What 44 Mag Rifle?

[DonMountain]

As I get more elderly, its getting a little harder to carry these heavy old military rifles out in the woods for deer hunting, just to shoot lead projectiles. I have used my Ruger Redhawk in 44 Mag with a Leupold 4x scope and 320 grain gas checked boolits with about 18 grains of H110 with some success on deer. But my accuracy is slipping with that one too. So, I have been discussing with my wife who also will be using this rifle, purchasing a lightweight 44 Mag rifle that a scope can be mounted on for close range woods hunting using hopefully the same load as my Redhawk. So, does anybody have some suggestions on the make and model of a 44 Mag rifle? We both use bolt actions and lever actions now and are familier with them and their operation. Since I reload my brass I would prefer not buying a semiauto rifle.

[Outpost75]

I have a plain vanilla Marlin 1894S in .44 Mag. which I love. If you do levers, it is a great choice.

[altheating]

Ruger 77/44. Some have had issues, but mine has been flawless. Get a good quality mold that casts a heaven boolit. I lapped my barrel and all is good, no great! This week I will put a shim in my two piece bolt to see if accuracy improves. Not that it needs it, but I want to see if it gets better. LBT mold, 17 or 17.5 gr of 2400 for 6" gong accuracy at 150 all day long.

[starnbar]

I got the Marlin too and it handles great down here in fl I have shot a few hogs and coyotes with mine I mounted a 4x redfield on it and its quick to sight with that scope the best thing is how light and easy to carry.

[country gent]

There are several rugers the 77/44 that has been mentioned The deerslayer a semi auto 44 mag ( i believe its discontinued now so a used one wold need to be found). I believe Henry is making a lever in 44 mag also. Pedersoli is making a reproduction of the Colt lightning pump action not sure if it is available in 44 mag but an internet search would show. Winchester has made some in the past and may have an offering now.

[dilly]

What about a handi rifle? Probably one of the lightest options.

[dragon813gt]

Marlin 1894. New ones are on the shelves and the quality is where it should be. The receivers are drilled and tapped for scope mounting. You would have to put a scout type mount on the top ejectors. I'm a fan of how simple they are to take apart to clean. You can't go wrong w/ one.

[dkf]

Winchester 94 Trapper with a light and compact 2-7 scope would work well.

[claude]

If you want light weight, the Henry is out of the running, it weighs 8.6 pounds empty and by the time you add ten rounds you are crowding ten pounds pretty hard. They are a piece of work though, very well made.

The Marlin 1894 weighs in at 6.5lbs empty and with a full compliment of 11 will push 8lb.

I don't know what 320gr gc bullet you are shooting but the rifles/carbines are COL sensitive and will not handle long cartridges like the Red Hawk will. They simply won't feed, or in the case of the Rugers won't go in the magazine at all. To get reliable feeding and still run heavy bullets Ranch Dog designed the 300gr, GC at .432 that will work in the handgun and rifles as well.

The Ruger 77/44 is the lightest of the three mentioned above. 5.25lbs + four in the magazine.

Hope you find a solution that works for you, as mentioned above, the single shot Handi Rifle might suit your needs as well. Oh, winchester makes a 44 in the model 94 as well.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

I would look at a single shot http://www.hr1871.com/firearms/rifles/handirifle.asp

[Para82]

I have one of the original tube fed Ruger semi auto 44 mag carbines.I don't shoot cast in it but you couldn't ask for a faster handling little woods gun. Sorry OP did not see the last line about not preferring a semi.

[skeettx]

Mine is the Marlin 1894S in 44 Mag with the lowest set of Weaver Rings that I could us and an old Redfield Widefield 4X.
What joy

It has Ballard rifling for cast bullets, nice straight grip to be able to hold well.

http://www.marlinfirearms.com/Firearms/1894Centerfire/1894.asp

Mike

[pworley1]

I would second what Dilly said. The handi rifle with a scope would be the lightest and with the 44 mag one shot should be all you need.

[kenyerian]

I bought a Handi in 44 mag for the grandson and he is very happy with it.

[Artful]

While I love my Marlin lever gun, I'm going to throw out a few I didn't see mentioned
Ruger Semi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLPmEPKHc9w
6 lbs

Ruger Lever
http://cdn2.armslist.com/sites/armslist/uploads/posts/2012/09/08/551516_01_ruger_44_magnum_lever_action_r_640.jpg

Ruger #3 Single Shot
http://motofoto.cc/_borders/Ruger-No3WD.jpg

thompson Contender Carbine

http://cdn2.armslist.com/sites/armslist/uploads/posts/2011/10/30/219983_01_thompson_contender_carbine_640.jpg

[MarkP]

I have a Rem 788 in 44 mag shots very well, is drilled and tapped for a scope but they are fairly scarce and heavier than other rifles mentioned above. I also have an older Rossi in 44 mag mounting a scope is possible, I think there are better rifle choices out there. I had a Ruger 44 auto it does fling shells out but it is light and handy. I wish I still had it, sold it to buy a 308 while in collage.

I do not own one but a Ruger 77/44 is a nice light rifle that is drilled and tapped for a scope.

One thing that surprises me is the recoil of a 44 mag rifle is more than you would think it would be.

[longbow]

I am glad I am not the only one who notices recoil in an 1894 Marlin with full loads! It is a pretty light little gun and when launching 250 to 270 gr. boolits with top end loads I find it slaps me pretty good. of course downloading a little makes for less recoil as does lighter boolits.

I would love to have a Ruger #3 in .44 mag.

Longbow

[DonMountain]

My grandson has a handi rifle in 243 he bought at a pawn shop for deer hunting. And then couldn't afford ammo for it. So I tried reloading for it with some J-Word bullets at moderate pressures with a box of Winchester cases he bought in WalMart as loaded ammo. But after the first reload all the cases started to separate about 3/8" up from the base. I tried just neck sizing them but then they wouldn't fit back in the rifle so you could close it. So I full length resized them with the die set up off the shellholder, pushing the neck down so that they just fit back in the rifle. And they still separated. I told him to get rid of it. Of course the straight wall case of the 44 Mag probably won't have that problem. But I would prefer not to take the chance.

[Nobade]

What? Nobody has mentioned the Browning '92 yet. If you can find one, they are really nice rifles. Light and slick to operate. You're not going to scope it, but a forward mounted red dot would work.

-Nobade

[Duckiller]

If you are considering a Marlin 1894 I would suggest you wait awhile. Rumour from Feb.Handloader is that Marlin is going to change from 1-38 to 1-20 in the near future. Brief article in Handloader is that a gunsmith can modify the marlin to handle longer (COL=1,700") boolits. The modification with the faster twist to stabilize heavier boolits would make a very nice gun. My early "70s 1894 handles 250 gr bullets but doesn't like 270gr Gold Dots. Initially I had unloading problems with it and I eventually had to send it back to Marlin to fix. They fixed it but not sure if they modified it to handle longer boolits.

[Rick Hodges]

I am waiting for the next production run of the CVA Scout V2 in .44 magnum. It puts the H&R with its atrocious trigger and 1-38 twist to shame. Lightweight stainless steel single shot rifle in 44 mag with 1-20 twist for $350 sure is interesting. The reports on accuracy have been excellent. Torn between that and a new carbine TC contender barrel. The barrel alone on the contender will cost more in blue steel. I just dunno.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I am looking at a Ruger 77/44 and would mount a Bushnell TRS 25 Red Dot sight on it. Good to as far as you can see, and great in the woods. Hitting with a Red Dot out to 300 yards is easy, but since a .44 is kind of limited to about 1/2 that, the Red Dot Sight is a no brainer.

You will have to load shorter rounds however as 1.610 is max that the magazine can swallow. However you could load your mega boolits in .44 Special cases and run them up to about 1000 fps from your pistol, and that would translate to about 13-1400 fps from the 18" bbl rifle. a 350 gr boolit at 1400 fps is close to .45-70 power.

Or you could use a boolit like 429640 RFN at 240 gr and be done with it and be back up to 16-1800 fps. More power than you probably need.

http://www.ruger.com/products/rotaryMagazine7744/models.html

With a Red Dot and a sling you'd still be under 6 lbs, and be carrying a very powerful rifle.

Randy

[skeettx]

Hello DonMountain

Been a WHOLE week :)

What did y'all decide??

Mike

[Gray Fox]

Don't overlook the new Rossi .44 mag carbines. They can be had in blue or stainless, and four holes are already drilled and tapped under the rear sight for a scout mount. Ranch Dog has checked the chamber specs and they now conform to SAMMI. I have one in blue, but opted for a Steve's Gunz aperture sight that replaces the bolt mounted safety. I have three of them in .357 for my wife and I and they all wear scout scopes. Anything at 100 yards in the deer/hog size is dead with the Ranch Dog 175 grain RNFP GC boolit.

[longbow]

The modification to handle longer OAL is an easy one. I did it to my Marlin. You just have to file the cartridge stop back some. Not much work and not hard to do. A bigger issue for me was getting SWC's to feed. One might ask "Why bother?" but I had a Mihec H&G #503 mould and nothing to shoot them in but my Marlin so I worked on it and got them feeding well. They also shoot very well from it so worth the effort.The Marlin owner's site has articles on both the cartridge stop mod and mod's to feed SWC's (some guns do and some don't apparently but mine certainly didn't when I received it).My experiences with boolit weights are similar to yours in that I find about 270 gr. as heavy as will stabilize at long range in my 1:38" twist barrel.LongbowHah! look at that! I was on the bottom of the previous page responding to duckiller's post. Oops! I got to learn to look at page numbers.What the...! I can't separate the text for some reason. It is all jamming up in one lump. oh well.

[Themoose]

I've had several 44 mag rifles...each with their plus and minus issues... I have 788 that is great, except for the fragile and expensive clips...very accurate rifle solid performer out to 150 yds..I've had two Ruger 77/44's accuracy not as good as 788 but effective to 125-150 yds. Marlin 94, reworked it to cycle longer cartridge smoothly... just didn't care for lever action... and older ruger 44 deerfield... great for first shot, but wouldn't group for me on following rounds... top pick would be Ruger 77/44 second pick Rem 788

[glockky]

I am waiting for the next production run of the CVA Scout V2 in .44 magnum. It puts the H&R with its atrocious trigger and 1-38 twist to shame. Lightweight stainless steel single shot rifle in 44 mag with 1-20 twist for $350 sure is interesting. The reports on accuracy have been excellent. Torn between that and a new carbine TC contender barrel. The barrel alone on the contender will cost more in blue steel. I just dunno.

Have you heard when CVA will rerun the scout v2 in 44 mag again? I too am really wanting to pick one up.

[Rick Hodges]

Have you heard when CVA will rerun the scout v2 in 44 mag again? I too am really wanting to pick one up.
No I have not. The consensus with the dealers I have talked with is they should become available after the SHOT Show, but how much later? I don't know. There are quite a few of the Camo package guns available in .243 and 7-08, but I am looking for a .44 to take advantage of Michigan's new regulations for the lower part of the state. (former shotgun zone)

[trapper9260]

I have a redhawk also and then I got a marlin from someone I know and check the number and was made in 1981 and the ammo I load for the redhawk I can also use the same in my marlin and no problems.but I do not have a scope on any of my ,I did on the redhawk but took it off because of the weight.Hope this is what the OP was asking about.