.44-40 for Deer?

Took this one last Friday with my Model 92 SRC button mag just before last light. It was about a 50 yard shot. Hit her near the shoulder at the base of the neck and it went down like a stone. No exit wound...

 
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Saturday November 10, 2007 at 1340hrs....44-40 between the eyes of this moose at 60yds. One shot.
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madtrapper143 said:
Tell me more. Can I run Hornady 200 grain bullets (.429) intended for the .44 magnum through a Lee .427 swager (sizer) ? Will the jacketed bullet size? I would like to know what powder and loads if you don't mind.

thanks Darryl
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Darryl, before you size your bullets down, you may want to slug your bore. I have two 44-40's. My original Model '73 (circa 1888) has a .431" bore and original model 1892 (circa 1914) has a .429" bore. I just spent the morning deer hunting with the '73 in bush where a 75 yard shot would be maximum see-ability. I'm using my own handloads that give 1,300 fps.
 
I slugged the bore and it came out at .429 I just loaded some Winchester 200 grain jacketed flat points with a charge of 2400 that will give me about 1700 FPS + or-. I will post results of this load. Good advice Win 38 55.

Darryl
 
madtrapper143 said:
Gentlemen: I have just obtained a very nice Winchester M92 in .44-40. It is the SRC version. I used a Remington pump in .44-40 on pests on the family farm years ago but never shot anything bigger than a coyote. Has anyone hunted deer sized game with a .44-40? Any comments on range limitations etc?

cheers Darryl
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A buddy of mine takes his 44-40 along while he floats down river in his canoe, he shoots moose in the neck as they walk along the bank. He usually takes one to drop the critter and one more behind the ear to be sure. I would use one and be sure of the shot placement.
 
Gibbs505 said:
Go get the game, personally, I think that there are better choices.
Not trying to start a war, but with limited time available, a smaller hunting area and proberly a limited choice of what you are going to see, I personally think that there are better choices.
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I am not really sure I understand your post? "Most" of the hunting in Northern Ontario is in some pretty thick cabbage. A 44-40 would be fine.
 
madtrapper143 said:
Any comments on range limitations etc?
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Im not sure what the absolute range limit would be but after measuring distances between the deer and my stand via gps the shot turned out to be 82 Yards not 50 as I estimated.

Im really not sure how much steam that bullet had left but I would guess I was pretty much near the end. Had the shot placement been poor, the lack of an exit hole would have made it pretty tought tracking that poor beast in the thick stuff. It was a fun hunt but I will be using something else next year.
 
Pathfinder said:
Im not sure what the absolute range limit would be but after measuring distances between the deer and my stand via gps the shot turned out to be 82 Yards not 50 as I estimated.

Im really not sure how much steam that bullet had left but I would guess I was pretty much near the end. Had the shot placement been poor, the lack of an exit hole would have made it pretty tought tracking that poor beast in the thick stuff. It was a fun hunt but I will be using something else next year.
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Considering that a GPSis commonly of by quite a few yards, I'll take your first estimate.
Check that little number at the top of the screen for the accuracy. Mine (granted it's older)varies between 30 and as much as 150 variation.
 
I purchased a Marlin 94 in .44-40 from a relative, primarily for a nostalgia reason. It was the first center fire rifle I had ever fired.:) Apparently my relative had accounted for a couple of Moose and a few Deer with it, and that was with some of the older factory loadings. Dominion loads and I still have a box of 20.
In addition, it's amazing how far a hard cast 44 calibre bullet, even at velocities of 1200 - 1300f/sec,;) will penetrate.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
Considering that a GPSis commonly of by quite a few yards, I'll take your first estimate.
Check that little number at the top of the screen for the accuracy. Mine (granted it's older)varies between 30 and as much as 150 variation.
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Measuring distance between two waypoints (which I did) should be accurate as opposed to figuring out an exact position which could be off a little bit on my Garmin but not much.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
I'll have to take your word for it. The most accurate gps I've seen to date, would give locations down to ten feet. But only under excellent conditions.
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Mine should be 10 feet with waas enalbed (3 meters), Ill accept that there is a slight variation in accuracy but I wonder if the variation is the same with all my waypoints or do they all vary to a certain degree. If the variation is the same than the measurements can be accurate. I guess I will have to test this against known measurements to be sure.....
 
I have shot two deer with a 44-40; I would not use the gun again unless desperate. First was a head shot and instant dead. Second deer was a broadside shot in the chest and grazed the spine. Deer's hind quarters dropped and I shot it in the head. Bottom line is that the bullet drills a hole and shows minimal expansion. The caliber is closest to a muzzle loader loaded with roundball in my opinion.

cheers mooncoon
 
mooncoon said:
I have shot two deer with a 44-40; I would not use the gun again unless desperate. First was a head shot and instant dead. Second deer was a broadside shot in the chest and grazed the spine. Deer's hind quarters dropped and I shot it in the head. Bottom line is that the bullet drills a hole and shows minimal expansion. The caliber is closest to a muzzle loader loaded with roundball in my opinion.

cheers mooncoon
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To my way of thinking expansion for a bullet of that size/caliber isn't a critical issue. Something that size is already punching a 'respectable' hole or wound channel. :)And again, a hard cast bullet that caliber, driven at 1200f/sec +, is capeable of a suprising degree of penetration and bone breaking ability. Within some of the reasonable ranges already mentioned, I've never found it lacking.;)
 
madtrapper143 said:
Tell me more. Can I run Hornady 200 grain bullets (.429) intended for the .44 magnum through a Lee .427 swager (sizer) ? Will the jacketed bullet size? I would like to know what powder and loads if you don't mind.

thanks Darryl
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Don't worry about sizing them down, just load them as they are and go to the range......429 bullets work fine in a 44-40.

Ted
 
Hunting with the 44-40

The current issue of 'Handloader' magazine has an article on handloading the 44-40 for CAS and hunting.
Mike Venturino has written on the topic as well.

I wouldn't hesitate to use either of my 44-40s on deer out to 75 yards.

Todd
 
Johnn Peterson said:
To my way of thinking expansion for a bullet of that size/caliber isn't a critical issue. Something that size is already punching a 'respectable' hole or wound channel.
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I think the big difference is that a high velocity slug (2000+ fps) will both expand and create a broad area of cavitation along the wound channel. That imparts a lot of shock to the animal and to a limited extent means that a more marginal hit is still rapidly lethal. A slow moving heavy projetile means that shot placement is much more critical. I am reminded of a deer shot with a .270 broadside through the chest; exit hole was 3" or more in diameter and the deer was dead in 2 jumps. A similar shot with a 44-40 and it would have almost certainly run for a hundred yards or perhaps several hundred yards. Here on the Island that translates into a lost deer. If you hare hunting in snow that is much less a problem or on the prairies the deer can run for 2 or 3 days before it is out of sight :>) :>)

cheers mooncoon
 
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