Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire .44 Magnum

I've got exactly one datapoint. My best friend died last winter and I took it upon myself to take a deer with his Ruger Model 44 that I inherited.

I've taken deer with the 30-30. It is not my favorite by a long shot. I much prefer the bigger 30's. My GOTO gun for many years has been a Savage 99 with a slightly downloaded .308 round. The majority of my kills have been with 30-06 and 35 Whelen.

My load was a 240 grain Hornady XTP over H110. It wasn't MAX

I shot a nice buck at last light from a new elevated stand. The distance was 50-some yards. The buck ran about 50 yards and piled up. I'd taken out both lungs and the top of the heart. Terminal performance was in keeping with all my good whitetail guns in 30-06, 308 WIN, etc.




Bob’s Model 44 and the Buck


Will I use it again? Yes. This is a good rig for still hunting and for treestands in deep woods where the shots are going to be relatively short. Recoil was minimal.

The way I understand it, the 44 MAG is equal or superior to the 30-30 WCF out to about 80 yards, where the 30-30 has superior performance from 80-150 yards. My experience is that the 44 Mag did a better job at 50 than I ever saw out of a 30-30.