Prior to the 2005 deer season I decided to try out UMC’s 180gr load for 44 magnum. I was worried that being fired from a rifle, the bullet might be too light and would ‘blow up’ without adequate penetration. The round proved to be accurate in my Winchester/Miroku model 92 but I didn’t do any penetration tests. Even with my penetration worries I was confident that it would still perform well enough for deer.
In the 2005 deer season I succeeded in taking two deer. I, along with my father and one other person were dogging deer towards some watchers. I was examining a buck rub in a cedar stand bordering a tamarack swamp when I heard my Dad yell “head’s up”. Turning towards the call I went down on one knee to wait. A doe ran into the cedar stand and quickly stopped when she saw me waiting. Her front legs had flexed under the quick stop such that the bullet entered the base of her neck and shattered her spine. She dropped like a sack of potatoes, gave a few twitches and then lay still. I notified everyone over the radios that a doe was down, and then waited in case any other deer showed up. After waiting about five minutes I approached the downed doe and noticed another doe trying to sneak past me through some tag alder. She paused for a moment and I shot. I had been confident in the shot but began to berate myself after the doe took off – I couldn’t see any hair or blood around the immediate area nor hear any thrashing in the brush.
I let her go and proceeded with gutting the first doe. The other doggers had by now shown up to help with dragging and were quick to find the second doe. The task wasn’t too hard as she left behind long strips of lung tissue before piling up in the long grass of the tamarack swamp. The bullet had entered low in the chest, penetrating ribs before coming to a rest under the skin.
The bullets were recovered during skinning and showed similar performance. Both had penetrated bone, held together, expanded (more like flattened) to .75 inches but failed to completely penetrate. Both shots were taken at around 10 yards so that could explain the lack of complete penetration. Regardless, both deer fell to a single shot so I was confident for the next season.
I took some friendly ribbing for taking the deer at such close range with some suggestions that I should have fixed bayonets. But my next deer, a buck, taken in 2006 would be even closer. I was dogging through tag alder running parallel to a creek when I came across some fresh tracks. I followed the tracks as they moved in and out of the alder heading diagonally towards the creek. Suddenly, ahead of me I heard some crashing and could barely make out a shape angling away from me through the trees. It had snowed the night before and this combined with the tag alder gave me limited sighting distance and no hope of a shot.
I listened as the deer went crashing through the brush away from me – and then it suddenly turned back towards me. Perhaps it had caught scent of the other doggers. Six feet in front of me was a large stump, about as high as it was distant from me. The buck, a nice seven pointer, just cleared his front quarter around the stump and froze when he saw me standing there. I swear we both must have had the same stupid surprised look on our faces. I raised my 92 to my shoulder but couldn’t find my sights – crawling through the snow covered alder had gathered snow around the front post and rear buckhorns. Pointing the rifle like a shotgun I fired. I couldn’t miss at this range, and if I did nobody would hear about it – ever.
The buck ran off but I could hear him thrashing around in the brush. He ran about 25 yards, before stumbling around and finally laying down. Gutting and skinning showed the bullet had entered just behind the right shoulder, passed through a rib and turned the lungs into a runny oatmeal like consistency. I couldn’t find the bullet when gutting but it never made it to the far ribcage. The downside is that I had never seen so much bloodshot meet on the ribcage - grape jelly everywhere. We considered sawing off the ribs of that quarter but decided to let the butcher choose. Upon seeing it the butcher was surprised that I only hit it once, commenting that I could have ‘used a howitzer and done less damage’.
From usage in two deer seasons and harvesting three deer I am satisfied with its performance but would probably recommend a load with a tougher bullet and better penetration. Maybe next year I’ll get a longer shot that won’t stress the bullet so much.
In the 2005 deer season I succeeded in taking two deer. I, along with my father and one other person were dogging deer towards some watchers. I was examining a buck rub in a cedar stand bordering a tamarack swamp when I heard my Dad yell “head’s up”. Turning towards the call I went down on one knee to wait. A doe ran into the cedar stand and quickly stopped when she saw me waiting. Her front legs had flexed under the quick stop such that the bullet entered the base of her neck and shattered her spine. She dropped like a sack of potatoes, gave a few twitches and then lay still. I notified everyone over the radios that a doe was down, and then waited in case any other deer showed up. After waiting about five minutes I approached the downed doe and noticed another doe trying to sneak past me through some tag alder. She paused for a moment and I shot. I had been confident in the shot but began to berate myself after the doe took off – I couldn’t see any hair or blood around the immediate area nor hear any thrashing in the brush.
I let her go and proceeded with gutting the first doe. The other doggers had by now shown up to help with dragging and were quick to find the second doe. The task wasn’t too hard as she left behind long strips of lung tissue before piling up in the long grass of the tamarack swamp. The bullet had entered low in the chest, penetrating ribs before coming to a rest under the skin.
The bullets were recovered during skinning and showed similar performance. Both had penetrated bone, held together, expanded (more like flattened) to .75 inches but failed to completely penetrate. Both shots were taken at around 10 yards so that could explain the lack of complete penetration. Regardless, both deer fell to a single shot so I was confident for the next season.
I took some friendly ribbing for taking the deer at such close range with some suggestions that I should have fixed bayonets. But my next deer, a buck, taken in 2006 would be even closer. I was dogging through tag alder running parallel to a creek when I came across some fresh tracks. I followed the tracks as they moved in and out of the alder heading diagonally towards the creek. Suddenly, ahead of me I heard some crashing and could barely make out a shape angling away from me through the trees. It had snowed the night before and this combined with the tag alder gave me limited sighting distance and no hope of a shot.
I listened as the deer went crashing through the brush away from me – and then it suddenly turned back towards me. Perhaps it had caught scent of the other doggers. Six feet in front of me was a large stump, about as high as it was distant from me. The buck, a nice seven pointer, just cleared his front quarter around the stump and froze when he saw me standing there. I swear we both must have had the same stupid surprised look on our faces. I raised my 92 to my shoulder but couldn’t find my sights – crawling through the snow covered alder had gathered snow around the front post and rear buckhorns. Pointing the rifle like a shotgun I fired. I couldn’t miss at this range, and if I did nobody would hear about it – ever.
The buck ran off but I could hear him thrashing around in the brush. He ran about 25 yards, before stumbling around and finally laying down. Gutting and skinning showed the bullet had entered just behind the right shoulder, passed through a rib and turned the lungs into a runny oatmeal like consistency. I couldn’t find the bullet when gutting but it never made it to the far ribcage. The downside is that I had never seen so much bloodshot meet on the ribcage - grape jelly everywhere. We considered sawing off the ribs of that quarter but decided to let the butcher choose. Upon seeing it the butcher was surprised that I only hit it once, commenting that I could have ‘used a howitzer and done less damage’.
From usage in two deer seasons and harvesting three deer I am satisfied with its performance but would probably recommend a load with a tougher bullet and better penetration. Maybe next year I’ll get a longer shot that won’t stress the bullet so much.
