Hey guys, picked up a Winchester 94 in 44 mag. Planning on using it for Eastern deer hunting(PA). Might occasionally take it bear hunting, but that’s doubtful. What’s your favorite factory deer bullet? A jacketed hollow point, or a jacketed soft point? I’m figuring at rifle velocities the soft point will reliably expand to a point. Will the hollow points over expand at those velocities, and not exit? I’m probably overthinking things, but don’t have any experience with the .44 mag at rifle velocities.
I have a 1967 vintage Ruger 44 International and shoot either REM or WIN 240 grain JSPs.
I've only shot whitetails with this rifle, but if I shoot them through the lungs they die, but not as quickly as when shot with a bullet with a higher velocity impact. The REM and WIN 240 grain bullets seem pretty soft and I don't know how well they would break heavy bones, if breaking heavy bone was an important consideration.
If I end up retiring in NH, that old Ruger is going to get a lot more use than it has since moving to NE in 1990.
I think you'll like your new rifle. For factory ammo, Winchester White Box 240 grain soft point is hard to beat. My favorite bullet in the .44 Mag is the 240 grain Hornady XTP. It's a hollow point, and I've used it for years in my muzzleloaders, and finally tried it in the .44 Mag about ten years ago. I haven't been disappointed.
The .44 mag seems to do well with just about either bullet type, and the 240 grain weight and deer seem to go hand in hand.
I reload Hornady 200 grain XTP over full charge of Win 296. I tried the 180, 200 and 240 grain bullets. Group size was nearly the same but 100 yard impact point of the 200 was only slightly below the 180 grain, yet quite a bit above the 240 grain bullets.