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Thread: 44 mag hunting loads

  1. #1
    Boolit Mold
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    Smile 44 mag hunting loads

    any tips on 44mag hunting loads.
    what grain bullet.
    what kind of powder.
    how much powder charge.
    And would you know the ballistics on your load.
    Would like to hunt this year with a 44 mag. blackhawk 10"barrel.
    No shots further than 35 yards.

  2. #2
    Boolit Master
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    What game are you hunting?

  3. #3
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    250gr boolit, 9gr of unique

  4. #4
    Boolit Mold
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    White tail deer

    Quote Originally Posted by Whitworth View Post
    What game are you hunting?
    Ill be hunting whitetail deer in ohio

  5. #5
    Boolit Master



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    22 gr of 2400 does meet requirements.

    EW

  6. #6
    Boolit Buddy Bear4570's Avatar
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    My favorite .44 mag hunting bullet is a 300 FP over 21.5 of H110 followed closely by a 250 Keith under 20 gr 2400. Have never recovered either, no matter what the angle.
    Big Bullets at moderate speeds...Makes things move

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Lyman 429421 or H&G 503 or MiHec copy, cast of aircooled wheelwts or 50-50 Pb-Lino
    over 20.0 or 21.0 gr of 2400. Never recovered one, shoots thru everything.
    Longest kill was a warthog at a bit over 75 yds. One shot.

    Bill
    If it was easy, anybody could do it.

  8. #8
    Boolit Master FN in MT's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MtGun44 View Post
    Lyman 429421 or H&G 503 or MiHec copy, cast of aircooled wheelwts or 50-50 Pb-Lino
    over 20.0 or 21.0 gr of 2400. Never recovered one, shoots thru everything.
    Longest kill was a warthog at a bit over 75 yds. One shot.

    Bill
    Once shot a warthog male at about 100 yds, with a 300 gr Swift A-Frame in a three seven five H&H. THAT didn't go all the way through! Broke both shoulders and was on the off side under the hide.

    It IS amazing isn't it how a .44 Keith slug sails right through!!

    To the OP...You have MORE than enough for a whitetail with a 240-260 gr Keith type slug at 950-1000 fps.

    FN in MT

  9. #9
    Boolit Buddy vanilla_gorilla's Avatar
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    My RCBS 44-250-K is 265 grains, ready to load. 7 grains of Bullseye for 1050 fps.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by anthony68 View Post
    Ill be hunting whitetail deer in ohio
    I am from Ohio, Cleveland, Elyria and N. Ridgeville. I seen some real hog deer before I had to move. One 18 point buck went 420# dressed. It was hit by a truck south of Columbus. I seen another like it at Salt Fork. I killed a lot of bucks and heavy deer there, some doe went 200#.
    I think I would go with a 300 to 320 gr boolit with 21.5 gr of 296. The Lee 310 gr is a great boolit. Lube with Felix and use a standard primer.
    Your boolit will work and the 2400 and 296 loads given are the best.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by vanilla_gorilla View Post
    My RCBS 44-250-K is 265 grains, ready to load. 7 grains of Bullseye for 1050 fps.
    This powder is way too hard on the boolit and if you recovered any, you would find a far different boolit then you shot. You need at least 30 BHN to protect the boolit. Unique and 231 will also ruin a soft boolit.
    You would do better with 2400.
    This is what fast powder does.
    Last edited by 44man; 07-11-2010 at 02:50 PM.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master Doc_Stihl's Avatar
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    Lee 310 over 20 Grains of H110 with a Mag primer and a good crimp. (18 Grains of H110 if you need to crimp in the top groove)
    It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

    Theodore Roosevelt

  13. #13
    Boolit Buddy cptinjeff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 44man View Post
    One 18 point buck went 420# dressed.

    I like to see a picture of that one

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by cptinjeff View Post
    I like to see a picture of that one
    It was in the newspaper long ago and I wish I had a picture too.
    Then another story about a fella that shot a nice buck. It had a huge lump sticking up from the belly and it scared the hunter, thinking it was a tumor. He called the game warden and when the deer was opened it had over a bushel of crab apples in it.
    I was at one of the early muzzle loader hunting areas, in the barn to get a map of the area when a fella brought in a large 8 point. It weighed 250# and the biologist was there with the game warden. The teeth were inspected and the biologist kept walking circles and going back to check again. He turned to us and asked how old the deer was. We said 4 to 5 years old.
    He told us the deer was 18 months old!
    I seen a few fellas carrying the liver of a deer in a laundry tub. It took the whole bottom up.
    When I was younger there were almost no deer in Ohio. They caught deer at Plumbrook and moved them all over the state and it just took off.
    All the old strip mine areas I hunted were stripped again and reclaimed. Then the land was sold to farmers and hunt clubs. More land lost for hunters.
    I am glad I left in the end. There is not an open piece of land around where I lived anymore. Now I can hunt my woods and all the neighbor's lands and we have tons of deer, not as large as Ohio deer but a whole bunch of them. I quit with 5 to 7 deer a year depending on what I put in my freezer and give to neighbors.
    In the old days I could only kill one deer a year in Ohio, Michigan and PA. I hunted with a bow and flintlock.
    I miss the old days though even though I am too old to do it again!

  15. #15
    Boolit Master
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    I'm guessing instead of crab apples that 420 pounder was eating wheel weights! Actually those big old midwest bucks are some of the largest deer anywhere in the country & I've always believed they are bigger than our western mule deer, not on the average but because of the food source I do think some are much larger.
    When I was a kid in the 50's in southern Ohio I never once saw a deer, this was in the New Boston, Sciotoville & Portsmouth areas.

    Dick

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by sixshot View Post
    I'm guessing instead of crab apples that 420 pounder was eating wheel weights! Actually those big old midwest bucks are some of the largest deer anywhere in the country & I've always believed they are bigger than our western mule deer, not on the average but because of the food source I do think some are much larger.
    When I was a kid in the 50's in southern Ohio I never once saw a deer, this was in the New Boston, Sciotoville & Portsmouth areas.

    Dick
    They are amazing. Many times walking a corn field with firm ground, we would see many large deer prints. I would put the first crease of my wrist on one edge and the toes would be almost to my knuckles. That is about 5" on the average for a hoof print length. Single print, not overlap.
    Scrapes would be 10' diameter and 6" trees would be shredded very high. Many of these deer were never seen in the day and many died of old age undetected.

  17. #17
    Boolit Buddy cptinjeff's Avatar
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    From:
    Storybookbucks.com





    "This deer was killed in Clarion County Pennsylvania and weighed 412lbs. Supposedly could be the heaviest whitetail ever taken."

    http://www.storybookbucks.com/412deer/index.html

    I grew up hunting in central PA and I always thought 250lb live weight was HUGE

  18. #18
    Boolit Grand Master

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    FN in MT,

    Hmm. The only two I have ever shot were with that load, both went right thru, warthog
    only made about 20 yds on one case, about 35 in the other.

    Maybe that is why the PH bought the remaining ammo for his Dad who hunts bush pigs
    for meat with a .44 Mag Contender?

    Bill
    If it was easy, anybody could do it.

  19. #19
    Boolit Grand Master



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    I live in Southwestern Ohio and used to hunt in Eastern Ohio. I live in a small city (about 70,000 with greater Hamilton being about 100,000 people). I have deer in my back yard from time to time and early in the morning have seen several feeding in the curb lawn.

    44man is NOT exaggerating about large Ohio deer. They are corn and bean fed and are wonderful eating, also. Even bucks in the rut are MORE than edible (sounds crazy, I know, but that is how it is). When I was first married, my wife cooked a venison roast from a West Virginia buck (we took it in Shawnee State Park in W. Va) and we had to open the windows (in the winter) while cooking. It smelled just like urine (and it was handled properly after the kill, also) until it was cooked. It tasted ok but man was it rank.

    I have never seen that with corn fed Ohio deer. I frankly have always been more of a meat hunter that will take a buck if offered but my choice has always been a good, dry doe. This past deer season, in my suburban county (we are rapidly loosing some of the most wonderful crop land in the country to developers) we were allowed, under certain circumstances to take up to five deer). We are not allowed to use a rifle (other than muzzle loaders) but handgun hunting is allowed during gun season. I have taken all of my deer with handguns (naturally, what else).

    Regarding the load:
    My regular practice load in the .44 Magnum is 23.0 grs of H110 (or 296) behind a 250 gr Keith bullet (Lyman 429421 or H&G #503 ) for 1200 fps. My hunting load was the same bullet with 24.0 grs of H110 which chronographs at 1300 fps. Most of my deer have been taken with the hunting load but I had occasion to shoot a nice six point buck at 75 yards facing me and the bullet went full length of the deer and was not recovered. In fact, I have NEVER recovered a cast bullet from a deer - always have gotten total penetration.

    The Lee C430-310-RF GC bullet is THE bullet for heavy game ahead of 21.5 grs of H110 (work up this load). I don't have the chronograph data on this combination at hand.

    NOTE: load this bullet LONG (use the crimp groove closest to the base for maximum powder capacity - this is important to keep pressures in line). If you must load short, then reduce the load to 19.5 grs.

    YMMV
    Dale53

  20. #20
    Boolit Master
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    Dale53, I'm very surprised that your practice load (23 grs of 296 or H110) is only doing 1200 fps, thats seems very slow, not doubting you, just surprised it isn't going faster. I come from a SMALL town, about 3,000, to me 70,000 is huge!

    Dick

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check