44mag for moose?
- Thread starter chaslavk
- Start date
You nailed it! The note is on it's hind leg.....
Omygosh! You are right, that is a note attached to it's hind leg....
Seen a small blacktail suck up several mediocre hits of 44 mag JHP from a carbine and travel. Took more than a mag of 45acp to get a nuisance bear to fall out of a tree (don't ask). I'm personally not sold on the big slow argument or convinced that a 44 mag is adequate for moose for anyone who has to ask, or anyone who isn't very proficient and has very good self control.
I don't think you would get max penetration from a JHP. Depending on the type of hollowpoint, you might get piss-poor performance on any big game. There are more suitable bullets for big game hunting.
Now most 45acp is not a big game hunting round, and at the angles presented by a bear in a tree to a shooter on the ground I'm not surprised that the performance was less than adequate.
i don't understand how anytime someone asks whether a 30-30 is good for moose the general consesus is that you could but should use something bigger... yet a 44mag is considered sufficient? am i missing something? is a 44mag really more powerfull in terms of killing power than a 30-30 when fired from a rifle?
A 30-30 launches a 170gr bullet about 2100 fps, a 44 mag shoots a 240 gr at 2000fps
potato pah tah toe.
i must say i find this very enlightening, i've always considered 44mag a pistol cartridge and haden't really given much thought to it's possabilities out of a rifle. a 240g bullet travelling that fast would certainly be quite a contender, great... thanks, now i need to get ANOTHER marlin!
That being said i still think i'd rather take my .303 brit with a hot loaded 180g for moose, and for deer the 30-30 is more than enough. so maybe the 44mag could wait.
That being said i still think i'd rather take my .303 brit with a hot loaded 180g for moose, and for deer the 30-30 is more than enough. so maybe the 44mag could wait.
From most of the reloader manuals I've seen, the.44 mag gets maxed out at 1800 fps with a 240 grain bullet in a rifle. Although not having owned any .44 mags, their ballistics are virtually identical to moderate loads in muzzleloaders of .50 cal and .54 cal which I do have. 240's get the speed and have usually enough weight for OK penetration. 300's have way more penetration on almost any medium and are in my opinion more suitable for thick, heavy animals like moose. With shots through the ribs almost any weight will do, but in the real world "ideal" and perfect shot placement doesn't always present itself nor always transpires due to some form of shooter error.
So the .44mag does indeed work in it's standard 240 grain configuration, but there are indeed better alternatives. I would still prefer the .30-30 over the .44 for moose.
So the .44mag does indeed work in it's standard 240 grain configuration, but there are indeed better alternatives. I would still prefer the .30-30 over the .44 for moose.
Our family's first moose gun when I was growing up was a lever .38-55 until dad bough his Winchester Model 70 in .300 H&H Mag. and Grandpa & my dad & uncles hunted both deer & moose with a minuscule by modern ballistic standards Steven's .32 caliber rim-fire
.Grandpa also had an Iver Johnson revolver in .22LR that he LEGALLY hunted birds (ruffed & spruce grouse, woodcock, ducks) with back in the day.
The most prevalent deer & moose guns in dads day were the tree-oh-tree, turty-turty, the tree-oh-ate, tree-hunnert Savage, turty-ought-six & the odd turty-five Remington & many hunted with 12 gauge slugs.
The other hunters nicknamed Dad's Model 70 in .300 H&H Mag. the "elephant gun" back in the 60's.
