44 mag for deer
 

anyone out there ever use a 44 mag carbine for deer hunting ? I recently bought a ruger deerfield 44 mag carbine that is just plain fun to shoot and very accurate to boot , my question is , what kind of loads would be leathal deer killers to 100 yds. I do handload but have never used this caliber to deer hunt .

RE: 44 mag for deer
 

I had one and used the hornady xtp bullets in it . I never used it on deer but my son did and I figure he must have liked it because he never did bring the gun back . He did say it worked great on the one he shot with it. If you compare loads in most handbooks they are the same for pistols or rifles they just list different velocities because of the different barrel lenghths . I had the 1894 marlin .

RE: 44 mag for deer
 

Not sure if they are still available, but Speer Gold Dot would be my choice. I used to use those in my 357 pistol and if the 44 is anything like the 357 load, I am sure they would deliver very satisfying results.

david

44 mag hunter
 

I used a 44 mag as a deer gun. it works great for short shots with leverrevolution ammo. drops them on the spot.

44 Magnum
 

The 44 magnum is an excellent round-especially in a rifle.

I prefer a cast bullet in the 240 grain weight pill. Not sure how the Ruger will react with cast, but any quality 240 jacketed bullet will work. You need to remember that with minimal expansion in any bullet you will have a 1/2 inch hole.

Personally I see no reason to limit yourself to short shots. IMO the 44 magnum is limited in distance by the shooter, not the cartridge.

I have several rifles in 44 magnum and 45 Colt. I can accurately and confidently shoot both cartridges out to 200 yards with no problem. However I shoot these rifles all the time, not one time a year for sighting in. And I cast my own bullets for these rifles so I can shoot approximatley 1,000 rounds for about $100 bucks. Tom.

The original poster needs to stay with jacketed ammo-his deerfield is gas operated (direct mini 14 design) and the gas port will fill up with lead fouling. I have some of the original .44 carbines and jacketed bullets is required unless you want to be spending time cleaning the gas port/piston. As to the question, the .44 mag with plain ol 240 gr sp or jhp bullets will do a GREAT job within 100 yards.

I use a .45 Colt lever gun. But I buy buffalo bore ammo loaded to specs that mimic the .44 mag. So it shouldn't be much different.

I use a 310 gr cast bullet. Works just fine. That heavy of a bullet does limit it's range a little though.

I've shot deer with .308, 30/06, 30/30, 45/70, 12 Ga slugs and 54 and 50 cal muzzleloaders. All were within or just at 100 yds, and could not have been taken as easily with a 44 Mag.

Most 44 mag loads are flat enough to 150 yds. If you sight in 2 inches high at 50, zero is at 125, and you'll be about 3 to 3.5 inches low at 150.

Did you say that wrong? Kinda sounds like you meant to say that they could have just as easily been taken with a 44 mag. If you're saying that the 44 mag could not of done it, I gotta disagree.

Yeah, that's a typo. The 44 would have done the job as well as the others.