Henry Rifle Forums

for the last 50 or so years our 44 Mag hunting level load has remained the same :

bullet -- Nosler 240 gr JHP

powder -- 23.8 grs W296 .... when I couldn't get W296 I use the same amount of H110 .... I cannot tell any difference in performance

primer -- Large Pistol Magnum .... my preference is for CCI but over the years I've used most all of the ones on the market .... I cannot tell any difference in performance

brass -- we now use Starline, an order of 1,000 arrived earlier today .... over the years we've used most every brand and can't tell any difference in performance

today we fired 50 rounds through our chrony .... 25 of the above loads through our Henry 44 Mag and another 25 through our Redhawk .... 10' from the muzzle our chrony measured the ones from our Henry at an average of 1728 fps and the ones from our Redhawk averaged 1457 fps ....based on that data, we choose to zero our Henry at 150 yards and our Redhawk at 100 yards .... per the ballistics program :

Henry
25 yards -- +1.1"
50 yards -- +3.0"
75 yards -- +3.9"
100 yards -- +3.8"
125 yards -- +2.6"
150 yards -- 0.0"
175 yards -- -4.0"

Redhawk
25 yards -- +0.7"
50 yards -- +1.7"
75 yards -- +1.6"
100 yards -- 0.0"
125 yards -- -3.1"

those trajectories are ones I'm comfortable with for big game hunting .... for big game hunting, with the Henry it should allow us to put the cross hairs dead center to just below the center of the animal's vital kill zone out to 150 yards and even a bit beyond .... with our Redhawk placing its red dot in the center of the animal's vital kill zone should get the job done out to 125 or so yards .... in our part of the country that distance accommodates the vast majority of the shot opportunities .... to date the longest shot our of the Redhawk that has taken down a deer as been about 80 yards .... the effectiveness of this load has been repeatedly observed when field cleaning deer, bear, and boar .... its most certainly not the only really good 44 Mag load, it just happens to be the one we choose to use

earlier today I got a chance to run 44 Mag loads outlined above through our Chrony .... the results were interesting

fired from a Ruger Redhawk with a 7.5" barrel .... Nosler Manual Projected Muzzle Velocity - 1450 ft per sec .... average Chrony reading - 1444 ft per sec .... extrapolated trajectory : 25 yds / + 0.2" .... 50 yds / + 0.7" .... 75 yds / 0.0" .... 100 yds / -2.2"


fired from a Henry BBS with a 20" barrel .... Nosler Manual Projected Muzzle Velocity - 1723 ft per sec .... average Chrony reading - 1748 fp per sec .... extrapolated trajectory : 25 yds / +0.6" .... 50 yds / +1.9" .... 75 yds / +2.3" .... 100 yds / + 1.7" .... 125 yds / 0.0" .... 150 yds / -3.0"


our next step will be to sight in both 44's at 25 yards

That's definitely a top performance revolver hunting load, but, of course, doesn't even make the Redhawk sweat. I'm re-visiting getting a Redhawk or a Super Redhawk, but I want a vintage from the Bill Ruger era when he was running the show. Recently picking up that vintage 629 has awakened my lifelong love of the 44 mag and, over the years, most of them were the old Rugers.

years ago .... OK, to be much more accurate .... decades ago, I picked up a 38 police special and have been at home with revolvers every since .... a Luger is the only semi-auto that I've ever held that felt good in my hand .... having owned and used 22LR, 32, 38, 357, 41 Mag, 45 LC, and 44 Mag revolvers it didn't take me long settle on a 44 Mag as my revolver of choice .... my first was a Ruger Blackhawk ... I liked everything about it but the way its recoil tended to make it rotate in my hand .... when I picked up a Redhawk my search ended and its been that way every since .... I've tried a Super Redhawk and they are exceptional revolvers .... I simply prefer the look, balance, and feel of a Redhawk