Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Ruger 44 mag carbine

Hello!

I have a question about 44 Mag ammo or possibly some recommendations on it.

My s-i-l was drawn for a WI bear tag for this fall. Years ago (30) she used to deer hunt with me. She always used my Ruger model 44 and with it shot 6-7 pretty decent bucks. She eventually decided deer hunting wasn't for her and she stopped going. Fast forward to the present and she finds herself with a bear tag for this fall. She is very excited to say the least and immediately asked if she could use my Ruger.

When she deer hunted I always bought Remington 240 grain soft points. They certainly seemed to do the job on deer so I am wondering if anyone has any experience with them on bear, or if there is a brand and or bullet type that would be better suited for bear.

Any replies are much appreciated.

WS

My Mother kept a Ruger 44 carbine for shooting nuisance bears that got into her heritage orchard. She only fired that rifle when there was something to shoot at, so a box of 50 rounds lasted her a decade or more. IIRC, she shot Remington 240 grain JSPs and didn't complain about their performance. That was before the fish and game people live trapped nuisance bears and relocated them in order to preserve the resource. She just killed them and then called Dennis, the local CO, to come and get the carcass.

I had a buddy who killed a charging grizzly and about a dozen baited black bears with Winchester white box 240JSP. The Hornady loaf with the 240 XTP might be a good one too as XTPs are usually pretty tough IME.

Another buddy killed a bunch of big northern Wisconsin bucks back in the 70’s with a 44 carbine and he always used handloaded 265gr Hornady SPs. He claimed he always got exits and huge blood trails no matter the angle.

Any flavor out of that gun will work for bears. I use Remington 240 gr HTP’s and haven’t had any problem with bears in my 44 carbine. Last one I shot in the head and the recovered round was perfectly mushroomed. Found that in the neck

Thank you for the replies.

I didn't think there should be any problem but I wanted to ask. This will make her very happy.

A Sincere thanks.

WS

All I could add was the Remington 240 JHP worked swell on tough hogs. The only bullet I recovered didn't really open like a hollow point, it just wadded up in front, which was swell. This was from a marlin lever. I shot the Ruger Carbine later ( old and newer) with the then available Winchester 250 Nosler. It was a great shooting load, but we never killed anything with it. As said, I would use anything it shot well! Good luck!.

240 gr JSP are the ticket