Is there a way to make a 44 mag lever gun a 150 to 200 yd hunting rifle?

[Hannibal]

You'd think it was the title of the thread or something. Sorry you didn't like a direct answer. Sheesh.

[rusty marlin]

As been mentioned, .44 leverevolution and practice.
It's really no different than doping a 100 yard target with a .22LR
The other alternative is a small FFP scope with a MIL or MOA doping retical. Again it's just a matter of practice. I can first round hit 8" plates to 500 with my 350 Legend. Not saying I'd shoot a deer at that range, but practice makes perfect.

[Rusty Goose]

Hunting or not, buy the .44 mag lever gun because it's fun!

[FergusonTO35]

.350 bolt gun is probably going to be the most cost effective if that is important to you. If your area is like mine, .350 ammo is way easier to find than any other straight wall cartridge right now.

[GregLaROCHE]

One problem with reaching out that far, is that thenboolit will be slowing way down and be much more affected by cross wind.

[fastdadio]

I live/hunt in a straight wall restricted zone. 6 deer so far with the 350L. No boolits recovered. Terminal meat damage show it to be an excellent choice out to 150yds and farther if you practice with it.

[Teddy (punchie)]

I'm looking for a straight wall rifle cartridge for Pa hunting, and just weighing out all my options. I took a deer this year with my 357, and it did well. I am kicking around the 350 legend, 360 buckhammer, and maybe the 44 mag. I've been going through all my manuals, and I'm pretty certain I could take the 44 out to 125 yd, but not certain that the drop is good for beyond that distance. Has anyone come up with a reloading combination that could make that possible?

Back a few years the 44 loaded up 125 yds is the cut off, your correct. She is running out of steam and dropping too fast. This was a lighter bullet flying as fast as could get a group.

350 legend is going to run into what I found with the 350 Remington Mag. Just about the same trouble get out to the 150 to 200 yds and drop like a rock. That made me a little taking back I thought before I looked into it, thinking any mag would be a good 300 to 400 yds gun. Lucky I saw the light and said gun went too high at auction. They are a open sight gun good to maybe 250 not 400. If you going to get 200 yds. Maybe a 12 gauge loaded with wads to a 20 gauge dia. or smaller . This is something I was kicking around in my mind. Cup in a the shotgun that would leave the bullet to fly. Now can you hit a plate at 200 yds. ??

Back to your ?? I would love to trade spec. and information with you. Sound like we were or are of the same mind set. I normally don't post load data as it can be twisted into a crutch and make a huge problem.
Killing power is what is needed also. Enough to work the bullet and or make a large enough canal to bring down the animal.

Not into deer hunting like I was too many hours at work and just don't care to harvest deer any more. Farm is all fence and cows. Row crops take extra time and equipment. Hard for deer to eat what a cow has already eaten. That said I'm always looking for the time when Beaver Co. will follow the Allegheny Co. Years ago they wanted the whole state to be shotgun and the hunters stopped that dream.

Trouble is the PA Game Commission is all nuts and run by a group of over headed change making people. They have changed so much over the last 30 years and made things worse. They changed things that made this a hunting state they have changed and don't make sense. But that is a whole other mess.

[compass will]

I used to hunt the PA area he talks about. You're lucky to get a 50-yard shot. The new rule is to allow this straight wall rifle as a replacement to shotguns in populated areas. Why did PA come out with the shotgun rules in the first place? It wasn't to make it harder. It was to decrease reciprical damage where someone shoots holes in your home from a long way away. I lived in one of these zones, and opening day sounded like a war zone. Once they switched where I lived in western Chester county to shotgun, it became safer.
I think it's a good thing what they are doing. But I would not expect to make shots further than you could with a shotgun. I would carry my Colt 45 lever gun. They do make a 454 casull version of my lever gun

[NSB]

Nothing like some well established facts to mess up an opinion. Here’s what the 44mag in a lever gun can do ballistically. If you sight it in at 125 yards this is what you get using a Hornady 240g XTP bullet and H110/WW296:
Muzzle velocity 1817 fps, energy at 200 yards 875 ft lbs remaining.
Zero: 125y, drop at 150y is 2.4”, drop at 175y is 6.0”, drop at 200y is 10.0”.
I shot IHMSA big bore silhouette for years and I used a DW 44mag revolver. I could shoot the rams at 200y with monotonous regularity. It’s all about knowing the distance. If you get a range finder it’s not a problem if you can’t estimate distances without one. If you’re hunting out of a stand or blind you should know the distances every time you go to that spot. The muzzle energy at 200 yards will expand the bullet and keep in mind it’s already at .430 when it leaves the barrel. It’s very easy to shoot deer with a 44mag at these distances and kill them very effectively. Go to Hornady’s website for load info or use something like Lyman’s loading manual. Hornady’s website has a simple, easy to use ballistic calculator. Just plug in the info and it will spit out the results. FWIW, the BC of the Hornady 240g XTP is .205.

[JuliettDeltaGolf]

This is gonna bug a lot of people, but I deer hunt with one rifle- a 24" barreled .44-40. My Swiss black powder loads push a 217gr soft lead boolit over 1,325fps, and after thousands of rounds of practice, I'm confident I can put one in the boiler room at 200 yards consistently if I have a decent rest. I am not at all worried about "killing power", as if the shot is in the vitals it will do the job fine. Do I recommend it to others? Only if they're good shots and know their limitations. To be fair, I haven't had a shot opportunity past 100 yards yet, and usually make kills at 75 yards or less due to the terrain I hunt- but this boolit is still moving at nearly 1,000fps at 300 yards- Drop is significant, but the trajectory of this load is nearly identical to a standard .45-70 load, and as long as you have extensive practice and well-regulated sights, bullet drop shouldn't be an issue.

People really lose their minds over slow moving bullets for hunting, but as long as you can think in categories and shoot accurately, they're a lot more capable than most give credit for. What I mean by "thinking in categories" is this: think about bowhunting. Shock isn't a factor, very slow speeds, terrible trajectory, minimal bone-penetrating capability, and extremely short effective range. And yes, I do realize a broadhead is better at bloodletting than a cast boolit, but whatever. Do these extremely limiting factors mean no one should bowhunt? No, but it does mean you need to have LOTS of practice at various ranges, know your limitations, and know the limitations of your equipment. Many slow-moving heavy-ish rifle cartridges (especially pistol-size) are in a category by themselves, just like bowhunting. Load up as hot a load as you're comfortable with that is both accurate and safe in your gun, and practice at the ranges you want to shoot until you can be confident of clean kills- if it takes thousands of rounds and lots of load development. Don't cut any corners, DO NOT take shots on game that you haven't practiced- but don't listen to the unbelievers. Have fun, shoot straight, and kill clean.

[JuliettDeltaGolf]

Nothing like some well established facts to mess up an opinion. Here’s what the 44mag in a lever gun can do ballistically. If you sight it in at 125 yards this is what you get using a Hornady 240g XTP bullet and H110/WW296:
Muzzle velocity 1817 fps, energy at 200 yards 875 ft lbs remaining.
Zero: 125y, drop at 150y is 2.4”, drop at 175y is 6.0”, drop at 200y is 10.0”.
I shot IHMSA big bore silhouette for years and I used a DW 44mag revolver. I could shoot the rams at 200y with monotonous regularity. It’s all about knowing the distance. If you get a range finder it’s not a problem if you can’t estimate distances without one. If you’re hunting out of a stand or blind you should know the distances every time you go to that spot. The muzzle energy at 200 yards will expand the bullet and keep in mind it’s already at .430 when it leaves the barrel. It’s very easy to shoot deer with a 44mag at these distances and kill them very effectively. Go to Hornady’s website for load info or use something like Lyman’s loading manual. Hornady’s website has a simple, easy to use ballistic calculator. Just plug in the info and it will spit out the results. FWIW, the BC of the Hornady 240g XTP is .205.

AWESOME stuff!

[racepres]

Hunting or not, buy the .44 mag lever gun because it's fun!

I Absolutely Agree

[trapper9260]

Hunting or not, buy the .44 mag lever gun because it's fun!

You are right and will not look back , my shoot the same as my RH .

[Froogal]

For what it's worth, a simple little single shot, bolt action .22 will get the job done. I admit it WAS a lucky shot right into the spine, but we had venison.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Accuracy would be my concern with a .44 Mag levergun. Drop and killing power are not big issues, but staying inside a 6-8" circle at 200 yards would be my concern. The new .360 Buckmaster, the 350 Legend, 38-55 or 45-70 if legal - all have good records for accuracy and better trajectories. The pointy Hornady gummy-tip bullets would help the .44 Mag.

[Hannibal]

The thing that bothers me about threads like this is there are a whole bunch of 'hunters' who decend upon the hunting areas every year who won't even bother to spend enough time with a centerfire scoped rifle to reliably take a deer at 100 yards. And now someone even drug a .22lr story into it.

There's no substitute for practice and lots of it. There's no excuse for using a rifle that's marginal for the range expected and there's no excuse for making excuses.

Someone will read this thread and cherry pick a couple of answers because they already decided that's what they want to believe and bad results will ensue. Then people complain about game laws enacted due to the unprepared pushing the limits.

Congratulations. I hope you're happy.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Nothing like some well established facts to mess up an opinion. Here’s what the 44mag in a lever gun can do ballistically. If you sight it in at 125 yards this is what you get using a Hornady 240g XTP bullet and H110/WW296:
Muzzle velocity 1817 fps, energy at 200 yards 875 ft lbs remaining.
Zero: 125y, drop at 150y is 2.4”, drop at 175y is 6.0”, drop at 200y is 10.0”.
I shot IHMSA big bore silhouette for years and I used a DW 44mag revolver. I could shoot the rams at 200y with monotonous regularity. It’s all about knowing the distance. If you get a range finder it’s not a problem if you can’t estimate distances without one. If you’re hunting out of a stand or blind you should know the distances every time you go to that spot. The muzzle energy at 200 yards will expand the bullet and keep in mind it’s already at .430 when it leaves the barrel. It’s very easy to shoot deer with a 44mag at these distances and kill them very effectively. Go to Hornady’s website for load info or use something like Lyman’s loading manual. Hornady’s website has a simple, easy to use ballistic calculator. Just plug in the info and it will spit out the results. FWIW, the BC of the Hornady 240g XTP is .205.

NSB gives some good info here, I shoot short Range Silhouette with my Marlin 1894 CB 24" my standard load of 22 gr of H110/W296 using a Mihec 429244 260gr SWC clone, runs around 1600 fps. This gun has a Lyman 66 LA Rear Sight and I took the time to suss out the Trajectory so that I can get repeatable results at 50/100/150/200 meters. The gun is dead on at 100M. +6 MOA/9" at 150M, and +12MOA /24" at 200M. I could easily run that boolit up to 1800 to 2000 fps and flatten the trajectory but I have no need for that much recoil. The gun also has a large Pachmayer Recoil Pad fitted and it needs it!

Point of all this is you need to take your gun out and shoot it at all the different ranges and write the results down so that you can go back to them when needed. A 250 gr .44 Slug is more than enough to take down any deer in N/A at 200 yards. However if you aren't capable of hitting said Deer at 200 yards this all is pointless. You've got to know your gun and ammo. Simple as that.

Just for the record, I have hit 200 Meter Rams with my S&W696 3" Revolver in .44 Special with midrange loads and they knocked them down just fine.

Randy

[M-Tecs]

If find the old rule of thumb for maximum distance to be spot on. Use a 9" paper plate as a target setup under realistic hunting conditions at various yardages. Once you get to the yardage that you can no longer hit the plate 100% of the time you have your answer as to what your maximum distance should be.

Some can't hit a 9" paper plate at 200 yards with a scope and a very flat shooting cartridge under hunting conditions. Others can do it well past 200 yards with irons and a 44 Mag levergun.

[chutestrate]

The thing that bothers me about threads like this is there are a whole bunch of 'hunters' who decend upon the hunting areas every year who won't even bother to spend enough time with a centerfire scoped rifle to reliably take a deer at 100 yards. And now someone even drug a .22lr story into it.

There's no substitute for practice and lots of it. There's no excuse for using a rifle that's marginal for the range expected and there's no excuse for making excuses.

Someone will read this thread and cherry pick a couple of answers because they already decided that's what they want to believe and bad results will ensue. Then people complain about game laws enacted due to the unprepared pushing the limits.

Congratulations. I hope you're happy.

I am happy. Good people giving good information on both sides of the argument. That was the whole purpose of asking my question. Asking for opinions got what I possibly hadn't considered. Know what I learned? That there are some people who are awesome shots and I'm not in that group. I'm better off with something a little more ooomph. If someone else chooses differently then so be it. So thank you to all.

[Seeker]

To the OP...If I may ask.....if you are shooting out to 150 and 200yrds., why do you need a straight wall cartridge? I'm from north central Pa. If I'm hunting where I'll have shots at those distances, I take my .243 Win.. If I'm woods hunting on our 96 acres where it can be brushy, I use my Henry Steel .45 colt which I have killed deer with. Next year I'll be toting my new .45-70.