I'm looking to cook up a good whitetail load for my 96/44. Can anyone recommend some good bullets? Is any old JSP good enough for deer in the 15 to 75 yard range? What bullet weight? I'm guessing that I'll want to steer clear of hollow points.

I use the Sierra 300gr JFP myself, but I'm shooting a revolver...

try a 200 gr in a truncated cone style for a flatter trajectory... Hornady XTP maybe?

I load it for my M-92 with 240 grain XTP and get almost 2,000'/sec and that's a decent 100 yard gun.

Most recommend heavier bullets but it's up to you. It's a helluva nasty thing to do to a whitetail no matter what bullet you use.

I've shot several with 240 soft points in my old Ruger carbine and they worked fine. I'm thinking of working up a load with Noslers sometime and see howthey works on whitetails...

Drilling Man

vapodog is dead right , i use a hornady240 grn.xtp handload and its just a few fps under 2000 out of my ruger 96 . drops deer in their tracks

another vote for the xtp 240gr.

When is it beneficial to use a hollow point? At low or high velocity? heavy or light bullet?I always preferred penetration, especially when using a large caliber bullet. Your insights please.

You might try the Nosler Partition HG in the 250 grain. Can get the best of both worlds. Holds together at 2,200 and will still expand at 700 fps.

when you want the bullet to expend all it's energy IN the target media.. ie, a defense load

for hunting, especially large or dangerous game, you want the longest wound channel possible, preferably one that hits aortal vessels, or thecentral nervous system...

Are you saying you would choose a hollow point bullet tocreate a large wound chanell over say, a Nosler partition that will drive deep breaking heavy bone on a dangerous animial like a wounded brown bear????

You have to break a bear down, not shootit's heart out and wait for it to die.

I'venever used HP's for hunting dangerous game, (they were never designed for that) and i never will.... You'll never see me out in alders over my head, tracking a big bear with my rifle loaded with hollow points!!

DM