Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .44 mag. rifle for deer???

Who has experience, luck, or opinion on the .44 mag. rifles for white tail? Brush work or not so much?

My opinion is that it is a fine caliber for Whiteys. Just bought a Marlin 1894 this year and plan to hunt with it this fall, hopefully I will have a couple of dead deer to back my opinion.

I haven't used the 44 mag for deer, but I've used the 240 XTP in my muzzle loader at just a bit more muzzle velocity, and it never let me down. I don't endorse knowingly shooting through the brush, but I've had one catch an unseen twig. From the looks of the entry, it went in sideways, but still manage to exit, and dropped the deer right there. Twig to deer was about 10 yards, and the bullet was deflected about 8" near as I can tell. A lever rifle in .44 mag with a peep or low mag scope would meet a lot of criteria for brush work, as they are light, handy, and give you a fast follow up if one of those unseen twigs intervenes.

I use a 96/44. The 44 in a rifle is an easy 150 yard gun for open field shooting. Good in the brush as well as bucktail quantified.

240gr XTP's are a butt stomper on deer. I use H110.

I have a good friend from the Black Hills who started his son off with a Marlin 1894. He and his son shot a lot of deer both whitetails and mulies with that little .44 carbine. I was present on several of those occassions and most of those deer went right down. Of course none of those shots were long by any means, but both father and son had the woodcraft skills to get well within effective killing range for the .44 mag. So the 44 mag will work, but so would a basic 30/30 and give you a little more range. But we might just be measuring tar and nicotine in cigarettes here comparing the two. The .44 will do it. CH

I've killed 20-some whitetails with a Ruger 44 Carbine since 1968. It was, for years, my main rifle when we were allowed to run deer with dogs. Shots tended to be fast and close and I have never seen ANY rifle hit as hard and kill as quick at ranges of 50-75 yards.

The little .44 is one of those rounds that kills all out of perportion to what it "should". Ballistics tables will tell you that other cartridges have more energy and "should" kill better, but in the real world, the .44 magnum is sudden death and leaves a very generous blood trail if the game gets out of sight (and in the thickets I hunt, that is more likely than not).

While most shots were taken at relatively short range, I have stretched the Ruger out to 150 yards on occation with no problem. However, my normal advise to those contemplating the .44 Mag. is to be "sure" your shots will be under 200 yards because if the deer is farther than that......."You might as well throw the gun at him, 'cause you'll be just as likely to kill him as you will by pulling the trigger". This is definitely a short-range weapon.

If you "know" (and we can never be sure) that you will be "up cose and personal".....there is no rifle better than a .44 carbine (the older Ruger is my favorite, but a lever gun can work as well). It is still my "go-to" rifle when I go after deer and hogs in the really thick places. I just accept that I may step out into a clearing or right-of-way and have to pass up a buck crossin at 250 yards......although in more than 40 years with the .44 it's never happened yet.

I used a .44 magnum Ruger carbine for several years back in the 1970's and killed some deer with it.Kinda got away from the caliber but two years ago came back to it.I now use both a scoped Ruger Super Redhawk and a single shot Rossi rifle and have had good success.The .44 magnum is a real stopper.

Stan in SC

I know quite a few guys who use Marlin 1894s in 44Mag,
Im suprised Rugers 77/44 never became popular.

my cousin shot his first two buck with a marlin 44. both one shot kills

what loads do you guys use (factory) for the .44 rifle?

I used factory loads in 180 JHP, 240 JHP, as well as JSP's in both those weights. It all killed fine.

Even used some old 240 gr hydra-shoks that mangled a deer handily.

Right now I reload 240 XTP's because they shoot well in both my rifle and pistol, and kill fine.

1894 Marlin is the bomb for whitetails in close cover. I have killed 8 now with this one. The scope is a Leupold FX-II 2.5X.
I use the 270 grain Speer GDSP hand loaded over H110 powder. Less than two inch groups at 100 yards, clover leaf groups at 50 yards

Shot 2 bucks and a doe with 270 gr factory GoldDots in a late model Ruger carbine. Most impressive was a 135# buck at about 40 yds. Shooting down with him qtring toward me the bullet went thru the scapula, down thru the chest and was under the hide on the far side behind the rib cage. He went down, got up and "fell" for 10 or 15 yds. The GD's really are bonded. Nice mushroom and jacket still firm to the core. Only bullet I've recovered.

Have a Ruger 77/44 and it shoots Winchester Partitions fairly well. Have gotten complete pass throughs on all the deer I've pulled the trigger on. Most shots have been less than 100 yards. Deer I've shot usually go 10 to 20 yards, bleeding buckets and fall over dead as a hammer.

Mine likes the Wrenchester Winchester white box 240 gr. JSP .

Indiana passed a rifle season for pistol calibers, 2 yrs. ago. Last year the boy and I sold our slug guns, and each got a .44 mag rifle. Mine is a marlin 1894, and his was a H&R handi rifle. Here are pics of the 1st 3 days of gun season, last year.



my son with 1st doe.



me with my buck[thought the rack was better than what it was]



me with my doe and my son's buck. both shot at the same time.



my 2nd doe taken on the third day.

We both used the hornady leverevolution ammo. It was devastating on all the deer.

maddog

Nice! really friggin' nice! You drop them in the corn stalks?

Yep, all but my buck, which was shot at about 35 yds. in from the edge of the woods. The buck and doe pic were taken from beside that old tool shed, as they got ready to cross a dirt bridge over a creek beside the windmill in the pic. The boy popped the buck, and I shot the doe. The last doe pic was taken about 150 yds. from the tool shed. She dropped in the picked field.

maddog

I am going to make it my sole purpose to find one of those 1894's at the upcoming VA gun show.

I am taking my 1894ss again this year as my main rifle. Here is a pix of yesterday at the range at 100 yards:

http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/...ds/?action=view&current=DSC01764.jpg

The load used is a Hornady 300gr XTP over 19.0gr of 296, win brass and WLP primer with 3/4 turn in on a Lee cactory crimp die. In my rifle with it's 2.5x Leupold FXII it simply shoots better than any other loading. I bet it will shoot good in other modern 1894 Marlins too.

I tried 2 heavier charges and the groups opened up a fair amount but they would still be very usable within the rifles range of say 125-150 or so yards.

Be safe
Patty