Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Effective rage of a 44Mag

Anything beyond 100 yds would be pushing it with the .44 mag unless running hot handloads with premium bullets. I took my last buck at 104 yards with a Ruger 77/44 and Federal 240 gr hollow point factory loads. Rib cage hit but not through and through. Buck covered about 80 yards before expiring. If I had not seen him double back after a dash to the west I would have had a challenging tracking job due to poor blood trail. in heavy cover.

During the early 1990's I hunted nearly round for a vineyard in the hills above Napa valley, California. This vineyard rec'd an abundance of depredation permits from the Game Commission. My only rifle was a Marlin model 1894 chambered for the 44 MAG. The micro-groove rifling and slow twist did not prove accurate with any bullets except Hornady's 200 grain hollow tip which measured .430 instead of typical .429 bullets. Average group size at 100 yards was 3.5 inches using a steady rest and 4X Bushnell scope. This was not stellar accuracy but it worked quite well for my hunting where shooting distances rarely exceeded 75 yards or so. My longest shot was 115 long strides which illustrates that 44 MAG carbines have more reach than 100 yards. These Hornady hollow tips produced wide wound channels through the chest organs and were always discovered flattened out against the hide on the far side.

Coastal blacktails are not large animals like their mule deer cousins within the Sierra Mountains. I estimate the weight of the bucks I toppled at 125 lbs and does about 20-30 lbs lighter. They're easy to down with a broadside shot. - Sherwood

For years I’ve used 23.5 grains of H110 in Starline cases, CCI large pistol magnum primer and 240 grain XTP for my revolvers and my own (Old Model) Ruger carbine as well as a couple of friends’ 77/44s. I trim all my brass when new to consistent length and don’t go crazy with the chamfering tool. Just take off the burr and leave the edge square to get a good bite into the cannelure. That’s what works for me.

My 329 pd with 310g wfn cast seems to have plenty of rage.

For range I've been shooting lee 310g powder coated cast in a fairly mild load from a scoped 77/44. I've had 3 go 1" but generally it's 1.5-2. They seem to penetrate well about as far as I can lob them. I was shooting a steel plate on a hanger at 100 yards and it was really making it dance. My friends 270 hardly moved the same plate. The heavy cast bullets start slow but retain their speed over distance and don't rely on expansion anyways. It be willing to shoot deer with a cast 310 out to 150 maybe further.

B

The longest shot I've made with a .44 mag revolver to kill a whitetail doe was probably slightly over 150 yards. It was back in my young and stupider days. I used a ruger redhawk that I shot enough to shoot squirrels, groundhogs, and deer with it. The doe was running from my left to my right. Due to the stupidity of youth, I shot at it and it immediately went down and slid for just a bit on the snow and ice. It was 160 long paces from where I shot to where it lay. Bullet entered on right side, penetrated the heart (and maybe a lung - don't remember) and exited right in front of deer's left front leg. Long time ago; but remember those specifics as guy about 300 yards away on the deers left side claimed he had shot it with his handgun. Lucky shot. Unlucky seer. .44 had ability at that range though.

That.

Its effective range for killing a deer is going to be whatever range you can hit it in the vitals at. Trajectory is going to be the limiting factor IMO.