GOOD OLE BOY

Thanks.I really enjoy seeing it on paper.

Bocajnala

I really like the .44 mag for deer. Mine goes from scoped to open sights every couple years. Right now it's open but this summer I plan on putting the scope back on it. I have not tried it at any extended ranges. I know where it hits from 0-100 but thats all. It's a gun a I grab when I'm doe hunting mainly although I have taken bucks with it. The reason it's getting scoped next year is that I plan to carry it as a main gun for ohio's season since it is legal now. And because my lady wants to give deer hunting a try and she can comfortably shoot that rifle. For a 100 yard gun it'll do everything you need IMO. Real world performance has always been good for me, really seems to slap them hard.
-Jake

super_hunt54

Hook, I've had deer absorb 50 yard shots from 180gr .30/06 from shoulder to shoulder taking out heart and lungs and STILL run 100 yards. Same with .375 H&H. Then had others lay down right then and there saying "well I'm done". It isn't all about size of caliber. That has more to do with the spirit of the deer. Some will run with anything short of nerve interruption from anything short of a cannon while others will lay down from the exact same shot. At my age, I get tired of tracking because it almost always seems I find those deer that unless you blow them in half they are runnin! It's why I now go for the high shoulder for double lung and spine because the runners, 99.9% of the time, go AWAY from my vehicle making my drag that much longer!

Nomercy448

Hookeye's story is one of the criticisms I have for the "maximum cartridge limitations" enforced in some states - like Indiana.

While some states make minimum cartridge laws to prevent UNDERPOWERED cartridges from being used, in the interest of promoting ethical harvest of game animals with cartridges of ample killing power, other the intent of laws in other states is to limit the effective range of the allowed cartridges, which effectively ensures marginal performance.

I absolutely LOVE hunting with "big & slow" cartridges like the 45-70 and 44mag, and I certainly don't intend to ever STOP hunting deer with them. I've even spent a lot of money, time, and effort in pursuit of the ideal revolver cartridge to deliver a mid-weight bullet at a moderate velocity (very fast for a revolver, very slow for a rifle), all of which fit within the confines of the IN cartridge requirements. But there's a difference in how they kill that can't be ignored.

No matter how much I love them, and even though the TKO, momentum, and energy are similar, there really is a difference between how a big & slow cartridge kills compared to a light and fast one. I've had deer run just as far when hit similarly with a 300win mag and a hot 45-70, but as Hookeye mentioned, the blood trail and tracking is very different. Anything over 150-200yrds with my 45-70 loads, I don't expect exit wounds, anything over 100yrds with my 44mags, even 454C or 475Line.

I have every confidence that they kill just as quickly, but in dense cover, I expect to find a lot more blood from a light & fast cartridge. I do fully believe in the "hit like a mack truck" anecdote for large bullets (not sure I count the 35rem in that weight class?), but I also don't expect deer's knees to buckle for a "DRT" with big slow bullets. I expect my 45-70 to crush the shoulder and keep on smiling if my bullet isn't well placed, but I also don't expect it to exit and create a lot of bleeding even on a boiler room shot. I expect my 300WM might get derailed by the shoulder, but I also expect it to blow both lungs out the back side if I connect with the soft stuff.

It frustrates me to see laws that put hunters in a position where they can't be "over-gunned" if they wanted to be. 200yrd shooting isn't irresponsible or unethical, and frankly, isn't unreasonable - but these states are putting hunters in a compromised position.

d80hunter

We had to adapt to short range guns but things are always getting better. I started out with a smoothbore single shot 12 gauge and when rifled slug guns came around it was great. Many years later the magnum pistol caliber rifles made it possible to shoot at 12 gauge ranges with way less recoil. Now I got a 450 bushmaster and 200 yards is a shot with no holdover. I remember when a deer at 100+ yards was out of range with that smoothbore single shot shotgun and as time passed things are way better and that is good enough for me.

d80hunter

Not all Hoosiers are bad marksmen but we got we plenty. When I go to Versailles State Park on the late reduction hunt all this becomes obvious. I usually hear around 50 gunshots, many of which are 3 to 5 rapid strings of gunfire. When I check my deer in at the end of the day I always ask how many deer where killed. Some years it is 10 deer on a two day hunt.

Simply put many guys are not hitting what they are shooting at. This place offers opportunities at 100-200 yards shots in the short ridges and older open forests, unlike the brushy wooded lots on flat ground that is typical in most Indiana terrain. 75 yards is a long shot in those places.

And when I visit a gun range it is also obvious. The 200 yard range at Crosley Park is usually open to me. Yet I can't count the guys who are shooting rifles off their led sleds at the 25 and 50 yard ranges.

I don't see much of this with archery. Almost everyone puts a good level of effort in that.

Bocajnala

Hahahaha, that's a good point.
-Jake