Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 44 Magnum for Whitetail Deer?

Hitman whats your average range shooting whitetail ? Also how long is your barrel on your Redhawk? thanks.........

Remington 240gr I'm getting 2" groups at 100yds on a calm day! havent had a deer go more then 30-40 yrds and you know it when you hit-um

A 240 grain Nosler jacketed hollow-point in front of a maximum charge of H110 in my old style Ruger semi-automatic Carbine (1823 fps) hit a Kentucky whitetail buck that field-dressed out at 180 pounds square in the shoulder @ 60 yards.

It was a "bang/flop" kill... the big buck went down and struggled in an attempt to get up for a few seconds, but never made it... and died on the spot.

The bullet went through BOTH shoulders and took out the upper, front edge of the heart with a fair amount of blood-shot meat and a large exit hole in the off-side shoulder.

My Ruger Carbine is fitted with a 1.5x-4.5x variable scope with heavy "plex" crosshairs. I believe the .44 magnum cartridge with a decent hunting bullet in a carbine/rifle is a 125 yard deer rifle. However, if I were to use the Carbine again on deer, I'd probably load 240 grain soft-points rather than hollow-points. I believe there would be less blood-shot meat using soft-point bullets.

Other than the blood-shot shoulder meat, you could NOT have asked for a better one-shot "kill".

With a handgun, a great deal depends on the shooter's abiltiy with the gun and how the sights are done on the handgun. With a scope and a good, solid rest with a 2-hand hold... a good shot could be effective out to 80-100 yards.

Off-hand, 2 hand hold with a low-powered scope, 40-75 yards, depending on the shooter's ability with the gun.

Off-hand, 2-hand hold, iron sights, 25-60 yards depending on the shooter's ability with a handgun.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Marlin 1894 20 inch barrel, WW white box 240grain soft points, Leupold VX1 scope in weaver mounts. Point and click, 1 shot, 1 deer....max range for me is 100 yards tops..

I have been handgun hunting for several years with a 6" 44 mag. I use a 200 gr. XTP and 28.5 gr H110. My son started hunting with me 4 years ago and I started him with a Ruger Deerstalker carbine (20" barrel semiauto) and he has harvested 8 deer over the past couple of years. The performance was impressive. I think this is a great cartridge for deer at less than 100 yards and wonderful for the recoild shy. Less recoil than a 243!

Me too!

Him and a few hundred of my dollars are at the taxidermist's shop right now.

ThePredator

The Ruger Deerfield has an 18-1/2" barrel.

I have shot two deer and a black Russian with the 44mag, the doe and boar were shot with a Win94, and a spike buck was shot with a 99/44 or Deerfield.

I used a Win/Nosler 250gr partition gold on the boar, shot him at 35yds, right behind the shoulder, he dropped at the shot, wiggled some, then died, recovered bullet weighed 231grs.

Shot the doe with a Remington 275gr Core-Lokt and boy did it mess her up, mucho damage, one shot kill. The spike buck was hit with a 270gr Speer gold-dot and it did a great job.

If you hit a deer in the shoulder, or any edible part, kiss it goodbye unless you are using hard cast. I would rate the 250gr partition load as the best expanding bullet with the 270gr gold dot a close second. Would like to handload a 200gr Barnes which would come close to 2,000fps and retain all or most of its weight, and really flatten the trajectory.

I still prefer the Speer 270 GDSP over all other commercial offerings for the .44 Mag.
I have gotten consistant penetration, minimal meat damage, just enough expansion to matter, and one shot kills on the last 7 deer I have taken with my Marlin 1894.
Of the bullets I have tried, the Speer is the most accurate in my rifle, with 100 yard groups always less than 2 inches, and at 50 yards, pretty much just a raggad hole.

I've killed a few with my Marlin lever gun. I have one specific place I like to hunt with it. The farthest shot is 75 yds. I'm yet to have to shoot over 50.

I shoot the 240 gr. Nosler PTHP's. Accuracy is great. They penetrate great and you can usually eat up to the hole. I have several boxes of the Speer gold dot's I plan on using when I shoot up all my Nosler's.

Joseph

I have a Ruger old style carbine I put a bushnell 1.5to4.5 heavy plex shot gun scope on it .I have only shot 1 hog and a couple of strays with it . Rem factory ammo also Federal factory ammo..240 grain jhp.Ireally like the little carbine .Feels good in my hands and quick to mount for me.

Here is one my friend took at about 30 yards. The buck was facing him and put his head down to sniff the ground when he pulled the trigger. Went through the neck and into the body cavity. Dropped him on the spot. He is shooting an NEF.

240gr bullet recovered about 16 inches of penetraton.

Nice enough buck, bad muzzle control...

yea, well it's a single shot and it's empty and it was placed there for the photo so I think we are OK with it.

Didn't mean to make you mad. But.. then why not. What difference does it make if it is a single shot? Only takes one to kill ya right? It's empty? Sure, but then a basic firearms safety rule clearly states to "treat every firearm as if it were loaded." And if you're placing it there for the photo, then why not place it in a safe position? I mean you had to handle the gun and put it down somewhere, so why not somewhere safe? I'm not really busting your chops, but you took the effort to make a "statement" with the second picture, so none of the excuses really cut it. Have a good day.

Understood.

Peace out!

blammer,
Do you know what load and bullet he was using? That's about as pretty a mushroomed bullet as you'll see. For the discussions sake, I have had excellent results from an 8 3/8" S&W M29 with the 250 gr. Nosler on several whitetails.

I will find out the specific load. I do know it was a 240 gr but what make escapes me now....

Here it is 23 gr WW296 with 240 gr Horn XTP.

"Here it is 23 gr WW296 with 240 gr Horn XTP."

Sweet! That's exactly the load that I shoot in my Ruger SRH. I chronographed it at 1380fps out of it's 7 1/2" barrel. I figure it was going a good bit faster out of the rifle in the photo. The only deer I killed with this combo was a complete pass through, did a nice job.