Henry Rifle Forums

I've never hunted with a pistol caliber rifle before. I know that the 44 BBC is a great deer and hog rifle, but what about taking it beyond that? Elk @ 150 yards? Black Bear at 150 yards? Moose? I wouldn't consider shooting beyond that (ethical kill thing).

So what load would you guys recommend if I were to do it? (BTW, real world I would most likely be using either my Henry 45-70 or my Browning BAR 30-06, but I'd love to know that I could do it if I did my job).

Jim

I have never hunted with a 44 mag but it seems to me you would want a heavy for caliber bullet for penetration. Something like a light expanding hollow point would not expand or penetrate that well at 150yds.

,44mag is not a 200 yard cartridge.
Don't try to use a screwdriver as a hammer.

I have taken two deer with a 44 mag., but both were from pistols.
One from about 20 yds., that was a 240 gr SWC over 10.0 grs. Unique,
the other around 60, and was with a scoped SBH and a 240 gr JSP factory load.
Nothing dangerous around here to hunt.
And I once got a nice 8 point with my 357 Rossi at 90 yds.

RP

I've taken black bear, boar and deer with 240 gr Nosler 44 mag bullets .... the heavier the body of the animal, the shorter distance I am comfortable shooting .... with our white tails I I'm comfortable at 100 or so yards .... for decent size black bear and boar my comfort range drops to 50 or less

I'm not a hunter but how about this, I'm using the 9mm version as a defense round. Of course it is out of stock at this time. The 160gr. is in stock.

https://www.underwoodammo.com/44-reming ... rator.html

Underwood makes some fine ammo.

RP

dave77 wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 06, 2022 12:23 am

I'm not a hunter but how about this, I'm using the 9mm version as a defense round. Of course it is out of stock at this time. The 160gr. is in stock.

https://www.underwoodammo.com/44-reming ... rator.html

You'd be hard pressed to find a better quality self defense round

I wish their 9mm range ammo would come back in stock, decent price too unless it goes up when they have some back in stock, $16.99 with a flat shipping rate of $7.95 so only a buck a box if you order 8 boxes.

https://www.underwoodammo.com/range-sup ... acket.html

Over fifty dollars for 20 rounds of .44 magnum ammo? Boy am I glad that I have plenty of brass and other components to load my own .44's and several other calibers. To those that can afford those 44's, save your brass because sooner or later you will glad that you did.

UPDATE: I'm going to use the .44 magnum and my 45-70 this fall for deer hunting. The bullet I have chosen is the Hornady 44 Mag 225 gr FTX® LEVERevolution®. I'm using this same ammo with my 45-70. At the range I'm really liking the tight groups that I'm getting.

In my Smith & Ruger .44's I have killed a lot of deer with my hardcast 250 gr SWC pushed by 22 grs of #2400.........Elmer Kieth's old load......My favorite 44 jackted buulet is no longer made......The Remington 240 gr scalloped semi-jaketd hollow point. It turns critters off quickly.

I once loaded some 325gr wfn gc hc bullets from Matts Bullets over 19.8gr of h110 barely breaking 1500fps shot out of my BBCC 20". While the little rifle handled them fine, and from what I read from the brass I believe I could still cram a few more kernnels of powder in there, I wouldnt want to subject neither it nor my shoulder to much more of the abuse. Definitely a close range hunting setup but with that load I do believe I could have a reasonably high degree of confidence given good shot placement.

There a a plethora of calibers out there more suitable to such a task but hey, in the right hands I do believe that the mighty 44 Remington Magnum has killed about everything on the planet. Some people really get off on the challenge.

I used a 44 mag in Australia's N T. Used Winchester white box 240gr to shoot about 60 buffalo mostly for pig bait and shot 354 pigs in 7 months with the same ammo.

I use am using 240 grain jacketed soft points in .44 magnum (Winchester white box also) to hunt white tail this year. I wouldn't take the shot over 100 yds, but where I am hunting the distances are much shorter. More like 20 to 40 yds.
I use 158 grain jacketed soft points if I take my .357 rifle and revolver instead of the .44 mag.

daytime dave wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 25, 2024 2:07 pm

I use am using 240 grain jacketed soft points in .44 magnum

I use 158 grain jacketed soft points if I take my .357 rifle and revolver instead of the .44 mag.

the difference between my hand load hunting ammo for our 44 & 357 magnum bullets are Nosler Jacketed Hollow Points .... I have made clean kill shots with the 44's out to 135 or so yards and given highly favorable shooting conditions I feel comfortable with it out to 150 yards