Another 44mag thread

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linderhof

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I owned the Ruger 44 carbine semi for a season and shot a buck with it. Wasn't impressed with the knock down nor the penetration. Deer died but bullet never went through and it was a easy rib shot at @ 50 yds. Sold the rifle after the hunt. Handled one recently at a gun show and fell in love again. That is such a sweet little rifle !!!
Alright, all you fans or haters go ahead and talk me into or out of buying another one. Would use it for thick cover and while pushing bush at the deer camp. My tree stand deer rifle is a sweet M7 in 7mm08 and i also bought a 750 carbine in .308. Just have that darned Ruger 44 on the brain......:confused:
 
When fired from the longer rifle length barrels many .429 cal bullets over expand due to the violent impact cause by the higher velocity and therefore penetration will suffer. Remember that most of the hollow point bullets of 240grs or less were designed to expand reliably with lower handgun velocities. If you stick to the soft point bullets of 240grs and heavier or the 300XTP and other similar hollow points you'll get more than adequate penetration. Fired from a 20" barrel, the 240gr .44 Rem Mag bullet, has about the same TKO Factor (stopping power) as the .308 Win. does when firing a 180gr. bullet from a 22" barrel out to 100yds...so it can get the job without a problem...when the right bullet is selected.
 
A quality gas-checked hardcast above 240 with a good meplat would have made your day a whole lot better.
With the proper bullet selection and the speeds that a carbine produce both the .357 and .44 mag have the power to drop a deer at reasonable distance.
As always handloading helps, but I have seen some factory handgun hunting rounds in my travels, manufactured by Federal IIRC.
 
If there wasn't a passthrough, all the kinetic energy was absorbed by the kill. Your shooting and bullet choice did well.
 
VLT79 said:
When fired from the longer rifle length barrels many .429 cal bullets over expand due to the violent impact cause by the higher velocity and therefore penetration will suffer. Remember that most of the hollow point bullets of 240grs or less were designed to expand reliably with lower handgun velocities. If you stick to the soft point bullets of 240grs and heavier or the 300XTP and other similar hollow points you'll get more than adequate penetration. Fired from a 20" barrel, the 240gr .44 Rem Mag bullet, has about the same TKO Factor (stopping power) as the .308 Win. does when firing a 180gr. bullet from a 22" barrel out to 100yds...so it can get the job without a problem...when the right bullet is selected.
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A good logical answer (not too sure about the TKO Factor).

I have a Ruger carbine I have actually not hunted deer with yet but I will surely look into bullet selection. The Hornady leverevolution shoot fairly well in it.

I also have a Rossi Ranch hand with the 12 inch barrel I should put some different bullets through a chroney and see what velocity they produce.
 
You will learn to love the .44 Maggie with the right ammo... as said above, HP bullets designed for use in pistols are not necessarily good game loads in a carbine... rather than the HP bullets try the FP bullets or shoot hard cast... I am using 240 grain gas checked SWC's and they don't like to stop after they leave the barrel... penetration is excellent... a broadside rib shot will most likely result in a pass-through... but will have alot of damage on the way through.
 
Sun_and_Steel_77 said:
A quality gas-checked hardcast above 240 with a good meplat would have made your day a whole lot better.
With the proper bullet selection and the speeds that a carbine produce both the .357 and .44 mag have the power to drop a deer at reasonable distance.
As always handloading helps, but I have seen some factory handgun hunting rounds in my travels, manufactured by Federal IIRC.
Click to expand...

except that cast bullets are not recommended for the Ruger 44 carbine. They gum up the gas system.
 
linderhof said:
I owned the Ruger 44 carbine semi for a season and shot a buck with it. Wasn't impressed with the knock down nor the penetration. Deer died but bullet never went through and it was a easy rib shot at @ 50 yds. Sold the rifle after the hunt. Handled one recently at a gun show and fell in love again. That is such a sweet little rifle !!!
Alright, all you fans or haters go ahead and talk me into or out of buying another one. Would use it for thick cover and while pushing bush at the deer camp. My tree stand deer rifle is a sweet M7 in 7mm08 and i also bought a 750 carbine in .308. Just have that darned Ruger 44 on the brain......:confused:
Click to expand...

Looks as though the deer was suitably impressed with both the knockdown power and​ the penetration. :D
 
uberkermit said:
Looks as though the deer was suitably impressed with both the knockdown power and​ the penetration. :D
Click to expand...

THAT deer was but what about the next one where the shot may have to go through a shoulder on a quartering to angle? Or what if he jumps a big buck and shoots through a back hip and up through a lot of tissue to get into the heart/lung area.

I think he is looking at the the results of a shot that turned out good but showed some "deficiency" in the slugs performance.
 
BigUglyMan said:
Buy better bullets and handload. And make an offering to apologize to the 44 that you foolishly sold.
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See that's the thing. I only shot at and killed one deer with that rifle and then sold it. One deer does not make a very reliable sample size. I get that. "Foolishly sold", yep I get that too, should have hung on to it and used it again. The paper ballistics fgures aren't anything near impressive. In fact the 3030 smokes it at 100 yds but truthfully where I would use this gun 100 yds isn't likely 50 is more like it. People seem to believe that this round is suitable for moose out of a handgun so the added oomph of a rifle barrel should definitely make it a deer sized game killer. Just looking for real world experience on people who actually use one and what they think, good or bad.
 
linderhof said:
See that's the thing. I only shot at and killed one deer with that rifle and then sold it. One deer does not make a very reliable sample size. I get that. "Foolishly sold", yep I get that too, should have hung on to it and used it again. The paper ballistics fgures aren't anything near impressive. In fact the 3030 smokes it at 100 yds but truthfully where I would use this gun 100 yds isn't likely 50 is more like it. People seem to believe that this round is suitable for moose out of a handgun so the added oomph of a rifle barrel should definitely make it a deer sized game killer. Just looking for real world experience on people who actually use one and what they think, good or bad.
Click to expand...

That's where most people make the same mistake...published muzzle velocity and energy tell very little of a load's effeciency because it doesn't account for momentum in the equation. John Taylor's KO factor (TKOF) is a much better system to compare cartridge effectiveness. At 100yds the .44 Rem Mag, .429cal, 240gr. bullet has a TKOF of 20. The 30-06 with .308cal, 180gr. bullet has a TKOF of 19 and the .30-30 with its .308cal, 170gr bullet only musters a TKOF of 14.

Here's a handy link that saves a lot of number crunching! http://www.handloads.com/calc/quick.asp
 
Definition off the net.

In classical mechanics, linear momentum or translational momentum (pl. momenta; SI unit kg m/s, or equivalently, N s) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object.

I would say that looks like foot/pounds of energy. A factor that is commonly used to "evaluate" a rounds "power".

When a well made .308 cal. bullet from a .308 win. hits a deer it will take awhile to become the diameter that a .44 cal slug starts out at. But I reckon a .44 magnum is not a superior round over a .308 win.
 
Same thing happened to me this year , after many years of searching for a Deerfield 44 mag , finally got my hands on a new one and absolutely loved it till opening morning, 30 yard broadside shot with hornady 225 gr, terrible penetration and tracked deer for over 2k and needed another shot to finish , chalking it up to wrong choice of ammo and a very tough old deer gonna try different ammo this year
 
crazyhunter2007 said:
Same thing happened to me this year , after many years of searching for a Deerfield 44 mag , finally got my hands on a new one and absolutely loved it till opening morning, 30 yard broadside shot with hornady 225 gr, terrible penetration and tracked deer for over 2k and needed another shot to finish , chalking it up to wrong choice of ammo and a very tough old deer gonna try different ammo this year
Click to expand...

you're better choice is to sell me that Deerfield and buy a proven sure thing for Deer hunting, how about one of them new Savage package rifles, scope'en all that some folks rave about? I'll cover the cost of it for you to get one delivered to your door in exchange for the Deerfield, and I'll pay shipping on it to me.
 
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