Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 44mag load for hunting backup?

Now let's not let facts ruin a perfectly good harang...........

My hunting load is 20 gr 2400, 250 gr Keith, Win Brass , CCI 300 primers. If i was carrying a backup for Bear this would be the load i would use.

I have used that bullet with 23 grains of 2400 and was less than impressed with that bullet on Bull Carribou or Deer. It will kill them but leaves a smaller wound channel than I like to see

I too used to use 250 grain Keiths and a stiff charge of 2400, but have long since moved on to the better LBT-style bullets with much larger meplats and heavier weights, and now I only burn 296 in my .44s. Kill enough game with both and you'll see that we have made some strides forward. I personally prefer much heavier bullets in .44 -- all else being equal (nose profile), the heavier bullet will penetrate deeper.

The heavier & better designed 44 slugs we have these days is better & I use them more all the time but I've never had a problem with the 250 Keiths in the 44 magnum or the 260 Keith in the Ruger 45's, they've always done an excellent job for me on deer, elk, bears, hogs, antelope & lion.
The thing I really like about the heavier LBT style slugs is their accuracy ability at long range, I don't shoot game at long range but love to whack rocks, dirt clods, etc...or badgers & rock chucks.

Dick

Well I have lots of experience with bears(black ones).At last count I had been present when more than a 100 were shot from point blank to 100 yards.Someone asked me to come share what I have learned.I have seen them shot with every caliber imaginable.I have killed bears with JHPs and kieths but will never try it again.I have learned better.If your load is for defense the biggest metaplat and heaviest weight you can shoot well.The 629 will serve you good if loaded correctly.Someone said a bears skull ain't that tough,I disagree I have seen several so called good handgun calibers ride the scalp and some literally richochet.And someone else said if you have a rifle why a handgun,rifles don't guarentee your safety and I have tracked plenty through these NC swamps shot with those so called "ultimate calibers in rifles".If for hunting my opinion doesn't change.I know I can't out run a small cub in these swamps and it would take them less time to catch you in open country.For what its worth blackies get big here.The state record was killed a few years ago 880lbs.And big or small they can all outrun any human,how much do you value your own life?Because that's what you will have to depend on should things get ugly.Some folks say black bears aren't agreessive,care to bet you life on it?I wouldn' and have seen different,but this is JMO.

You are correct about a bears skull, they are hard & a soft lead bullet is going to get you in trouble. Elmer Keith described a couple of little treatsies where he tried to finish off a bull elk with soft slugs & it almost got him killed. If you are messing with any big game animal you had better use the right gun & load.
My comment about needing a sixgun for backup when bear hunting is because everyone seems to have this image in their mind of a bear taking the rifle away & they have to duke it out on the ground with a handgun. If the rifle is used correctly there's no need for a backup gun. Having said that, I don't own a rifle or a shotgun, its sixguns or nothing for me, I too have been in on many bears & none were in a tree or shot over bait, everyone has been spot & stalk, you don't take chances & you get the job done right.
Also you are right about big bears in the southern US & also in states like PA, they kill some monster bears every year, I think the food available is better than here in the west, also the bears are probably out longer, out here are bears are gone by november, sometimes earlier.
Sometimes we kill some very large bears here. This spring bear measured 7' 9", it was taken last year by one of my son's, it weighed on the plus side of 400 lbs but had been sleeping for 5 months, no telling what it would have weighed in the fall.



Dick

The bullschit in your post is so deep I have to wear hipboots to read it. You really are liar24 aren't you.

The blonde is an imitation of your babbling.

What? you perusing my profile now? You my very own stalker now? What you want to know my little bish? I as well as a few others own you! You can't resist a response.

As far as any experience with handguns at all I would be willing to bet the closest you have been to a 329 is that stock pic you posted. When they open grizzly season in Wyoming I want to be there to film you running at the first sight of a bear.

Idaho1945 you are right in the sense "if used correctly".But I have seen some good rifleman got to **** when they are on the ground with in feet of them.No bait here,just hounds,but big bears here prefer bays and luarel thickets to trees.And crawling in on a bear using the path he used takes a little different approach.I wish we could spot and stalk,I'd like to try it someday but for now it'll be down and dirty.Nice color!That I definately wish we had.

Jesus H man....I looked up 'soup sandwich' in the Encyclopedia and found a picture of you Larry.

If you are going to bust on someone, can you at least keep things straight? I realized you are about ready to kick the bucket, and senile dementia has taken hold, but [bleep] dude....get it together....

I don't recall EHG (a distinct entity from this Elkhunter cat, who now seems to be a target of your inane ramblings, but I digress) ever claiming to be from ANYWHERE.

Fill out your profile? What is this, [bleep] Courtesy Class?

Length of barrel counts for a lot with 2400. In a 4 inch 40% of 2400 goes unburned.

40% where did you get that figure.

On the 40% unburned:
It could have been a Gun Digest or Handloader article. The author put tarp down, and fired rounds over it. The residue would burn.
I then started to look at H110 and 296.

I'm going to look now.........

Handloader Sep-Oct 1971 (issue 33) page 35.

"Component Compatibility for Peak Efficiency" by Richard Underwood.

Sorry it took so long.

17 to over 30% regardless...(Wher is the 40% article?)

Now I have to find the other one.........

I forget the barrel length of the pistol I'm borrowing, but this is good info for me to keep in mind. I know it's a shorter barrel(maybe 4"?), and I wouldn't want to be blowing unburned propellant out the end. Thanks for your contribution.

But maybe the unburned powder is toxic and will aid in the rapid demise of the animal being hunted......just a thought......

The powder burn is very quick and complete quickly and has litte to do with barrel lenght within reason. My brother owns a 4 3/4 inch M-83 FA in 454 and it chrono's as fast as mine with it's 6 inch barrel. I'd not get to caught up in this unburned powder/barrel lenght talk

Its true that the powder is burned in the first few inches of a barrel, when people see the flames coming out the end they turn to their buddy & say, all your powder burned on the outside, what actually happens is the gas reaction when it hits the open air, it can be pretty spectacular with some powders.

Dick

+1.....

Alot of that is the graphite in the powder. IMR does not flash so much.