44 magnum loads

[nikonuser]

Not wanting to hijack thread, good load information in it.

But the "sane velocity", "easy on the paws" loads of bullets under 300 grains at 1,000 in the "20,000 psi range".

Good number of the fellows in that thread use them, and say they do well with them on deer out to 60 yards in a handgun, but the two questions that come to mind is,

1. how much actual recoil/shooting hand pain do you actually experience with them?

2. And how do you manage to harvest a deer with lightweight loads when it would seem that the "new internet minimum" is 300-350 gains at 1200fps?

[bmortell]

it depends a lot on gun size on how hot I want to load. my 9" super red hawk ill shoot 300gr at 1400 just because why not it don't hurt, the gun is huge. same thing in a 4-6" Blackhawk feels more unpleasant to me. some 44s are under 40 ounces and that wouldn't be any fun. personally if I had a small 44 and I couldn't comfortably handle atleast 240gr at 1200 id use a rifle or something else. unless its a scenario where its really all you got or can use. lots of stuff CAN work but im not gonna intentionally choose something that is "good enough" when I don't have too

[sharps4590]

Sure, I put my faith in the internet. Evidently deer have grown boiler plate since I shot my first deer with a revolver back in '81 with a 240 gr. bullet.

[Hickory]

I once killed a deer with a .357 magnum loaded with a Lyman 358156 bullet and 2.7 grains of Bullseye.

It was a cartridge left in my coat pocket while target practicing in the back yard. I dropped a handful of hunting rounds in my pocket on my way to the woods and the target round got loaded and indexed up to fire.
Shot placement is everything.

[rintinglen]

Animals, in the last half of the 20th Century, evolved into monstrously tough creatures, three and even four times hardier than those our grand sires and great grand sires slew. How else to explain the fact that my great Uncle Carl killed a Grizzly with a measly 30-40, when everyone knows now that anything less than a .338 Winchester Magnum will bounce off, leaving one at the mercy of the enraged bruin.

[Budzilla 19]

I shoot a 310 grain Lee RNFP over 15.5 grains Hercules 2400 at about a 1000 fps, easy on the recoil, but the gun is a 10” Ruger with a muzzle brake on it. I think even without the brake it wouldn’t be bad at all!! Short barrel .44 might be a different story, but that’s been said already. Good luck.




Oh, I also believe it would tear through most anything walking with that load!! Especially Southwest Louisiana white tails!!!

[RJM52]

Deer wise...much prefer a lightweight fast expanding HP... Favorite in .44 is the Sierra 180 JHC in front of 30.0 grains of H110... Last deer I shot with one was a six-point walking toward me. Hit him right in the chest at a slight angle...turned the heart to jello and busted the last two ribs on the off side going out... He could not get to the ground fast enough.

I've hit two deer with flat nose cast bullets through the lungs...and a long tracking job. If you are going to shoot cast solid hit the shoulder or heart... Next time I'm going to try a cast HP...

Bob

[onelight]

I once killed a deer with a .357 magnum loaded with a Lyman 358156 bullet and 2.7 grains of Bullseye.

It was a cartridge left in my coat pocket while target practicing in the back yard. I dropped a handful of hunting rounds in my pocket on my way to the woods and the target round got loaded and indexed up to fire.
Shot placement is everything.
I bet that was a what was that ??? moment.:-D

[plowboysghost]

I run the 310-gr GC Lee over 16.5-gr of 2400. In my Ruger 7.5" SBH is doesn't seem intense on the recoil or blast.

A full tilt Keith load with the RCBS 250K bullet is noticeably more so...to my sensitivities.

[nikonuser]

I have screws holding my offhand wrist together that makes me somewhat worried about recoil. And I have some mild carpal tunnel in gun hand. SLow fire I actually shoot offhand better then my primary hand for some reason.

[GSP7]

I have screws holding my offhand wrist together .............

How did you break you wrist? Motorcycle ? 8-)

[nikonuser]

How did you break you wrist? Motorcycle ? 8-)

dropping trees.

As a result I seem to be more sensitive with recoil then others

[DonMountain]

I use one of those Ruger Red Hawk 7-1/2" barreled pistols with 22.0 grains of H-110 under a 310 grain gas checked WFN because since deer are almost bullet proof now days, with this pistol I can just pull the trigger 5 more times using the double action feature!

[Hickory]

I bet that was a what was that ??? moment.:-D

I saw the 6 point deer out about 75 yards, had he kept his course I would not have shot.
After about 15 minutes of grazing it turned right towards me. Another 10 or 15 minutes and it was with in 20 feet of me. I let get that close, mostly because there was thick brush and I was behind a tree and the light wind was blowing directly toward me.
At 20 feet I was about to touch it off and put it in it's brisket and something got his attention and it turned and looked behind it.
This gave me a wonderful heart shot so I took it. At the shot the deer jumped straight up landed on it's side and couldn't get up and died in seconds.

Oh yeah, there was a "what was that" moment.

[ddixie884]

Cool story Hickory. Accuracy is final...........

[Norske]

In my SBH revolvers, I will use 16-17 gr 2400 with the Lee 305 bullet. The secret to shooting a single-action is allowing it to pivot upward in recoil (which puts the hammer close to your thumb for repeat shot). The extra weight of the red dot sight on one of my SBH's helps, too.

[bmortell]

have to ask. if you have health problems in both your hands why use a 44 magnum handgun in the first place

[trapper9260]

You can use the 44 mag if you do, just see what loads you can handle that is what I do . If I want heavy I use the rifle .

[HP9MM]

I like to shoot in my 29-2, 8.5 grains of Unique behind a 429421 bullet.
Comfortable to shoot with sufficient power for my needs-killing paper.

[MT Gianni]

Pain is very relative. What can bring one person to their knees can make the one next to them shake it off and keep going. Wrisst and forearm size figure into shooting handguns as well as grips do.

[nikonuser]

have to ask. if you have health problems in both your hands why use a 44 magnum handgun in the first place

down range capability. There are many GOOD articles from the 1930-1970 era of American hand gun shooting from keith and skelton and others that had no issue going out and hunting animals with puny handguns loaded with 38 super police, 38/44, 357 magnum, and even 44special +p. Animals like antelope, mule deer, black bear, even moose.

same animals today that MOST are afraid to hunt with anything smaller then 30-06 and "hyper ammo".