44 Mag - Deep Penetration

[JEBar]

just to make it clear, every since I began reloading in the '60's, for hunting level ammo, I've used Nosler bullets .... period .... for practice ammo, I go cheap .... for hunting ammo, expense is secondary, I go for proven quality ... I fully understand that, in today's market, there are several excellent lines of bullets .... that said for serious ammo, if Nosler makes a bullet that will do the job I have in mind, that will be what I use .... unfortunately with the purchases of our Henry 45-70 and 44 Mag, they don't offer a bullet designed to meet some of the things I'm looking for .... example : for a 45-70 they only offer a 300 gr Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertip .... in their literature they state it is designed for use on big game like deer .... I load them and if I ever get into the woods hunting for deer with our 45-70, it will have them in the magazine .... what they don't offer is a heavier than 300 gr bullet designed for deep penetration in the really tough, large, dangerous game .... for that, I've settled on Barnes Buster 400 gr'ers ... they have proven to be exceptional .... I have much the same dilemma with our 44 mag .... from day one I've used Nosler's 240 gr JHP's for big game hunting .... on black bear, boar, and deer they have performed with distinction and I will continue to use them .... what I want to add to our bullet option falls into the same area as the one mentioned above and I'm going the same route in filling the need .... I just placed an order for 300 gr Barnes Buster 44 Mag bullets ===> http://barnesbullets.com/bullets/buster/ <=== once they arrive I'm looking forward to working up a deep penetrating, hunting load that will expand the capability of both our Henry BBS 44 Mag and Ruger Redhawk .... next on the horizon, wandering down the same path with our Henry 357

[Mr.RoC]

Just curious, do you have any FPS data with the Nosler 240 gr JHP for big game hunting?

[JEBar]

Just curious, do you have any FPS data with the Nosler 240 gr JHP for big game hunting?

240 g Nosler JHP .... 23.8 g of W296 per our chrony, 1852 average fps

[Mr.RoC]

Thanks

[y2k-fxst]

Will be curious to see how the 300 grain bullets work in the Henry. Most that have tried heavier than 260 grain have had poor accuracy in their Henry's due to the rate of twist in the barrel. If I remember right on the Henry web site it even says not to go above 260 grain.

Besides the weight/twist issue you also have to be very careful about you overall length of the assembled round or you can have feeding problems.

[JEBar]

I just went back and looked at the Henry site and found a link to an article where 240 & 250 gr bullets were tested in a BBS 44 Mag but I can't find any mention of 300 gr'ers .... I'd sure like to read such info .... as to OAL, that isn't an issue .... example : 300, 400 and 500 gr bullets made for our 45-70 have crimp rings that ensure the OAL is correct .... what changes is the amount of the bullet held within the casing .... I'm looking forward to trying the Barnes Buster 400 gr bullets .... they will either work or not work in our Henry and/or Ruger Redhawk, it will be fun to experiment with them

[JEBar]

Will be curious to see how the 300 grain bullets work in the Henry.

sometimes taking a second look allows someone to see something he overlooked the first time .. .. I've bee waiting until an order for Barns Buster 300 gr bullets arrived to build some test loads .... while moving some boxes on my storage shelf, I realized I have had 3 boxes (100 per box) of Nosler 300 gr JHP bullets for something over a year .... naturally, UPS arrived a short time later with a couple of boxes of the Barne's 300 gr'ers .... what to do .... solution simple .. .. load some of each .... the Nosler's are jacketed hollow points, all it takes is a glance for one to tell the 300 gr from the 240 gr .... we now have 50 240 Noslers ready to go along with 25 each 300 Noslers and 300 Barnes .... weather permitting a trip to a range is on tap for Wednesday .... the plan it to run them through a Chrony and to fire some to check group size .... Looking forward to it

[Squatch]

I think most any good 240-250 gr lead hard cast will give you more than enough penetration for most anything you'll be pointing a 44 mag at.

[JEBar]

that's probably correct .... until buying our Henry 45-70 and 44 Mag I had very little experience with lead bullets .... the faster the bullet the higher the potential penetration .... I can run jacketed bullets a good deal faster than lead so I tend to hunt with jacketed bullets .... in fact, I've never hunted big game with a lead bullet

[Mr.RoC]

I tagged out on a black bear with my 45-70 using a 350 gr hard cast bullet @ 1580 fps at 85 yards. Completed pass through lung shot. Recovered the bear about 40 yards away. Very little damage to the meat and both lungs had a nice hole through them.

I'm confident a well placed lung shot on a black bear with a full power load 44 Mag 240 gr hard cast at the same range will do the job.

[JEBar]

I'm confident a well placed lung shot on a black bear with a full power load 44 Mag 240 gr hard cast at the same range will do the job.

the first black bear I took was a heart/lung shot with a Ruger Blackhawk 44 mag .... 240 gr Nosler JHP ....

[JEBar]

Will be curious to see how the 300 grain bullets work in the Henry. Most that have tried heavier than 260 grain have had poor accuracy in their Henry's due to the rate of twist in the barrel. If I remember right on the Henry web site it even says not to go above 260 grain.

earlier today I was able to use our Henry 44 Mag to test a variety of ammo .... 240 gr cast practice rounds generated very light recoil and were accurate out to 50 +/- yards .... well before we got back to a 75 yards, their drop was more than I'm happy with .... once the ones we have are gone, I don't anticipate loading any more 44 caliber cast bullets .... as it turns out, I have plenty of time to change my mind because we have hundreds of cast 240 gr'ners on hand .... no way I'm going to ignore them, the were bought to be burned and I fully anticipate doing so .... I also anticipate building our reserve of 240 gr Nosler JHP BLEMS (AKA seconds) to be used for practice .... I was impressed with the 300 gr Nosler JHP's pushed by 21 gr of W296, they hit hard and group nicely .... some will understand when I say the sound of the muzzle blast and the felt recoil were what I'd expect from a solid, big bore hunting round .... the 300 gr Barnes Busters pushed by 20.5 gr of H110 didn't do as well ... they showed a couple of signs of too much pressure .... the main one being the casing expanding to where they required noticeably more effort to eject the empty .... I plan to load the next bunch with W296 and see how they perform

[JEBar]

additional comments :

the Oregon Trail 240 gr cast bullets were pushed by 7.2 g of Bullseye .... their average velocity (10' from the muzzle) averaged 1224 fps .... as noted above, their performance fell off rapidly after 50 yards or so ... I believe I could speed them up by a couple of hundred feet per second without a lead build up in the barrel .... it will be interesting to see ....

the 300 g Noslers and the 300 g Barnes were both powered by 20.5 g of H110 .... the Muzzle velocity of the Noslers averaged 1525 fps while the Barnes averaged 1453 fps .... given the equal weight of the bullets, I was surprised at the difference in average speeds .... I was also surprised at the a couple of the Barnes cases swelling so as to be noticeably harder to eject .... it will be interesting to load some with W296 and see what happens

[JEBar]

my quest continues .... today (still using Barnes and Nosler 300 gr bullets), I decided to assemble test loads using W296 and H110 powders .... a good while back they were reported to be identical but any more, different charges are recommended .... per Nosler, max charge for their 300 gr 44 cal bullet is 21.0 gr of W295 and 20.5 g of H110 .... I loaded 20 rounds of each bullet with each powder, to ensure there can be no confusion, the cases marked with a red dot containe W296 .... my plan is to run 3 or 4 of each load through a chrony, the remainder will be used to fire 4 round groups from a Lead Sled at 25, 50, 75, and 100 yards .... I'm looking forward to sending them down range

[RanchRoper]

When I read posts like this it makes me want to reload...

[Squatch]

From what I've read w296 and H110 are exactly the same powder in different cans.

[JEBar]

From what I've read w296 and H110 are exactly the same powder in different cans.

as noted, until fairly recently I thought the same thing .... if they are still the same, I don't know why a company like Nosler would recommend different weight powder charges

[Squatch]

Good question. But since I started reloading I've been rather surprised at the different recommended charges from various sources for the same bullet weights and powders. I've been curious several times because the powder folks and the bullet folks don't always agree on the charges for the same components. I think often it just comes down to what they've tested and what they perceive to be the use for the loads.

My info on this is 2nd hand. But seems to be the web consensus.

I'm curious to see your results.

[JEBar]

as a direct example : per Nosler's Reloading Guide No. 7 .... for Nosler's 44 caliber, 300 gr JHP used in a 44 Mag rifle .... using a Ruger 18.5" barrel, they recommend :

21.0 gr. of W296 (a 122% load) that resulted in a muzzle velocity of 1,507 fps

20.5 gr. of H110 (a 118% load) that resulted in a muzzle velocity of 1,580 fps

with .5 gr. lighter load H110 produced a 73 fps higher muzzle velocity .... from that it seems to me that they aren't identical

I too am curious .... that's the reason I have 40 of each to run in side by side test