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.44 Bear Load

Discussion about what manufactured ammunition feeds your Henry or other firearms
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JayZuv
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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by JayZuv » Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:49 am

Redthies wrote:I’ve got their 180 grain bear loads for my .357, and tried unsuccessfully to find their cowboy loads for my .45-70. I honestly didn’t find my BBSC shot them all that well. It seemed to prefer the 158 grain American Eagle sjsp, but I’m going to give them another go this spring.

When I was looking at .357 loads for deer, a wise person (NCG) suggested that the hard cast bullets in HSMs bear loads wouldn’t be an ideal candidate on deer due to over penetration and little to no expansion. I’m pretty sure the same would go for .44 mag.

I shoot their cowboy loads in my .41, and those seem to be very accurate, and one of the cheaper factory .41 mag offerings. You are right about the cast bullets and deer hunting, but the peculiar thing is that in .44 mag, the bear load has an xtp bullet, which is an excellent deer bullet, and not so much for bear.
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JayZuv
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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by JayZuv » Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:57 am

John E Davies wrote:XTPs are fine for deer but a heavy hard-cast lead bullet with large flat nose is best for bear .... the HP will not penetrate deeply. Either will do way better than a rock or a stick.

Are you sure yours are XTPs? I haven’t heard of them being marketed this way. I have only seen the 305 gr hard cast. Which is a pretty hefty bullet for a .44....

Thanks

John Davies
Spokane WA


Yes totally agree with you on that. I’m not really in bear country so I bought them for deer hunting primarily, and yes I thought it was quite strange that they aren’t hard cast. I’ve shot several boxes of bear loads in other calibers, and they were all cast. These ones are definitely 300gr xtp, and seem to shoot pretty well
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Redthies
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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by Redthies » Thu Apr 04, 2019 10:44 am

That’s weird that they use different bullet types for different calibers that are very close in size. .41 vs .44 you get a semi-wadcutter vs a “wide flat nose”. The other thing I find odd is their velocity/energy chart. My 180 grain .357 rounds state 1200 and 576 ft lbs. Hornady shows their 158 grain jhp at 1700 and 956 at 100 yards! HSM doesn’t state whether their numbers are at the muzzle, 50 or 100 yards, but only 576 ft lbs??? I guess I won’t be buying those again!
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JayZuv
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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by JayZuv » Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:54 am

Redthies, is the 576 ft lbs for the cowboy loads? If so my only guess is that they don’t load them as hot because they’re more of a target load. But definitely strange they don’t list where they are getting those numbers at. I only use them for doing some plinking out on the range, and they shoot straight for me so I don’t worry about the ballistics on the cowboy loads too much
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Redthies
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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by Redthies » Thu Apr 04, 2019 6:14 pm

Bear. See the tables below. Makes no sense to me...
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SGC .22 LR Stripped and oiled up
BBSC .357 w Skinner Express & Patridge
BBSC .44 Magnum with Skinners
Marlin 1895GS .45-70 w RPP Cloverleaf
Marlin 336BL .30-30 w Skinner LoPro 2 and Sig 2-7x
1912 Winchester 1894 .30 WCF

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Redthies
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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by Redthies » Thu Apr 04, 2019 6:18 pm

More complete shot of the HSM table here. Thankfully I have a .45-70!
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SGC .22 LR Stripped and oiled up
BBSC .357 w Skinner Express & Patridge
BBSC .44 Magnum with Skinners
Marlin 1895GS .45-70 w RPP Cloverleaf
Marlin 336BL .30-30 w Skinner LoPro 2 and Sig 2-7x
1912 Winchester 1894 .30 WCF

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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by markiver54 » Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:07 pm

Redthies wrote:More complete shot of the HSM table here. Thankfully I have a .45-70!
I have the 357 180 gas check. Have yet to shoot any yet.
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JayZuv
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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by JayZuv » Thu Apr 04, 2019 7:37 pm

So they don’t even advertise a bear load with an xtp? Very strange. I’ll post a photo of them when I get the chance but the box clearly states bear load.
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Redthies
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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by Redthies » Thu Apr 04, 2019 8:03 pm

That table was taken directly from HSMs “bear load” page.
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SGC .22 LR Stripped and oiled up
BBSC .357 w Skinner Express & Patridge
BBSC .44 Magnum with Skinners
Marlin 1895GS .45-70 w RPP Cloverleaf
Marlin 336BL .30-30 w Skinner LoPro 2 and Sig 2-7x
1912 Winchester 1894 .30 WCF

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Re: .44 Bear Load

Post by Rifletom » Fri Apr 05, 2019 8:55 am

I have some Federal Premium Hunting cartridges in .357, 180gr Castcore FP bullet. Stated on box muzzle velocity is
1250 fps, energy is 625. At 25 yds, velocity is 1200 fps, energy is 575. This seems in line with the HSM loads. Its those Hornady loads that seem all out of whack. Where did they get those numbers? Dang! If I'm going to be around biting bears, I'll take my .45 Colt.
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