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I've shot medium size mule deer bucks with a 44Mag and G22 .40S&W. The 44Mag was with some older Sierra 240HP and the 40 with 180g cast. The one shot with the .40 was through the lungs at about 35 yards and it went for about 300 yards before lying down. The 44Mag hit the deer in about the same place and it went about 15-20 yards and folded. I don't think it was the caliber as much as the bullet design. As others have mentioned the use of a JHP bullet out of a 44Mag seems to make good sense and good results for deer.
I loaded both calibers hot and with the 44Mag I was also told that shooting full on hot loads out of my 629 was not advisable so I passed on a steady diet of them. I would not have any fears about shooting a cylinder or two in a target session with the hot loads but most of the ammo through the 629 was moderately loaded.
Most of the reloads through the old Vaquero 44Mag where hot and hotter. It is ready to go with 300g cast loads at 1377fps over my chronograph for those bear encounters in Idaho and Montana.
