Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Love the ruger 44 carbine

I ended up with 3 of these. Been hunting bottomland whitetail. Handy and fun rifle. Never going back to slugs gun.

I thought about using mine in Ohio this year but ended up using my 444 Marlin.

I have a scoped 444 also for sitting stand hunting. What I like about the 44 carbines is the weight and length They are just handy. Shot a buck in the blow downs in the river bottoms. I have one set up with the factory peep sights. I just wish there was a front sight available that is like a Williams Fire sight that is tall enough to use with peeps. The brass thin front sight is a little hard to pick up against a background that is the same color.

I have a bolt action Ruger 77 that I really like. Light to carry, handles nice and shoots well.

My neighbor walked over while I was checking the zero on my rifles earlier in the fall. I told him to go grab his rifle as I have a little rifle range set up on my farm. He brought over an older Ruger 44 Carbine. I'm gonna guess it was maybe a 60's or 70's vintage rifle? He had an old steel Weaver on top. He let me put a few rounds through it. It was an easy rifle to shoot, fairly accurate, and I'll bet it would be a delight to tote through the woods. A neat little gun. Problem is, now I've been checking prices on Gunbroker. I wouldn't mind having one.

I too, have a couple of them that don't get used as much as I should. They are a joy to shoot and fairly accurate with iron sights. The one I shoot will group 2- 3 inches at 100 yards off a bench.

I bought mine from a buddy's Dad who is getting too old and fragile to hunt. It was made in 1967 and is in excellent condition. Wanted one since I was young and finally own one. I love it. Looks like a 10/22 until you looks at the business end!

Ron

This is my RUGER model 96 which is currently out of production but a well designed carbine for hunting where distances rarely exceed 100 yards or so. 100 yard accuracy with Hornady ammo is outstanding! 44 MAG is a keeper!

Sherwood

I have one with the finger groove sporter stock. It was one of my dad's guns. I love that little thing. They're pretty hard to find with that stock.

Sherwood, I have a Browning B92 I love that shot those lever revolutions well but I did not like the on game performance. Too me it seemed like they didn't expand at all. It is the only rifle I don't load for and have switched to Hornady factory hollow points in 240 grain. I was absolutely floored by how wildly the groups opened up when I tried going to lighter bullets. Anyone else find this the case with your 44 mag?

I’ve got one of the original.44 carbines....walnut stock, 4 digit serial number. Bought it while home on leave in ‘68.

Pops has a minty sporter (also called fingergroove). 1966
I popped a deer with it when IN first allowed PCR,
Neat gun.

I have one with a 3 digit sn made in 1961 like me it an a marlin 30/30 made the same year are my favorite guns

Hunting with small group. This is some river bottom ground that has corn fields. Yard to explain but the bottoms are thick. Had 8 come across a small field. Entered my blow down timber. Big doe ran within 50 yards and dumped her lung shot with 240 xtp factory hornady. Cartwheeled. 44 carbine with peeps. I'm loving this rifle

I've had a 44 International for the past 50 years. It does the job as long as the ranges aren't too long.

I picked up a 77/44 a couple of years ago, and did some more serious testing during deer season this year to find out what it shot well...and what sucked.

i had been loading 21gr Ramshot Enforcer with the Hornady 240XTP for my S&W 629 Hunter, which shot well...that load in my 77/44 averaged 1685fps, and at 75 yards would group 5 shots into about 1.5" usually.

Then i tested some lightweight R-P factory 180gr JSP loads; had 200 rounds that i had traded into years ago.... those were pretty zippy & chronoed at 2137fps average from my 77/44...but groups ran 5-6" at 75 yards...had hoped those would fare better, since i got a bunch of them, but for that rifle, they were a no-go...

Once I was hunting with a group doing deer drives and when I pulled out my Ruger semi auto one of the guys went nuts accusing me of using a .22lr. When I showed him it was a .44 he was flabbergasted.

I've used nothing but white box Winchester 240 grain soft points. The first ammo I tried was acceptable for my purposes, so I've stuck with it.

I've only shot one deer with mine, a decent 8pt buck, 120" or so shot at 40 yards, and he ran about 40 yards. Within 100 yards it is the equal of a 30-30, imo.

When I was younger I had only heard people talk about the .44 carbine, and bought the first one I laid eyes on about 15 years ago for $400. Zero buyers remorse, and my wife loves shooting the thing.

I had one of the Ruger 77/44s and could not get decent accuracy out of it. Ruger replaced it three times. That was enough for me to swear off of that model. I do have a Rossi lever action in 44 Mag. Great little gun, but the sights are terrible. I have replaced the front sight with a Skinner and have a Skinner aperture sight under the tree for Christmas from my wife. These will go to the gun smith for mounting right after the holidays. This will be my constant companion when hunting the thickets for hogs and late season deer (assuming I can get the aperture mounted in time).

Frankly, I do like the lever action better than the bolt for the 44 mag. and the type of hunting I do with it. I would love to have one of those older Ruger carbines. The ones I was around when I was a kid were not particularly accurate, but certainly accurate enough to put venison on the table. Could not get that kind of confidence in the new Ruger bolt action.

i had a stainless/synthetic 77/44 that was one of the handiest, dandiest carbines ive ever laid eyes on or used. trigger sucked, of course. only problem was that it shot patterns, even at 50 yds. i couldnt figure out why or how it was spraying bullets seemingly at random. also, with my full-house 240 xtp reloads, the recoil was surprisingly disconcerting. i also had a ruger merican predator .308 (18” barrel) at the time. the predator was similarly sized, recoiled less, better trigger, had far superior ballistics, and shot tidy 1” groups at 100. thats when the 77/44 got traded ...

Funny. I have 3 44 carbines and all shoot. One gun us the factory peep set up. Shoots the middle out of the black ring at 60 yards. One us scoped and does the same at 100 yards