44 mag ammo in a rifle?

[bd1024]

I have a Rossi 44 mag rifle. Bought for deer hunting in Indiana. -- Have been hearing that the 44 mag hollow points, are a bad choice for hunting. Have heard that they will prematurely expand, preventing good penetration. --- Is steel jacketed better? --- what would be your recommendation? Appreciate your thoughts, ---bd1024

 

[Fishersjohn48]

Soft points make great deer ammo as do the Leverevolution by Hornady.

 

[huntall50]

Give less weight to what you have heard and more to what has been your own experience. Meaning go practice to get profecient with your system and shoot some deer. A good hit with .44mag, I believe will produce, a marginal hit may create more work no matter what ammo you use. .44mag even .44special in all its variations has been putting meat in the freezer and antlers on the wall for a long time.

 

[M67]

I've heard many people dropping dear with 240 grain factory XTP customs with no issues with premature expansion-ation

 

[Mgderf]

I absolutely LOVE that Hornady "LeveRevolution" .44mag.

It is devastating on deer, without doing too much damage, with good shot placement of course.

 

[hammer24]

A 240 or 300 gr. xtp is time proven medicine on deer out of a rifle or handgun. I've used the 240 xtp for over 10 years out of muzzleloaders, then handguns, and most recently .44 rifles. I've never had any complaints on bullet performance on a deer.

 

[ru44mag]

I have been using Winchester soft points like pictured above in my Marlin lever-action since the second year it was legal. I have taken at least 2 deer every year since. Shot placement is key. Last year my little brother bought the same rifle you have, and took 2 deer himself. The 44 mag is an excellent short range deer rifle. My wife bought me a couple boxes of Hornady 240 gr XTPs last year for Christmas. Have not tried them yet. Hollow points will work fine if you don't try and shoot too far, and you can hit it in the kill zone. I have also dropped deer with a 7 1/2 in Super Blackhawk with reloaded lead solids. Again, it's enough bullet. Just make sure to practice.

 

[djones]

A 250 grain hard cast flat nose boolit will drop them. No worry with under penetration etc with a cast boolit of the proper alloy

44 Caliber 250g WFN GC

 

[kwatters]

I am not sure expansion would be called premature if the heart is destroyed from the bullet expansion. Yes, sometimes pass through is not achieved and the blood trail is not significant, but they are always dead with proper shot placement.
Usually double lung shots pass through but heart shots don't if that helps. I use 240 gn. XTP's.

 

[ViperJock]

I took 2 deer with .44 soft points last year. Dead in their tracks.

 

[snapping turtle]

You should not have a problem with any 44 mag ammo in a rifle with expansion or penetration. Add about 50 to 100 FPS to all of the listed handgun velocity for each four inches of barrel and you have a winner. I use Winchester white box and hand loaded 240 XTP's .

 

[45fan]

I have pulled more than a few 240gr XTPs and even a Winchester Silvertip out of the far side of deer over the years. All of them I have hit with these bullets dropped in their tracks. The only 44 Mag ammo that I would be cautious of would be SD specific factory loaded ammo. Even then, it should plant a deer in its tracks with proper shot placement. Find what your rifle likes, and practice as much as you can. Right now, availability is probably a more critical issue than the type of bullet you use in the .44 Mag variety.

 

[mayor al]

The issue with hollow-points was not expansion on impact...but feeding on loading... I have a Ruger autoloading 44 mag carbine. It is a bit fussy about feeding from the tube magazine to the chamber when I tried hollow point ammo. I did not have this problem when I switched to a Bolt-Action Ruger 77/44...it fed all types of 44 mag ammo evenly.

BTW when I changed ammo to the Mag-Tech 240 grain SJSP's they worked well in everything I used them in.

 

[hps]

If you reload, get urself some cast 250 gr. Kills em deader!! lol

 

[Joe'Bronco]

I absolutely LOVE that Hornady "LeveRevolution" .44mag.

It is devastating on deer, without doing too much damage, with good shot placement of course.

x2

No longer have the rifle . I sized down to only .45 & 30 cal guns.

 

[inlineman]

I shot 2 deer last Thanksgiving morning at 30 yards with a single shot rossi using leverevolution shells and destroyed too much meat when the bullet blowed through.Mine shoots the Winchester white box better though.This year going back to muzzleloader and shotgun over meat loss.

 

[mayor al]

The SJSP 240 gr round did great on 4 Does last Season. Three of them were head shots and the fourth got the lungs, small amount of meat loss on Number 4 but not too much.

 

[Broom_jm]

I shoot the parts you don't eat and have never had a problem with XTP bullets. I can't imagine how/why a 44 caliber hollow-point would ever create more damage to meat than a shotgun or a muzzle-loader (which often shoots XTP bullets in sabots).

 

[ru44mag]

I shoot the parts you don't eat and have never had a problem with XTP bullets. I can't imagine how/why a 44 caliber hollow-point would ever create more damage to meat than a shotgun or a muzzle-loader (which often shoots XTP bullets in sabots).

Agreed

 

[meegz]

The issue with hollow-points was not expansion on impact...but feeding on loading... I have a Ruger autoloading 44 mag carbine. It is a bit fussy about feeding from the tube magazine to the chamber when I tried hollow point ammo. I did not have this problem when I switched to a Bolt-Action Ruger 77/44...it fed all types of 44 mag ammo evenly.

BTW when I changed ammo to the Mag-Tech 240 grain SJSP's they worked well in everything I used them in.

What kind of accuracy are you getting from your 77/44? I've wanted to use one of those for deer hunting for a very long time, and never met anyone who had one.