Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 44 Mag 300 gr. for elk

T O M thanks for the tip on the seating, I do know that when the hammer drops on the Trapper my shoulder is bruised soon after. Almost like a tamed 450 Marlin with 420 gr Cast Performance bullet. I am eager to see the results. Penetration might not be what the hard cast rounds can produce, but my shot placement will be heart lung tissue.

Distance is the biggest thing when wanting to use 44 mag. Think 100 yards is as far as I'd go. Maybe 150 if I could shoot a good group consistently. (Clay pigeon size standing up) which I can't.
But I can't wait to use my Ruger 44 mag carbine someday on the west side.
From deer to elk to cougar to black bear this is a sweet brush gun!
No hollow points for me.

My Ruger Redhawk put four 240-grain full house Remington's into a cow elk's neck from about 25 yards. She looked at me and walked away. That's when I put my .44 Mag away and went back to my 300WM. And it gave me 2nd thoughts about the .44Mag as a bear stopper, too.

???? Am I the only one wondering WTF?

Yea, I was being kind and not saying anything.

A gun shop in Southern Idaho had an elk rack, taken in the rifle season.

When the owner was skinning out the skull, he hit something in the skull at the base of the antlers, but somewhat centered in the middle of the valley between the bases.

It was a .44 caliber bullet, mushroomed like a soft point as best could be seen from the scar tissue around the head of the bullet, and calipered from the exposed base bullet base. We always wonder what the story was with the shot...

To many things can go wrong with a neck shot on a Elk especially with a handgun , just to much room for error. Bullet placement is critical with a neck shot on any big game animal, to much non vital area for a killing shot and the animal goes off and dies a slow death if it dies at all. I have only killed five Elk and so not a expert by no means, but if you expect a Elk to fall or react to the shot even if fatal , you had better rethink that, because most will walk off for a short distant just like they aren't even hit and lay down and die.

FWIW, a sample of one. Back in 1988, I used a Ruger Super Blackhawk with a 7 1/2-inch barrel and a custom cartridge with a 300 grain hard-cast flat-nose bullet to take a 5x5 bull in the Holy Cross Wilderness in Colorado. One shot in the heart/lung pocket at a little over 40 yards resulted in a one-shot kill. The bull went a little over 20 yards and tipped over. I was going to shoot him again as soon as he stopped, but didn't get the chance. He was at a bit of an angle and the bullet did break the humerus (the big "shoulder" bone) on the far side. It did not exit.

YES! The 44 mag with 300g hard cast, even from a short barrel revolver will put elk steaks in your freezer, if you make a good shot, within a reasonable distance appropriate to the firearm and your max comfortable distance. I've taken a lot of game with that bullet out of everything from 4.63" SA revolvers to lever guns and it's a killer. Practice a lot and establish your max effective range, then go hunt with confidence� good luck and safe hunting and please post pics of your success when you bag your bull with your preferred combo to ensure all those here on this forum who don't know WTF they are talking about will STFU.

Kind and humble regards,

Foxx

Taking a neck shot with a handgun, if the animal doesn't collapse like the carpet was yanked out from under it, then I missed. Even if I hit tissue, I missed. Neck shots better be about spine shots, because there are better and bigger places to shoot an animal if bleeding them out is the goal. 4 shots with a 44 at the neck of an elk, and it didn't fall, then you missed.

I wasn't going to say anything. But there isn't a alot of animals that can take 44 mag full house rounds into the neck at 25 yards and walk away. one of those had to hit something or all 4 missed. I just don't know what to think of that.
I have 2 elk hanging on my wall with neck shot. I think there is a lot of vitals in the neck.

?New thread about 'Elk neck shots'?

I put an elk down with a mildly loaded 40 at maybe 10 yds. It stood up, I pulled up, it took some steps, I shot, it dropped. I've seen the destructive power of a 240 from a 44, and they lay waste. My 40 made a good hole in and through bone and kept going. A 44 that hit would have removed pieces.

Remington HP, not SP, I bet?

The Reminton 240 HP is super "soft". The scalloped jacket allows it to open up with minimal resistance. Sectional density isn't just about the bullet's original shape, you have to think about what it looks like opened up. The bigger the mushroom, the more resistance to penetrating.

That particular bullet at short range may have been going fast enough that on impact, it over-expanded, making it lose velocity FAST, and it may not have had momentum enough to break the neck bones.

I had that happen with a .223 on a head-on neck shot (under the chin) with a 55 grain nosler solid base. Killed the deer with a knife so we were able to see what happened. The bullet was mushroomed out and stopped against the spine without breaking any bone.

The other possibility is an elk's spine is not centered top to bottom in the neck. Kind of like shooting behind the shoulder and going above the heart/below the spine, there's a spot in an elk's neck which seems intuitive to shoot at where the spine ain't. You might have shot through it. Or, too close to the head, you may have gone under the spine.

One time I shot a bull (bovine) in the neck with a .257 roberts .. too far forward and too low. Poked both jugular veins but didn't break anything. It walked darn near a quarter mile with freakin' ROPES of blood squirting at every heart beat. Just wouldn't tip over.

.44 mag as a bear stopper? Well, I'd rather have a .300 win mag ... or bigger ... but those are awkward to hold onto while fly fishing. Also hard to carry when I'm varmint hunting with a .22-250. The .44 I'm carrying is better than the .300 back home.

There are two issues with any handgun and bears. First is choosing appropriate ammo for the task at hand. Second is being able to place your shots on demand under pressure.

Frankly, selecting Remington's 240 grain JHP for elk is a failure of judgment. It's good for a lot of things .. but it's a ways down on the list for that use.

Tom

If your hold is steady and your aim is true, then your elk steaks will be on the ground. I have a friend that has taken several elk with the 44 mag.

I've taken two cow elk and a buffalo heifer with a 45 Colt and "44 mag" type loads. My loads were 325-gr hard casts at about 1300 fps. My shots were about forty yards and under. None of the three stopped these bullets on broadside chest shots though the elk went between hundred and two hundred yards.

Not a lot of experience but very doable if you take on a bow hunter's mentality.

Tom, I agree with much what you say here, other than the possibility that the bullets were so soft that they didn't get through bone, and therefore the elk just walked off. I can't imagine that happening. I shot Nosler 240 JHP at deer, and striking bone just meant that bone got broke. They have a hollowed nose of bare lead too. Mushroomed perfectly, 75% wt when dug out of 6 in frozen dirt after going diagonally through doe. Remingtons are soft too, likely softer, but the sheer momentum of a 240gr bullet out of a 44 mag at 25yds isn't going to evaporate on vertebrae.

Bullet construction matters when you want at least a foot of penetration, like on a bear, and hollow points would be a scary proposition! In the heavy non-expanding bullet guise, I think there are few portable platforms that can outdo the 44 mag on bears.

Since you mention bovines, and separately 22 cals, my brother bought a young steer and took his 221 Fireball Contender loaded with 53gr TSX to put it down. He opted for a neck shot, and 8 shots later, finally put it down. Those wee bullets weren't getting through the heavy muscles of the neck with enough poop to do damage to the spine. It was a mess, partly because he kept taking angle shots, and the steer wasn't going down, and he didn't guess that the muscle was dense enough to absorb and deflect the shots.

Sectional Density is a ratio of wt and diameter of bullet, and is constant regardless of nose shape or bullet composition.

No. It was a mess because he didn't have a clue......

WTF would a rifle hunter want to saddle himself with 'bowhunters mentality'?

Yeah, he'd be the first to agree with you. That Barnes koolaid and his unwillingness to just put a shot into the skull.

I dunno. Haven't met the steer yet, that I couldn't down with one 53 tsx to the neck. Trick is, knowing HOW to place them.....Funny thing is, I'd be willing to bet that neck didn't retain ONE of those tsx's.......