The best all-purpose .44 magnum bullet for MY purposes, cast or jacketed, is without doubt the RCBS 44-250KT.

The huge majority of my (and everyone else's, too) pistol shooting is NOT done in hunting big game, and frankly that is the only venue I see that MIGHT require anything heavier than 250 grains. The 300-grain-plus bullets offer me nothing, and yes, I've tried them and still have a dusty dis-used mould or two for them kicking around the shop.

During almost forty years with the cartridge and firing many thousands of my own cast .44 bullets, our revolvers have driven those 250-grain-class bullets RIGHT THROUGH bull bison and bull moose, meaning entry AND exit holes. I just don't need more penetration than that. Caribou don't even seem to slow the bullets down.

The 44KT (and Lyman's 429244 with gscheck) shoot with extreme accuracy for me at full power, easily sufficient for formal 200-yard steel silhouette shooting. More interestingly, they also shoot exceedingly well at much lower speeds, too. This is often not the case with the latterday heavy slugs. Now that we have relocated to Nevada from the Far North, I find that I need very few full-power loads these days, and most of my .44 shooting is done with these 250s travelling around the 1000fps mark. This is ample power for anything I might meet in the wilds or in town.

I intensely dislike the additional recoil generated by heavy-loaded 300-plus bullets, and I don't like the extra beating my guns take with such ammo. I do NOT own any "heavyweight" or "hunting" .44 revolvers, sticking with standard-type Super Blackhawks and Model 29 S&Ws without the heretical underlugged barrels (ugh!).

My tastes lean to .44s as practical, easy-carrying belt guns, not the super-heavy models. As to .44 rifles, they're just not my cup of tea and I see the cartridge as a HANDGUN round. There are far better rounds available for the same size/weight package in rifles and carbines.

There! I should've stepped on enough toes for one post....

The most accurate cast bullet that I've shot out of my M94 Marlin is the Lyman #429421 with 23.5 to 24.5grns of LilGun for around 1800fps. It's the most accurate bullet I've found for 100yds of any jkt or cast and I don't need a gas check. I was lucky my rifle would cycle a extra long handload, I wasn't sure it would. But I can catch the crimp groove and still have a OAL of 1.690" or so. BM

Bill