Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire .44 Magnum

I let this one get away, and I'm still kicking myself!



If anyone see's it out there, lemme know.., I WANT IT BACK.

Yes but you have to shoot them twice to make a 44.

I've killed quite a few deer with 44 mag lever guns, and a bunch with a 30/30.

Broadside rib shots, they seem to run a little further using the 44 mag and 240 soft points or the Hornady 240 XTP. They're very dead, and great blood trails.

The 30/30, with either 150 or 170 grain FP, seems to shorten up the blood trails a little.

Heck I love em both, and in the woods I hunt I'll take either.

I woulda said bout the same with like type bullets before I tried fast 130gr FP in 30-30. Whole nother animal.

Big difference would be for subsonic suppressed, but that's a guess on my part.

My Browning 92 carbine in .44 Mag is one of the guns that I always regret having, in a weak moment, sold back in the late 1990s.

For what its worth, I just saw RCBS Carbide Dies at Walmart for $25. 1/2 price if you need some dies for that 44.

Man! This is high on my "To Do" list. As soon as a few expendable funds appear, I'll be all over it.

Dang Grandkids are expensive little toots! (And too young to shoot still!!)

Afternoon guys!!! A little late to the show, I have resently acquired a Rossi 454 casull, early one no safety, real nice bluing. Have not shot it much yet. Would it be comparative to the 44 rem mag in killing power from a 20" bbl? Have some 300xtp, 250 Barnes xpbs, & 200 cast lead. Have only shot frogs with the cast, ya I know a little over gunned but ya wouldn't believe the air time ya get. Thanks, any reloads would be good to. Bill out. 🐾👣🇨🇦

Trajectory (IE, gravity) is a fact of life. Regardless of the romance of ONE critter killed.

Huh, I could have written that myself. My experience is exactly the same.

I wonder if I have your old one ? By the way - LOVE it.


Ok- done rubbing salt....

Could be. Gold trigger?

Well over the years I have taken several deer with the 44 magnum from both rifles and pistols. More than several using various 30-30 carbines. Difference being I usually used cast Kieth style semi wadcutters from the 44 Magnum and Jacketed 150 grain bullets from the 30-30 rifles. Both worked just fine with deer traveling a bit farther when hit with the cast bullets from the 44 unless I hit bone. This said it seemed to me the 44 left a more reliable blood trail but I had to follow the blood trail more often and farther. MY 30-30's were almost always loaded with 32.2 grains of 3031 under either the Sierra or Speer 150 grain bullets. Seemed to me the 30-30 was the faster killer using those two contrasting loads. I also recovered very few bullets getting exits more than most of the time. Maybe if I had used jacketed bullets in the 44 I would feel differently but if I had to chose one over the other for deer it would be the 30-30.

I’ve had a Ruger 77/44 for a few years always thought it was a light handy gun but have yet to harvest a deer with it what’s the muzzle energy in 44 mag vs say 80gr of blackthorn 209 in a muzzle loader?

Lol !

I've shot one hog at 30 yards with the 270gr Speer in the .44, shooting a Ruger #1 - it was DRT. The same Ruger has been kinda fussy about accuracy, and 1¾-2" groups is about the best I can do at 100 yards. The one .30-30 I have, a Contender Carbine, also worked well on a doe, and is a good deal more accurate.

Other than a wornout lever gun, I would think the .30-30 would be more accurate and have a better trajectory than the .44 mag. I have not yet given up working on mine, however.