Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 44-40 bear load????

Well, one of my uncles killed a black bear with factory 38-40 ammo out of a colt lightning rifle. Not huge, estimated to be about a 250 lb bear. Five hits (6 shots), sometimes fast followups are handy. And it was about 75 yrs ago when they didn't realize you needed magnums and premium bullets

That's cool. I can remember my Grandfather Bear hunting with a Marlin 38-40.

Call me crazy, but five hits to bring down your game seems to indicate that performance and/or marksmanship left something to be desired. Stuff happens, but my notion is that your weapon should be capable of killing your quarry with one well-placed shot in ordinary circumstances. What worked for subsistance hunters and hound men shooting bayed critters doesn't necessarily make for a good choice for the way most of us hunt. If someone wants to put the "fair" back in "fair chase", there are ways of doing that without compromising terminal performance.

I'll limit my stunt shooting to easy to kill stuff like meat deer.

It didn't strike me that way at all. I put five into my Bear and that was from a .32 Special and I was hitting right where I wanted every shot at 20 yards. Bears are Bears and they don't always conform to our standards.

I'll take your word on that. Bears are a very sometimes thing here, around, but like gold and cougars, where you find them. Never seen one with gun in hand, just while driving and along Skyline Drive of course.

I have this idea that I want one for his hide and to try his meat, but likely will never get the chance. The possibility does influence my choice of deer bullets somewhat. If I ever luck into one, it ought to make for an interesting recovery, whether for me or the EMTs that might have to drag my old, fat ass out of the bushes. My best chance might be during the Archery/Crossbow season. Bears are legal game the whole time, three full months.

One perk that comes with my Lifetime Senior license is that I don't have to pony up $10 for a bear tag (or trout stamp) anymore.

Want the rest of the story? My grandfather (the district forest ranger) had two rifles and six sons. The 38-40 was his spare that the sons had to share. Some folks didn't have the means to carefully select the "proper" rifle. My uncle was 17 at the time, meat hunting for deer to help his father feed a family of 11, took the bear as the game that was there at the time.

Great story!

Way back when, there was a story, in Gun Digest IIRC, about a young boy that hitched up a mule and wagon and went off on a hunting trip alone with his .38WCF. I've forgotten the model, if it was even specified. He killed a rabbit, a grouse, and a deer, I think, and made reloads by the fire, likely with a tong tool. I was pretty young myself and that story gave me all sorts of foolish ideas.

Closest rifle I have now is a Low Wall .44 mag. No doubt about the power of that one. I'm still refining the sights so my old eyes can use it effectively in the field. I also keep drooling over the Miroku 73s which are very close to the originals, no silly-ass safety, and have good triggers according to reports. I know they come in .357, .44WCF, and .45 Colt; not sure about the .38WCF. They ain't cheap, but are very well built and finished. Even Mike Venturino finally broke down and bought a .357 I believe, something he was dead set against at one time.

A mate of mine, now passed on, used to use a Winchester 94 in .44/40 for shooting water buffalo in Australia's Northern Territory, years ago. It wasn't his first choice, but back then in the NT there were some quirks in gun laws which made it a great deal easier to get a low-velocity rifle such as a .44/40, .44 Mag or .45/70 than to get a high-velocity rifle. John had wanted something with a bit more oomph than a .44/40 too, but when he went to the gunshop that was on the shelf.

He had a lot of "high speed" loads (that term being relative), and reckoned on usually being able to bring a buff down before the magazine was empty. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but he did kill a fair few with it.

I remember reading a gunwriter many years ago who talked of visiting a gunsmith in Australia and he had scores of shot out Winchester 44-40 barrels leftover from Australia's market hunting days.

Those high speed loads were pretty hot from what I've read, but they chickened out on them because of all the 73s still out there.

Read a story once about a guy in South or Central America who worked security for some bigwig, and was a killer-diller with a Remington 14 1/2 .44/40 pump. Not too far from a .44 mag.

The 38-40 as you may already know is a .401 cal....15.5gr of SR80 scooted a 180gr bullet down range at 1,400fps. certainly nothing to turn one's nose up at!!!!!

There were also factory "High Velocity" loads that produced 1,770fps and more than likely was 17gr of Sharpshooter powder under a 180gr bullet from a Winchester 92.

The Winchester 94 was the 30-30.

Ruger has made .38/40-10mm convertable Blackhawks from time to time, I believe. Writer Mike Venturino is fond of pointing out that the .38/40 in a revolver using black powder is pretty much identical to a .40 S&W. He also has done pine-board penetration tests with full-power .44/40 and .45 Colt black powder loads, and they are pretty impressive. Believe he uses fff to duplicate the old loads' velocities.

The pictures of his .45s in full recoil make some of the tv and movie shooting scenes you see highly unlikely. Those puppies kicked!

Yeap, they blow flames like a dragon.

44-40 website