Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What 44 Mag Bullet for Deer

I have a MGM 20" barrel on my Contender. I have been using Winchester 240 gr Jacketed soft point bullets. This combination is amazing at shooting paper they shoot a ragged hole at 100 yards. Not as effective on deer. All the deer that I have shot have ran 150 to 250 yards with little to No blood trail. Any suggestions ???

I use XTP's, but I'm curious what your MV is on the JSP's.

I've killed deer with 200gr XTPs. No drama with a 6" M629 S&W, or when I had a 444 Marlin w/24" barrel.

I use Beartooth Bullets 300 grain WFN in my 77/44. Running about 1570 fps and kills deer dead.

Been using a 250 gr. Keith bullet for years. See no reason to change. Old school I guess, but they have never failed if I didn't.

IIRC, all of the deer that I've shot with a 44 Magnum have died, but not as promptly/dramatically as when shot with high velocity bullets. My 44 Magnum is an old Ruger 44 International that gets fed whatever brand of 240 grain JSP/JHP factory ammo is available, FED/REM/WIN seem to work equally well. If you aim to break the shoulder(s) they might not run so far after impact.

Jeff

Ive used a 300 grain LEE or LYMAN cast bullet over 21 grains of h110 for decades and I can,t remember a single deer making it more than about 70 yards after bullet impact, and darn few made it 30 yards, many fell on bullet impact.
most bullets exit and there's usually a noticeable blood trail
if your having deer run 150-250 yards your hitting them in the wrong place, try this

I have a 16.5" barreled Talo Trapper 44 mag. I got two deer this year with the XTP 240 grain bullet over a stout charge of W296.

One ran about 50 yards, but was so ridiculously easy to track it was amazing. The other was BANG-Flop.

Both shot behind the shoulder through vitals, about where the back of the green dot is in the post above.

Both were shot at 15-20 yards or so. No issues with the bullet not performing due to speed.

If it ain't broke, there's no need to fix it.

Yet my wife still took my dog to the vet....

I bet she told him he was going to be tutored...

And for your dog's listening pleasure.

I've had some rough tracking jobs when I have shot bucks with a JHP.

Have you used the XTP's? I shot one with a SuperBlackhawk last year using an XTP, and two this year with the H&R Handi, so not a huge sample, but there was more than enough blood to very easily track the two that ran a little bit.

I had been considering trying my JSP "practice" bullets (240 grain, same charge of W296 powder, just a lot cheaper bullet than the XTP) on a deer, but this thread has me thinking I won't.

No. It's been years since I shot a buck in the piney woods with the little Ruger carbine, Goalie.

My Buddy has been using the 240gr(?) Hornady lever revolution, to good results, for the last three seasons.

Paul.

OK, thanks for the reply. I really like how short and handy the H&R is, and I don't mind dragging it up into a tree on a rope. I also don't want to start having issues with deer not going down rather quickly with a good shot through the boiler room.

I guess I'll just shoot some more with the XTP until I run into problems. The area I hunt, a "long" shot would be about 100 yards, so I shouldn't run into too many problems...... (famous last words)

Never shot any deer with them but I loaded 300 grain Sierra's.

Out of a handgun I prefer a hard-cast Keith style bullet of 250-260 grains. At 1200-1300 fps it kills well and penetrates from any angle.

In a rifle (Ruger Carbine) I prefer a bullet of at least 240 grains (265 is even better). Since lead bullets and the gas ports in a Ruger don't get along well, these are jacketed soft-points. I have used jacketed hollowpoints, but at the added velocity from a rifle, these sometimes have tended to over-expand and limit penetration. Not often, but enough to make me prefer the softpoints.

I've never had a chance to test them, but have often thought the 270 grain Gold Dot SP would be a dandy out of a 44 Carbine.