44 mag hunting loads

[anthony68]

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.

[Whitworth]

What game are you hunting?

[Blammer]

250gr boolit, 9gr of unique

[anthony68]

What game are you hunting?

Ill be hunting whitetail deer in ohio

[Edubya]

22 gr of 2400 does meet requirements.

EW

[Bear4570]

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.

[MtGun44]

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

[FN in MT]

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

[vanilla_gorilla]

My RCBS 44-250-K is 265 grains, ready to load. 7 grains of Bullseye for 1050 fps.

[44man]

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.

[44man]

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.

[Doc_Stihl]

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)

[cptinjeff]

One 18 point buck went 420# dressed.


I like to see a picture of that one:shock::shock:

[44man]

I like to see a picture of that one:shock::shock:
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! :bigsmyl2:

[sixshot]

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

[44man]

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.

[cptinjeff]

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:holysheep

[MtGun44]

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

[Dale53]

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:mrgreen:).

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

[sixshot]

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

[fatnhappy]

No shots further than 35 yards.

stick. string.
125 grain muzzies.

[44man]

Dale is exactly correct.
I only shot one deer in Ohio that I could not eat. Big OOOOLD buck in full rut that walked past me standing in the open. I put an arrow through him and when I approached him HE STUNK. He looked 50 years old, gray hair everywhere. I used all the care I could cleaning him but the meat was no good. Tough too, an hour or two in a pressure cooker and you could still sole your boots with the stuff.
The doe in PA forests were all different. I would shoot one and it would be good, the next from the same tree, same size doe and the meat would be strong. Then many had leg worms that had to be removed.
The deer here in the eastern panhandle of WV are all good, just like Ohio deer and you do not know it is venison.

I don't have all my chrono readings but an LBT 320 gr with 21.5 gr of 296 is going 1316 fps from a 10" barrel. I went to 23 gr during testing and it reached 1421 fps, started to stick brass and was not accurate. 21.5 was the best and is also the best with the Lee 310 gr.
Barrel length will change this reading.
If you stop this boolit in a deer, it might stop in the second deer standing behind the one you shot at! :Fire:

[44man]

stick. string.
125 grain muzzies.
No more Muzzies for me! :veryconfu
They kill good but I broke every single one in the ground after going through deer. Got just too expensive. The little tip would strip the threads and drive back into the blades.

[Dale53]

I have no explanation for it, but that is just what it chronographed with my two hunting revolvers (S&W Model 29 with 8 3/8" barrel and a Ruger Red Hawk with 7½" barrel).

Now, I chronographed that a long time ago with an Oehler chronograph. I now have access to a different chronograph (another Oehler) and probably ought to chronograph it again.

I thought it was about 100 fps "slow" but accepted that as that was "how it was".

FWIW
Dale53

[peter nap]

There was a thread a while back and I wish I could find it, discussing lower velocities with heavy bullets for Deer. Maybe 44man can help since he was a major contributor.
It was one of the most interesting I've read....and I forgot to bookmark it.

[44man]

Can't remember all of what was posted but maybe I will touch on it again. I like heavy boolits for hunting but would be happy with the 265 gr RD in the .44. I shoot up to 330 gr in the .44, 300 to347 in the .45 and 420 in the .475.
I load strictly 100% for accuracy and make the boolits as hard and tough as needed for each caliber and find the velocity for each for that accuracy.
The .45 runs along at 1160 fps and the .475 is 1329 fps. All three calibers are deadly on deer but there is a decided difference when something is hit with the .475 even with very hard boolits.
The .44 at 1316 is very deadly but it seems the .45 is less so. Although 1000 to 1200 fps kills just fine, it seems around 1300 is better and there is no need at all for soft boolits or expansion. The .45 seems to be better with around 300 gr boolits a little faster.
We do a complete necropsy on every deer and it still looks like the 1300 to 1350fps range does the most internal damage without meat loss.
Boolit weight and diameter can do amazing things and the .475 penetrated 14 one gallon jugs of water and blew the first 4 sky high and badly split two more. The insides of deer look like the water jugs! :Fire:Yet there is just a small exit hole and no meat loss.
Now moving to my 45-70 BFR at over 1600 fps, internal damage is not there at all and I have lost a couple of deer and others went 200 yards or more. Blood trails are poor and lungs are intact except for a hole.
It seems as if the big flat nose creates a pressure wave that moves tissue away from the boolit path in a secondary wound channel. That collapses, leaving only the primary hole.
I cured the problem by making the boolit expand even though there is an accuracy loss caused by fliers.
I went too far last season and lost almost all of the off shoulder so some adjustment is needed.
I used Babores great 420 gr hollow point made from 50-50 WW's and pure, oven hardened. I think the pure needs reduced a little, maybe to 25%.
Anyway it is a mistake to look for too much velocity in the .44, look for accuracy first and it will just plain work. Load the same for the .45 by finding a heavy boolit at the same velocity range.
I would not try and shoot heavy boolits too slow because of the mismatch to the twist rate.
It can be a mistake to load light, fast, expanding boolits too if it stops penetration or if a boolit stops on bone. Harden the boolit too much at that speed and internal damage might be reduced. In the end, the heavier boolits just do a better job.
Whitworth, Bioman and I have stacked up a huge pile of deer and all have been given the once over to see what the boolit did inside where it is important.
Nothing you shoot at for boolit tests will tell you what happens in animals.

[Thumbcocker]

Anthony68:

There is a lot of good advice in the above posts. Many of the posters have taken a truckload of deer with .44s. I have not taken nearly as manny critters as .44 man and the others. With that said; in my limited experience white tails are not especially hard to kill with any reasonable load. My hunting load is a 429421hp cast of 50/50 ww and soft lead over 22grns of IMR4227. I have never recovered a boolit shot into a deer with this load. I have also used solid Keiths over 18.5 of 2400. There has not been that much difference in performance no boolits recovered. The longest shot I have ever connected on a deer with was 65 yards with a second shot at 35 yards. What usually happens, in my experience, is that the deer will show little or no reaction to a hit and will walk off 35-75 yards and fall over. Two exceptions are heart area hits where you will get the high kick reaction and hits in the shoulder upper shoulder area that hit colse to the spine. Then you get a drop in place. I hold for the heart lung rib area because I like shoulder meat and shoulder shots can bust up the bones and cause that loss of a good bit of meat. I can not speak to heavy boolits on deer because I have never used them.