Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns real world examples of 300+ grain animal penetration

Hey guys. I have shot a lot of game with Randy Garrett's 310 grain .44 mag " factory" loads. They are astonishing in every way. I have since over the last couple decades loaded lots of 300Grain XTP and other 300 grain Hard-cast bullets. The amount recovered from game is very low. Actually I don't know right now off the top of my head of one recovered from a broadside shot on anything but above average male hogs.

Regardless of .44 or .45 caliber what have you shot that you were able to recover one of these heavy bullets from? From my experience, I have recovered several from African Game that was departing or in a standoff staring me down after having been shot once already by a client. Those end on shots have allowed some recoveries. As well as a holed up previously shot very large bear. Then I have had a selection of hogs that have been shot and oddly managed to stop these bullets on the exit side thick shield over their ribs.

That physiology of larger male hogs makes them in my experience one of the toughest big game to shoot through. Truly an American Pachyderm!

What were your load details and Velocity if known?

I've had no real tests with the .430" 340 gr Rimrock and .452" 335 gr Cast Performance bullets from my 44 mag and 454 Casull, the few small to medium deer and plus or minus 200 lb pigs have been no problem with full exits, after reading your post, I need to find a really big hog and bust him through the shoulders.

Would be shocked if he stopped either, the 44 runs an easy 1200 fps, the 45 goes a hotter 1585.

I have a pic of two Hornady 452 caliber Hornady 300 JHP non-magnum recovered from an Alaskan brown bear. I have posted it using Photo bucket in the past. What's the easiest way for me to share it now?

I only shoot deer, so don’t have much breadth of experience, but the only projectile over 200 grains I’ve recovered was a .54 cal round ball that entered a quartering towards me deer in front of the onside shoulder, traversed the chest cavity, deflected, and found its way into the offside hip, which it broke. I found it under the skin. I’ve shot deer lengthwise with the 220 gr, Speer half jacket from a .41 mag contender, which exited, and a 346gr. Gould bullet from a .45-70 that also exited. No tracking in either case. Last year I shot a doe from 15 yds with a 260 gr. WFN at about 900 FPS from a .44 SPL. Complete penetration in both cases. I wouldn’t hesitate to use any of the above on hogs, but might not expect full penetration.

Old70

I can't even find anything that will stop a 250-grain Keith bullet, much less anything heavier.


Okie John

I know this is the Handgun forum, and rifle kills aren't as helpful, but I shot a bull elk at about 30 yards with a 400 grain Speer bullet out of a Ruger #1 .45-70 Govt. The bullet went right through the spine in the neck area and lodged up against the off-side hide. I didn't chrono the load. The round was loaded by my now deceased hunting pard the summer before he died. His handwriting says that the bullet was loaded over 47gr. of AA2015. According to the book data, that's a MV of 1650.

Here's the animal in the "As it Lay" pic:


The recovered bullet weighed 339.5 grains. I broke a petal off while handling it. The bullet and petal were weighed together to get the 339.5 number, but the broke off petal is not in the pics below:




JJ, I don't know what other questions you might have, but I'm happy to answer them if I am able.

Have a great day!

I recovered two of three Garrett 405 grain .45 Colt bullets on a rather large water buffalo a few years ago. This is how I found them, poking through the offside hide after going through to shoulders. Keep in mind this animal has a really thick hide. That said, these are the best hardcast bullets I have ever used and witnessed used. I do believe that a monometal bullet is a better idea, but that's another discussion for another day. The second photo is the recovered bullets and you can see that one held together rather well. The third photo is the buffalo.

Love these threads, tks JJ

Mike drop.

I'm gonna post some in the coming days. I just did not feel like it should be a thread about my experience alone. Thanks for you guys that are sharing. I will be loading a huge batch of 300 grain hardcat bullets from a idaho company. I have three hundred to load. Once I set up the on Dillon 650 I will load them in an hour at most. That Dillon is spectacular for high volume but does require a fair amount of setup time. When I load the 240 HP cast bullets I load 2000 at one time and do 300 plus an hour. That 2000 rounds last a year or more. I just don't shoot them as much as I used to. The more you load the less the set up time matters. It would be a PITA to load 20-50 rounds with the Dillion. But when you get into the 100's of rounds it's a dream!

Planning now to use my old standby ww296, I belive it's a 21 grain load. Better check!

Forgot to add that the 405 grain Garrett load was running right around 1,200 fps from the muzzle.

The only 300gr RCBS-45- 300-swcgc I've recovered went through a buck's onside shoulder, exited between the last two offside ribs and then spined a doe hidden in the brush about 25 yards behind him.
After the buck ran his last 30', I noticed the doe's leg sticking up twitching in the brush.

Ruger 45 Colt Blackhawk 7 1/2"

Federal brass, CCI 250's and 21 gr. WW 296 for 1150 ish velocity

41" Idaho bull moose shot with a 7 1/2" FA-83 in 454 Casull.

First shot at 35-yards heart/lungs - complete passthrough - dead moose but still walking. Second shot as the moose turned to walk away; a 300 Hornady XTP over 31-grains of 296, bullet entered just ahead of the rear hip and penetrated diagonally the length of the moose and about half way up the neck, lodging under the hide. This bullet penetrated at least six feet (no bones were hit) and the recovered mushroomed XTP still weighed 290-grains.

I can only think of two and those involving Missouri deer. The first was a friend of mine I was hunting with who shot a fat little doe going away, centering her about 3 inches under the tail. He was using a Ruger Bisley with a 325 grain LBT bullet over a big dose of Winchester 296. She dropped like a rock and the exit was about quarter-sized at the bottom of her neck. Bullet was not recovered with the deer sure was.

The second was a very large doe I shot with a 5 1/2 inch Ruger Redhawk using a 300 grain 44 xtp at a confirmed 1305 ft per second. Everything went wrong as it sometimes does, and she goosed at the shot resulting in me hitting her about 3 in under the spine right behind the shoulders. The bullet didn't hit anything but lungs and one rib, course I never found that one but I did see where it cut a nickel-sized hole through a horse weed leaf on the other side. I tracked that doe for nearly 200 yards and found her in a creek bed completely bled out. She was pumping blood out through both holes and it was an easy tracking job albeit a too long one.