.44 Mag Deer Load

[rexherring]

I'm loading some 240 gr. cast for a friends new H&R Handi rifle in .44 mag. I've got a lot of loads listed in the books but what have any of you loaded for deer? I've got AA5744, H-110, AA#9, Unique and probably a few others in the store room.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Well I happen to be using a 310gr LBT/LFN boolit ahead of 19gr of AA#9 and it goes out the barrel of my Redhawk 5.5" at a tad over 1300fps.

As long as you are using a boolit of 240 or bigger with a WFN or Long Flat Nose like my LBT mold and some where in the 1000 - 1300fps range, don't think there's any deer going to give you problems providing you have a good hit on them.

Semi-wad cutter will do, just not as good as the WFN.

Keep em coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[Shooter]

18.5 Gr. of 2400 under a 429421 works well for me in a 1894 Marlin.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

22gr of H110 work's good in my Contender 44mag with a G/C 240gr boolit

[EdS]

In a .44 Magnum handgun, 10 grains of Unique behind a cast 240-260 grain boolit will give you around 1100 fps. This load has shot completely through two nice bucks quartering away from me. Both deer dropped within 50 yards. -Ed

[429421Cowboy]

9.5 gr of Unique+240 swc isn't my standard deer load but soon will likely take over for 2400 in that role, i have killed one buck with it and had great luck, i have no doubts it will punch the length of any deer we have around here. It also falls well below max, i would happily bump up a bit more in a rifle and have even better luck.

[6pt-sika]

I recently did some work with the new Ranch Dog 432-240GC bullet in a 20" barreled Marlin 336-44 (44 MAG) and my best load for that 240 grainer was 25 grains of H110 . I shot 23 grains of H110 with the Ranch Dog 432-265GC FWIW .

[Larry Gibson]

You'll probably find that max end pistol loads with PB'd cast bullets, especially if BB'd, will not be very accurate in a rifle barrel. The longer barrel pushes them too fast. Shooter's recommended 18.5 Gr. of 2400 under a 429421 works well for me in a 1894 Marlin is probably a good load for the rifle you are loading for as is 429421Coboy's load of 9.5 gr Unique.

If you don't have time to work up a load testing for accuracy I would recommend one or both of those loads for use in the rifle. The best accuracy I've got from a couple different 240 gr cast BB'd bullets in several .44 Magnum rifles was in the 950 - 1050 fps range. That was with 7.5 - 8.5 gr Unique. A hard cast FB'd bullet or, preferably, a GC'd bullet is needed to get reasonable accuracy above that. I found 18.5 - 19.5 gr 2400 to work well with hard PB'd FB'd cast bullet in the 1200 - 1400 fps range. For best results a GC'd bullet will let you use max pistol loads in rifles with very good accuracy.

Larry Gibson