Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Lever or bolt for maximum quietude?

Considering a suppressed .44 Magnum for short-range woods work.

Basically, it comes down to the two scopeable .44 Mag long guns that are reasonably available: Ruger 77/44 and Marlin 1894. There's a great shop that specializes in Marlins near me. There is a whole micro-industry of smiths who build integrally-suppressed setups on Rugers. Sadly, neither of these guns has a reputation for accuracy that would approach any current entry-priced rifle-cartridge bolt gun, but the world is imperfect, and they appear to be the two best options for sending 300 grains of flat nose hard cast downrange at 1050 fps.

The idea would be to knock over a piggie, and then maybe have a chance at the others while they stand around wondering what just happened. The quietest cycling action is a big factor in which way to go. Going for speed will make enough noise that I assume I'd be better off with an AR.

I am expecting that a bolt could be cycled slowly and be quieter than a lever, but don't have that much experience with levers. A Tikka is a lot smoother and quieter than an 1894 that hasn't had any action work (smoothing), but I have never seen a 77/44 in person so don't know if that's relevant.

Anyone have first-hand experience with these two platforms?

Anyone? Bueller? Mule Deer?

The 77 will be quieter just due to it having less moving parts flapping around inside the reciever when the bolt is worked.

+ 2 ^^^^^^^^^**

I don't remember but doesn't someone make a 44 RM semi auto carbine?

Ruger made 2 different iterations of semiauto 44s though both have been discontinued for some time. They are pretty noisy though and usually not super accurate.

OP keep in mind too that the Marlin will have a 1 in 38" rifling twist that may not stabilize a 300 grain cast bullet depending on bullet style and length. The Ruger bolt guns I believe have a steeper twist rate and shouldn't have any trouble with even the heaviest bullets.

Played with a Tubbs integral sup 77/44 a bit. I'd go with a 300 Blackout AR myself. 8.5in barrel with a Silencerco Omega. Load Corelocts or the subsonic frangibles. Core lokts may be better for pigs if they have rubbed much.

The 77/44 has a 1/20 twist barrel, the Marlin a 1/38.

The Ruger would better stabilize a heavy (300+ grain) slug, giving you more oomph and penetration with the velocity needed to remain sub-sonic.

JB wrote an article in which he stated that a bolt gun was quieter than an AR and gave a better chance for extra shots.

I wonder if a Contender/Encore might also work well.

Bluemonday suggested a .300 Blackout. I believe Ruger has a supressor-ready RAR Ranch that only needs a can added. 200+ grains at just over 1000fps are easy-peasy. Cheapest option without a doubt.

Just so happens I'm picking up a new .44 rifle today. I believe I'm going to leave this one "loud" though.

Haven't tried it but read that a 300 gr bullet is too long to fit in a Ruger 77/44 magazine.

Seems an Encore or Contender would be the best bet.

Don't say that too loud, mine might hear you.

Actually, 1.6" is it. No more. I think it leaves a little performance on the table, but I'm still getting 1590s with Lil 'gun and 300 grain Beartooth Bullets WFNs. Feeds like eel snot, too.

Some 231, Unique, or something like that, and 1000 fps is quite (quiet?) possible

I wish the mag/rifle did accommodate 1.775" OAL. I have plenty of Beartooth's LCMN GC bullets I use in my Redhawk. I could probably pick up another 100 fps, but it ain't so....

Pappy, that is nice!

Thanks. Just got back from the LGS that received the transfer.

Been wanting one of these for years, but opportunity and money never coincided. The stock has a nice, subdued, oil finish. Best of all, with some weak cheaters, I can see the sights. It ain't gonna be NIB for long.

I can't get excited about .300 Blackout due to the lack of bullets designed to have good terminal effectiveness at subsonic velocities. You're talking either 110gr-ish lightweights, or expensive Gemtech that may or may not actually expand, but we don't know because there aren't any successful gel tests that can be found online. And they are liable to go out of stock. Alexander Arms has shown samples of a new product, but that is still vaporware.

I think if I went with a rifle cartridge, I'd go .358 Win and have the option of pretty serious supersonic loads as well. It has a large enough bore-to-powder ratio to work pretty well in a 16" barrel. But the subsonics would still be limited to what people load for .357 Mag. That's a lot less than what can be loaded for .44 Mag. Given the "picket fence of calibers" as someone once said, I tend to lean toward a fully-optimized system if I'm going to invest to go down this path at all.

There may also be the possibility of loading the longer 300+gr bullets in .44 Special cases to keep them in magazine length.

I know Beartooth's 300 grain LCMN GC can be loaded in .44 Special cases and still fit the rifle, but the meplat is smaller, .320 vs .340 for the WFN GC, if that matters.

I've used both bullets, using the LCMN GC in a SuperRedhawk, a Redhawk, and a SuperBlackhawk due to the higher velocity potential, but have only used the WFN GC in the 77/44 because of the performance advantage in the restricted mag length and trying to get the highest velocity I can. It is a noticeably shorter bullet.

In a suppressed rifle, either bullet/case configuration would work, both combinations being able to go 950 to 1000 fps, so it would, to me, be a matter of which one is more accurate.

A friend has a suppressed .357 that has worked good with 180 grain cast bullets at 970 fps, fully penetrating deer side to side, 9 shots, 8 deer.

I'm strictly a wannabe pig hunter, as they haven't quite made it here yet (getting close), but it seems a lot of the boys do head shots, even with big-bore airguns of .30-.45 caliber so expansion may be unnecessary. A wide flat-nosed .44 should put some serious smack on them for sure.

It do!

OlongJohnson-
If you're willing to consider cartridges other than the 44 RM that also shoot big heavy bullets, you might consider a suppressed 450 Bushmaster bolt rifle. Here's an example built by a New Zealand smith on a light-weight Remington action. The rifle with score and suppressor but without bipod weighs a bit less than six pounds:
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He posts sometimes on 450bushmaster.net with the forum name "Kiwi Greg". Here's a thread with more photos including nice paper targets and animals:
[color:#0000ff]New Zealand Hunting & Shooting Forums[/color]

Conversions of bolt rifles to the 450B cartridge have become relatively common in Michigan and Indiana recently when game laws were altered to permit deer hunting with some straight-walled cartridges in formerly shotgun-only regions. The least expensive option along these lines would be a rebarreled Savage.

Unfortunately, I've no first-hand knowledge of how well suppressed ARs in 450B operate with subsonic loads.

--Bob

The bullet hitting a hog makes a good bit of noise. This will usually spook the rest of them. You don't realize how loud the bullet impact is until you use a suppressed gun.

Just stumbled onto a potentially very good concept. Forget the Ruger with its "will it, won't it?" accuracy. Set up a Savage for .44 Auto Mag, which is basically .308 or 30-06 brass cut to 44 Mag length. Same bullets as .44 Mag, but a standard bolt face, and no worries about COAL. All the reasons that Savages are appealing for loony projects apply. Hmmm...

For 300/221 you need to google Lehigh.. the 194 max expansion started at under 1000 fps has NEVER failed to kill or expand out to 200 yards in my rifle... as long as I hit vitals, which I missed once on finally this year and hit a hair to high...never hurt the deer, he was back that night again...