Hunting/bear defence 44mag ammo out of a 16 » barrel
- Thread starter DGY
- Start date
300 to 310gr flat nose hard cast will e a true penetrator
I load 240gr xtp but I wouldnt take a shoulder shot or want to hope to penetrate thru a heavy chest head on hoping for the spine with one but for general hunting I find them the most accurate and wouldnt hesitate to hunt bear with them.
The speer deep curl jsp gives good penetration while expanding well
I haven't shot a bear with a 44mag but have shot enough deer with muzzleloader sabotage which are essentially the same bullet at the same velocity
I plan on using my 44mag for my next bear hunt and ill be using 240gr xtp in my cva scout
Im getting perfect expansion with high weight retention and 5 gallon jugs of water for penetration. Shooting water jugs at 15 yards will slip the jacket but penetration is still good at 3 to 4 jugs with the lead core mostly intact.
Brobee23 did a video on testing various 44 mag loads and shot a bear on video. Worth the watch
I load 240gr xtp but I wouldnt take a shoulder shot or want to hope to penetrate thru a heavy chest head on hoping for the spine with one but for general hunting I find them the most accurate and wouldnt hesitate to hunt bear with them.
The speer deep curl jsp gives good penetration while expanding well
I haven't shot a bear with a 44mag but have shot enough deer with muzzleloader sabotage which are essentially the same bullet at the same velocity
I plan on using my 44mag for my next bear hunt and ill be using 240gr xtp in my cva scout
Im getting perfect expansion with high weight retention and 5 gallon jugs of water for penetration. Shooting water jugs at 15 yards will slip the jacket but penetration is still good at 3 to 4 jugs with the lead core mostly intact.
Brobee23 did a video on testing various 44 mag loads and shot a bear on video. Worth the watch
Even the thug slugs for 410 come apart. I've yet to find a 410 slug that designed for bear. For broadside deer at bow range they will work but expect to track it
The 4 pellet 000 buck 410 load is quite useful
I reload yes. I have some 300gr xtp to try i just haven't gotten around to it yet
Kentucky range time youtuber tests a bunch of various 44 mag loads and bullet weights with several barrel lengths of handguns and carbines to simulate various velocities. Lil dry but well done and good comparisons. He tested hard cast and the various weights of the xtp amoung others
Thanks for the playlist brybenn.
Rob
He had a bunch more including the xtp but I couldn't find them seems I can only find videos 3 months old for some reason
Brobee did a thread about this last year:
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/threads/44-mag-ballistics-bear.2529000/
Mark
- Location
- Southern Vancouver Island
As proven by handgun hunters over the yrs thanks to Elmer Keith & the like. The 44 mag has bonked the biggest & most nasty critters on earth
from revolvers & single shot pistols using hardcast bullets ranging from 320-395 gr at speeds from 1300 to 1500 fps.
JD Jones of SSK Industries developed a beauty layout for an ideal .44 boolit to suit any heavy beasty within 80 yds with a well placed shot.
NEI made the molds fer this style until the shop closed up some time back. Accurate Molds & others make similar molds these days.
https://www.brennekeusa.com/details/SL-4103M?cHash=2ac275dfcf56c06acaf5d8e62505ce21
^This - if you can find it.
For what? Water jugs?
That brenneke slug has ~0.5 the energy of a 44 mag round 240 at 1760 fps at the muzzle, by 100 yards it has 21%.
It has 63% of 223 62 grains energy at the muzzle. Sounds like a marginal coyote round.
I have no idea why you would choose a 44 with what amounts to a solid going at less than 1500 fps for bear defence. We may actually have found a situation where a 12 gauge slug is preferable.
I'd take bear spray if I wanted something light and literally any deer rifle first...
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I got a Henry mares leg and put a longer stock on it to make it a SBR for my bear gun but I found the Chiappa takedown rifle with a 12” barrel in 45-70. I will be buying that once my bank account recovers a bit. The short barrel loses a lot of velocity but I am pretty sure you could take a grizzly bear down with it.
I have lots of other rifles for real hunting situations. 45-70 or 444 marlin aren’t in the same league regarding feeding cost and recoil. If 44mag is enough for bear protection in a handgun configuration it must be more than enough in a rifle configuration longer barrel more velocity more energy.
They are not actually all that great.
They are not designed for big game though. They dont penetrate very well. I got nearly the same penetration with 000 buck pellets and I get 4 pellets per shot.
