.44 damage on deer

[44man]

I found a mess and both shoulders were the same. It took a lot of work to clean them up. Both entry and exit holes were large.
This is my 330 gr WLN, water dropped WW metal at a shade over 1300 fps. You can imagine the destruction in between the shoulders.
I don't think I will be switching to a HP! :-P
Goes to show if all is just right, it works. 8531885319

[DougGuy]

Oh yeah... Dirty deeds done just right... That hit so good you killed her twice! :bigsmyl2:

edit: That's a good shot but our deer are so small here, I have to try and save all the meat I can so I shoot right behind the shoulder if I can. We make a lot of sausage both country style and Italian sausage and that shoulder helps a lot. Haven't shot one with the Lee 310 RF yet, I imagine the wound will be rather dramatic... Thanks for posting!

[Lefty SRH]

Wow that's nasty. Did it drop instantly. I'm hoping for a quick drop with my 44spl since my land isn't very big

[Baron von Trollwhack]

I did that to a doe with a 44M/240 swc ,hit just a little further forward, so that tha lower neck was traumatized also in a close,quick shot. Instant kill, but lost quite a bit of meat. I should have went for the archer's heart shot.....but no time.

BvT

[GLynn41]

nice shootin --Tex -- good performance

[bhn22]

This can't be right. Our local gun store guy says a 44 won't kill a deer, the bullets just bounce off, leaving a nasty bruise. It takes a minimum of a .454 to cleanly take deer, and they shoot so flat that you don't have to hold over or anything out to almost 150 yards. Our expert wouldn't lie to us...

[Lefty SRH]

This can't be right. Our local gun store guy says a 44 won't kill a deer, the bullets just bounce off, leaving a nasty bruise. It takes a minimum of a .454 to cleanly take deer, and they shoot so flat that you don't have to hold over or anything out to almost 150 yards. Our expert wouldn't lie to us...


Wow, sounds like I need to go shopping for a new gun....all I planned on using on my land was a .44spl.

[monge]

Great Kill 44s never stop amazing me hollow points are over rated when using lead.

[merlin101]

This can't be right. Our local gun store guy says a 44 won't kill a deer, the bullets just bounce off, leaving a nasty bruise. It takes a minimum of a .454 to cleanly take deer, and they shoot so flat that you don't have to hold over or anything out to almost 150 yards. Our expert wouldn't lie to us...

We have the same gun guy! I heard the same so went out and bought a Rageing Bull in .454 (actually the price was so good....) heck'va toy, and sure grabs peoples attention at the range:bigsmyl2:

[Gibbs44]

Must have been the guy I heard at a gun shop a few years back saying the .45-70 was next to worthless for hunting.

That 330 sure looks like it did the job on that deer.

[runfiverun]

that looks a bit worse than the deer I hit with the 25-06 this year.
you did hit her a bit higher than I hit mine though, as I was taking a heart shot and misjudged where the leg was in the shadows.
I shattered the onside leg took out the top of the heart and really roughed up the off side leg which seemed odd as I seen no exit wound in the offside leg and never found the bullet.

[John Allen]

Large chunks of lead sure do make for quick kills

[missionary5155]

Good morning 44man
I can smell the chops a-cooking ! Little onion...
I bet-cha you would not have that trouble if-en you was to use that caliber .500 anti-toyota gun !
Mike in Peru

[Lefty Red]

Grim, but need to be shown. Cast will kill DRT!

LEFTY

[44man]

I only had a shoulder shot through brush and if she would have taken another step I would not have seen her. I prefer behind the shoulder too. It is overgrown here this year, so much so I dropped a friend off and walked a circle to find myself back where I left him!
She went about 30 yards or so.
The .44 always works, it is just right.

[marshall623]

I found a mess and both shoulders were the same. It took a lot of work to clean them up. Both entry and exit holes were large.
This is my 330 gr WLN, water dropped WW metal at a shade over 1300 fps. You can imagine the destruction in between the shoulders.
I don't think I will be switching to a HP! :-P
Goes to show if all is just right, it works. 8531885319

That's some damage there , you don't need a HP unless you are planning on feeding the yotes and buzzards

[DougGuy]

It is overgrown here this year, so much so I dropped a friend off and walked a circle to find myself back where I left him!

You will take infinitely more deer in thick brush than across an open field methinks.. If I get in where it's thick and can get up a tree with trails converging nearby, or on a right of way between a thicket and hardwoods, I -know- I will be taking home fresh meat.

[monge]

gun season has not opened in upstate NY yet but im loaded and ready cant wait to let the lead fly!

[nighthunter]

I've been fortunate enough to have taken a few deer with the 44. The worst damage was one I shot many years ago with a Hornady 240 gr XTP. Wow ... that was a mess. All my others have been with cast bullets. I do prefer a heavy HP. With the right alloy they perform very well. Bullet placement is still critical in both clean killing ability and edible meat left to take home. That's probably not true with the 454 cause its a super cartridge that only does what you want it to. I've shot deer with rifles that I would be more than pleased if that was all the damage I had gotten.

Nighthunter

[44man]

Well, went out this afternoon at 4 and was back before 5. I screwed up and wore a cap without a bill so had to look in the wrong direction most of the time, sun was bright. I glanced back and seen a large doe go behind a big cedar, about 45 yards. From the cedar to brush was about 20 feet. A deer came out walking fast, I swung up the BFR .475 and shot. She dropped and then I seen another small one and the big doe run out the other side. I got a yearling. Carol makes fun of me for shooting dogs but truth be told, I have the best meat.
The .475 is a hammer.

[btroj]

We refer to those as vealison. Very tender.

[missionary5155]

Well, went out this afternoon at 4 and was back before 5. I screwed up and wore a cap without a bill so had to look in the wrong direction most of the time, sun was bright. I glanced back and seen a large doe go behind a big cedar, about 45 yards. From the cedar to brush was about 20 feet. A deer came out walking fast, I swung up the BFR .475 and shot. She dropped and then I seen another small one and the big doe run out the other side. I got a yearling. Carol makes fun of me for shooting dogs but truth be told, I have the best meat.
The .475 is a hammer.

Greetings 44man
I very much enjoy "eating large dogs". Everything is tender and they have not yet chewed off a whole corn field.
My caliber .475 Linebaugh is headed to my son. How about some info on the load...
Mike in Peru

[TES]

that looks a bit worse than the deer I hit with the 25-06 this year.
you did hit her a bit higher than I hit mine though, as I was taking a heart shot and misjudged where the leg was in the shadows.
I shattered the onside leg took out the top of the heart and really roughed up the off side leg which seemed odd as I seen no exit wound in the offside leg and never found the bullet.

Did you hear a loud thunk in the toilet when you were in reading room?

[44man]

Greetings 44man
I very much enjoy "eating large dogs". Everything is tender and they have not yet chewed off a whole corn field.
My caliber .475 Linebaugh is headed to my son. How about some info on the load...
Mike in Peru
I made the mold, it is a WFN, 420 gr. I use 26 gr of 296 and the Fed 155 primer. It runs about 1350 fps.

[reloader28]

I've had excellent results on deer with the RCBS 245gr SWC in my rifle.

A friend of mine shot a doe last year with a 357 rifle loaded with Lee 158 RF.
Damage looked almost identical. He had to throw away the front shoulder it was so bloodshot.
I love that boolit. Drops at 165gr and shoots awesome.

[missionary5155]

Thanks 44 man 296, 1680 and 5744 are going to go to the range in that order.
A 420 grainer at 1350 would be liable to go through 10 "big dogs" stacked up. Still dog is a tasty meal.
Mike in Peru

[44man]

I want another little one! This was so easy and fast to clean up, no huge layers of fat to fool with, skinned easy and is going to taste great.
I have to think about it a little, no fat, no acorns in the woods and I expect a hard winter. I wonder if the small ones will even survive? I have never been against shooting young ones and will not trophy hunt just for antlers and waste meat. I killed many good bucks in Ohio and had to give the meat away. I bought a pressure cooker and it would not make the stuff edible. Need a chainsaw about knife size.
It did not take me long to convert to a Bambi shooter!
But I still get a rash from Carol!

[Three44s]

With that much damage to a deer with a .44 cast .......

........... I'll have to just shoot only scary stuff with the .480 and the Mihec mold I just got!

One grace saving thing around here is it's more elk than deer ......... and the one of those I shot with a RCBS 250K was not tore up like that ...........


Three 44s

[drinks]

Never seen a tender antler!
My cousin shot a 3 pointer several years ago and asked me to skin and cut it up, must have weighed all of 15lb after skinning,
I got him to cook it "al Pastor", that is, staked over a bed of mesquite coals until the skin gets crispy, then meat pulled off and rolled in a fresh tortilla with plenty of salsa cruda.
Of course this method requires Lone Star long necks to wash it down.

[DougGuy]

I want another little one! This was so easy and fast to clean up, no huge layers of fat to fool with, skinned easy and is going to taste great.
I have to think about it a little, no fat, no acorns in the woods and I expect a hard winter. I wonder if the small ones will even survive? I have never been against shooting young ones and will not trophy hunt just for antlers and waste meat.

Nod to 44man! I have been meat hunting for years, I'm getting older now and they are easier to drag, meat is much more tender. I've taken nice bucks but I just don't feel the need to go out in the woods and prove anything anymore you know? If a nice buck crossed my sights and I didn't have any meat, yeah I'd take him but I won't go out of my way to hunt horns at all. I love getting in the outdoors and I love a good day hunting but I'm in this for eating what I kill.

We can't hunt here in NC on Sunday, but it was 68° and sunny today, so we took the bicycles out on the paved trail down by the river and rode a few miles just enjoying the quiet, and the fall colors, it was beautiful out. I get as much enjoyment out of that as I do hunting.

[44man]

Hunting does get old, I don't look forward to it as much because I wonder where the year went. When young I went duck, pheasant, quail, grouse, squirrel, fox and crow hunting and could not wait for deer. I drove a million miles, then add fishing almost every day. Now I watch the crows and we have no birds to hunt, heavy snow and ice killed them off. Used to listen to the bob whites, now they are gone.
Our woods is full of paw paw trees, they are all around my old wood ladder stand, I have let the bow down on the rope and sat and watched the deer under me, sometimes 17, bumping into my bow as they fed---well so much for my scent on the bow! Never, ever had a deer smell or spook from where I walked. Just don't put any clothing on the ground. I pee at the base of the stand or out of it, never spooked a single deer. You learn a lot just watching them and they have become so easy I got bored. But old age does that anyway. I would never give up a second of it all, still outside and I loved to hunt in a raging blizzard in Ohio. I love snow big time.
I made squirrel with wine, morals and other shrooms a while back and I am the only one that eats it so some went to waste. I will not shoot any more this year.
I have deer come in the yard all the time so I quit hunting close. My little dog will sit next to me and watch them, then go the other way to go pot. Deer have come within 10 yards of us, such beautiful creatures. But they need thinned out, it still hurts to kill them. Pride goes away and I hate those TV shows. All the false junk to sell stuff and shooting from an elevated house with a rest over a food plot is just shooting, not hunting face to face.
I love archery but it is getting hard to pull mine so I went to revolvers 100%, still too easy, I would rather track in snow then hunt from a stand. The woods are sheer beauty then, the world is clean.
DougGuy understands that a dead deer is not needed to have the best days in the outdoors. A good man in my book!
Now about my wife---if I bring a buck home she will complain just like she does for a small one. Seems to need a tape measure for the right one but hates tough meat or the wild flavor.

[filthygovmploye]

We have the same gun guy! I heard the same so went out and bought a Rageing Bull in .454 (actually the price was so good....) heck'va toy, and sure grabs peoples attention at the range:bigsmyl2:

not to one up ya, but here goes....

the one gun recently in my horse trading that i really miss is a 460 xvr from smith... 10", compensated. could run 410s outta it as well (if you reloaded em short yourself). its the fastest round out of a production revolver out there. lotta fun... doesnt hurt too bad either. never got around to casting for it though.... buddy called it in on a debt.

i have heard that 357 mag out of a 16"nearly matches 3030 operformance, so i assume 44mag will do better! decisions decisions! savage hog hunter or rossi lever gun.

[Rich/WIS]

I confess, I am a pot hunter, descended from a long line of pot hunters. As they say here in my part of WI "them horns make really thin soup". I look for a nice medium size doe, figure size versus freezer space and if she will fit, then I shoot. I'm old, most of my teeth are dull, and the one's that aren't dull aren't real.

[44man]

I don't like a .357 mainly because of bullet choices but in truth, it is a problem with any caliber. Anything will work if the right bullet/boolit is used and I really love the big revolvers, the .475 and .500 JRH but have no use for the S&W .500 since all we have is deer here. The .454 can be made to work for anything and so can a .45 Colt.
Use what you have but the important thing is to get out and hunt.
What I have found is I have two revolvers that work with a hard boolit, the .44 and the .475, all others need some work without making the drive bands soft. I need to cast some with a softer nose. Time flies and I have had too much work this year with breakdowns with mower engines and yard work. Then I waste all mornings on this stupid puter talking to you friends.

[badguybuster]

Lord have mercy. Looks like you shot him with a cannon

[osteodoc08]

Not sure if I missed it, but what did you launch it out of?

Looks like mine that I shot a little high/forward with my 45/70 last year.

[44man]

Not sure if I missed it, but what did you launch it out of?

Looks like mine that I shot a little high/forward with my 45/70 last year.
First was my SBH IHMSA revolver, .44 mag. Little one was the .475 BFR. I didn't take a picture of the little one.
I really like the old SBH, still deadly accurate.

[Shuz]

Congrats on getting some fine tasting meat. Looks like you lost a little meat there; but it happens. This year I gut shot a fine little buck that I thought was a doe because of no antlers and I hadda throw away the TENDERLOINS because the whole undercarriage or body cavity was just sprayed with that greenish crud that we've all seen when we inadvertently puncture the paunch whilst field dressing. Oh, well, the back straps and the rest of the little guy were fine. I used my .444Marlin with a MP-433-300g HP boolit at 2150fps. Needless to say, the boolit plowed on thru both sides of the little guy, spraying that goop everywhere. I hit approximately 1 foot from my aiming spot at 125yds. Methinks my scope went bad! Couldn't have been a bad shot.............right?

[white eagle]

nah!..

[oscarflytyer]

I confess, I am a pot hunter, descended from a long line of pot hunters. As they say here in my part of WI "them horns make really thin soup". I look for a nice medium size doe, figure size versus freezer space and if she will fit, then I shoot. I'm old, most of my teeth are dull, and the one's that aren't dull aren't real.

I have found horns to be horribly hard on teeth!

[MarkP]

This can't be right. Our local gun store guy says a 44 won't kill a deer, the bullets just bounce off, leaving a nasty bruise. It takes a minimum of a .454 to cleanly take deer, and they shoot so flat that you don't have to hold over or anything out to almost 150 yards. Our expert wouldn't lie to us...

What gun store in Eastern NE?

[44man]

We were able to clean up the blood and the loss was about 2" around the holes. Bloodshot is only in between muscle anyway. Just a mess to work with by removing connective tissue and wiping.
Now the shoulder shot with a HP, softer boolit in the 45-70 revolver was PULP.
Here is another deer shot with the .44 and a hard boolit. I did save the shoulder. 86861

[44man]

Maybe you fellas that go to that gun shop should take these pictures and ask what caliber he thinks will do this.
Yeah, a .44 will bounce off!
This is with a WLN at 22 BHN but many will try and talk you into a soft HP. Naw, not me. Reserve those for calibers that NEED them. Only you can determine what is best by shooting animals.
I have a hard time myself to get it right for each caliber but the .44 never fails, it is all you need.

[Dutchninja]

44man, That round does work every time though. I've seen similar damage when my wife shoots her deer. She's been hunting with a Ruger 44 mag carbine for years and is awesome shot with it. I've seen her take 6 deer with that round,25-50 yards, and I swear on ever deer she puts the round in about same place every time. Opening day is usually her birthday so I end up dressing out her deer and their vitals are always liquified with tons of damage. We must have some strange deer though because I've never seen them drop DRT. Each one has run she has shot has run (running dead) for another 50-100 yards from where she shot them. I've had to put and extra round in at least two of them when I finally found them. However, as 44man stated, it does it's job every time though.

[Swede44mag]

Congrats on your deer hunt.
I shot a deer with my S&W .44mag running from right to left in front of me I was ready since I had seen where the deer had ran in.
I did a quick shot and the doe ran about 15 yards into the brush and dropped DRT.
I had hit her through the shoulders with a 240gr Keith style boolit going about 950fps. Some damage to the shoulders but she was tasty.
The next time they give you flack about shooting a dog (small deer) ask them where their deer it will shut them up.

[44man]

I like the small ones too. So fast and easy to skin and cut up. Like a young squirrel instead of an old tough one that has the skin glued on with super glue!