad shooters ;o)

You are on your hunt now, but I thought I would throw my hat in the ring. Flinch

I could be wrong, probably am, but wasn't that 44 Rem jacketed developed for the .444?

I don't know, but I bought several thousand of them and they are all I hunt with. They always mushroom, yet never shed the jackets. I don't think they are "bonded", but they might as well be. Flinch