How big animals would you take with a .44 in africa? what bullets?

Planning a handgunhunt in 2010 (RSA) but since hangunhunting is illegal in Norway there is not many people here with such knowledge.

Tor,

I would say you could hunt all plains game with your 44mag. I think it should be scoped since some of your shots could be out to 100yds.Look at Garrett Ammo they have some heavy cast for the 44mag if you reload I would say 300 to 325 grain LFNGC or WFNGC I have taken Kudu on down to warthog with a 7 1/2" ruger 45 colt 320gr. at 1250 fps with no problem.Pactice standing off shooting sticks as much as you can before the hunt.Good Luck You will have a blast..

Good advice. I know Larry Kelly has taken elephant with a .44 magnum. Bullet selection is paramount though.

I've taken a moose and several elk and larger deer and bear with a 44 mag. BULLET selection is absolutely critical.

My personal experience over nearly 30 years of handgun hunting has lead me to a few conclusions:
Jacketed bullets, no hollow points, jacketed soft points only please, use them on deer sized game only and everything will work well.

Hard cast bullets, break bones penetrate like mad, use on moose and elk sized game, actually don't work that quickly on deer (punch through but will work fine where bone is hit) not my choice on deer. Also, avoid for bear, I know conventional wisdom says otherwise and maybe large brown bear are the exception but on black bear they just whip through and though the bear will be dead it probably won't be a bang flop. Broke both shouder blades of moose at under 25yds with this type of bullet.

Nosler Partitions: Fantastic bullet, seriously expencive but it's easy to find a load with cheap jacketed bullets that will hit same point of impact. First choise on deer, especially black bear, only used it once for a side-on shot on elk but it worked well.

Mixing a matching: 300gr WFNGC LBT style bullets work great but they have a different ponit of impact than 240gr or 250gr slugs. Not too critical at say 25yds or even 50yds but really different at 100yds. So choose, either 300 or 240/250 and hunt accordingly.

If I were going to SA to handgun hunt I'd take 300gr LBT WFNGC loaded to about 1200 to 1300 fps (I use H-110) and put the bullet behind the shoulder of eland, wildebeest, and through the shoulder bone on kudu and smaller game.

I took a mountain reedbuck, a black wildebeest and a springbok with a 357 Herrett using Hornady 158 gr. XTP Mag bullets (these are hollow points). Using a similar bullet but of course heavier, the 44 Mag. should be able to do that and more.

The ranges at which you intend to shoot would determine whether or not your handgun needs to be scoped. At least for me, I would want a scope for shots beyond about 50 meters. Even with a scope, it would really be a challenge to take a shot with a 44 Mag. beyond 100 meters.

The above animals were taken at ranges from about 15 meters for the springbok to about 75 meters for the mountain reedbuck.

I will be using an Ultradot on the revolver.
Hopefully my ammodealer will manage to get some garret`s or buffalo bores imported. The gun is a Ruger SRH so i guess it will hold up good even at the heaviest loads.

"there is not many people here with such knowledge."

Some of us in Norway - have hunted a lot of years with a lot of different handguns/calibers .
Next week I`m travelling to Africa again - and also in 2010, so maybe you will join me
My e-mail:svme@online.no if you want to contact me.

quote:

"there is not many people here with such knowledge."

Some of us in Norway - have hunted a lot of years with a lot of different handguns/calibers

I dont concider some as many

joining you in 2010 just might happen! time will tell...

quote:

Originally posted by tor oskar:
The gun is a Ruger SRH so i guess it will hold up good even at the heaviest loads.

Your Ruger will be more than up to the task!

SHADOB

quote:

Some of us in Norway - have hunted a lot of years with a lot of different handguns/calibers

What african game have you taken with the .44? What types of bullets did you use?

-tor oskar

quote:

Hard cast bullets, break bones penetrate like mad, use on moose and elk sized game, actually don't work that quickly on deer (punch through but will work fine where bone is hit) not my choice on deer. Also, avoid for bear, I know conventional wisdom says otherwise and maybe large brown bear are the exception but on black bear they just whip through and though the bear will be dead it probably won't be a bang flop. Broke both shouder blades of moose at under 25yds with this type of bullet.

I have had super results on deer with WLN hard cast boolits from my .44. None has made over 30 yd's and blood trails are huge. I do not have the trouble you describe until I get to the higher velocity of the 45-70 BFR. The .44, .45 and .475 all work super with hard cast even on small deer because the velocity is just right. If you go over 1400 fps, you start to run into punched holes.

quote:

What african game have you taken with the .44? What types of bullets did you use?

Different species - but not bigger than Kudu/Oryx and Blue W.
300 gr. Mimek.
Next week I will travel to SA again, and will use the same bullet - but instead of RSH 7,5" - I will hunt with my S&W 4"/Docter.

Within the years - I have been using different calibers - and should I choose one for the revolver and one for the TC - it should be .454 and .375 JDJ.

quote:

Originally posted by shadob:

Next week I will travel to SA again, and will use the same bullet - ... - I will hunt with my S&W 4"/Docter..

Any plans on which animals to hunt? did you decide on the lion mentioned in a different thread? ...i will spend the next weeks in the North Sea... suspecting i would have enjoyed those weeks a bit more if i were in africa.. :\

Decided to not spend a Rand on a old tame lion . My VISA-card will "adjust" my hunt

quote:

Originally posted by tor oskar:
How big animals would you take with a .44 in africa? what bullets?

Planning a handgunhunt in 2010 (RSA) but since hangunhunting is illegal in Norway there is not many people here with such knowledge.

Tor, check out http://www.garrettcartridges.com and look at the 310 and 330 grain Hammerheads. Then look at the photo gallery and see what kind of animals have been taken with the .44 mag. and Garrett cartridges.

I've taken whitetail, corsican rams and wild hogs with mine, a Ruger .44 Super Blackhawk/Garrett 310 gr. Hammerhead at up to 50 yards with open sights.

All have been 1 shot kills.

African plains game can be tough, but not all that more than large NA game. I've taken elk, black bear, moose,a mean range cow, wild boar, blesbok, wildebeeste, gemsbok, red hartebeest, kudu,warthog, bushbuck, and waterbuck with a .41Magnum. Used a 250grWFNGC bullet at 1350fps. Only one I shot twice was the kudu as insurance. Want a zebra and eland next time. Shouldn't be a problem with the .44magnum.

Plains game - are as others: Sometimes you struggle with them - and other times they are like "nothing".

It doesn`t matter if you use 454 or 44.

Once - a zebra was walking together with his "friends" 20 minutes after a "good 454" which hit the front of the shoulder, and was found in the back leg.

Two others ran 350 yds., and other two ran 30 yds.

Kudu: 3 ran 150 yds. 2 ran 20-50 yds.

Oryx, Blue W.b. etc. ........

Similar experience.

My 44 magnum "Africa Load" was a 320 gr LBT WFN starting at 1375 fps from my 10 inch Contender. I shot impala, blesbok, warthog, and zebra with it. The impala made a 50 yard dash on two shattered shoulders. The blesbok staggered maybe 20 yards and fell down, much like a well-arrowed whitetail. The warthog I hit only through the lungs so it went 200 some yards leaving a sparse blood trail. The zebra took the first slug of three crosswise through the shoulders, the second quartering through the paunch into the shoulder, and a probably unneeded finisher through both lungs. I recollect the herd stallion traveled about 100 yards, first shot to last. The warthog and blesbok were 50 yard shots. The impala and zebre were more like 90 yards. I'd start closer and/or use an optic next time. I'd also use a heavier and wider bullet for I ever get the hankering to collect another zebra rug with a pistol. That said, our PHs had no complaints, saying the pistol killed like a 375 H&H with solids. If a fella could make them land in the same place he might try a softer 300 grain, say an XTP JHP, for the smaller stuff, and use a 300 grain LBT or solid for the larger critters. A scoped SRH will be no fun to carry all day (unless you get a proper chest holster) but it'll will put your trophies in the cooler.

Ive never been to africa but have killed some large animals with handguns. Your 44 loaded with a good cast bullet around 300 grain is good for any NON dangerous game up to about a 1000 lbs. Why do i say non dangerous? Because in my experience when shooting animals over 500 lbs cast bullets kill well but do not kill fast. In most cases the animal would have plenty of time to come and git ya if it wanted. Another thing to keep in mind when shooting larger animals with handguns is to keep shooting. Most of us have old habbits and one of mine came from many years of deer and black bear hunting. I would shoot an animal and know i hit it right and figured another shot was just wasted meat. With a large animal shoot till its on the ground. Handguns dont destroy much meat anyway and in africa your not keeping the meant anyway.


Ill give you a good example that just happened last week. I took my wife to the buddys pig hunting ranch. He has pigs and bison and just got some asain water buffalo. I wanted to try one and i had promised the wife she could kill the next animal. A handgun was out of the question for her and i wanted to shoot it with something cool so i had her do it with a 50 beowulf.


Part of the deal here was the kelly shlepp had given me a varity of punch bullets last year and wanted me to kill something with it. I had two .501 punch bullets left. So i loaded them to 1600 fps. they were 420 grain lfn shaped bulets. I loaded a bunch more ballistic cast 420 lfngcs. the gun was loaded with the first two bullets puch bullets and then 3 cast.


Well we got the wife into a shooting situation and she took a broad side shot at about 50 yards. Her shot hit right on the front shoulder and gave complete pentration. One front leg was out of the equation and come to find out that bullet hit the heart. The animal was no doubt dying at that point. She is short and i took the ar and had colapsed the stock to make it easier to shoot. Well what happened becasuse of it is at the shot the scope hit her square in the eye and she was bleading like a pig. She handed me the gun and i put the second punch bullet right in the chest. that bullet was found lodged in the hide about 4 inches from the asshole.


At that shot the buf went down on his but. He didnt no sooner hit the ground and he was up and running again. I put two cast bullets into his lungs on the run that didnt even slow him. He stopped again at about a 100 yards and i put the last cast bullet into his neck. He went down but was still trying to get up. I ran over and went to shoot him and realized i didnt have any more ammo in the gun. Poor planning and something that could get a guy killed with an animal like that and especially one in africa.


Lucklily i had a 44 on my hit. It was loaed wtih 320 swcgcs. I shot him right below the eye and it didnt even slow him down on his effort to get on his feet. I shot again about an inch away from the first shot with the same lack of effect. My buddy had come runing and just then it started to get up again. He took a shot at it with a 4440 lever gun and it went down again but still wasnt dead. I then put another 44 slug in his brain and that one finally ended it.


No no doubt this animal would have died if we even would have left it alone after the first shot. But with something big that can hurt you you want it dead and personaly anymore i keep shooting any animal to it quits moving as i cant see letting them suffer.


When we gutted it we found two holes in the heart two in the lungs and the one in its neck.
Im sorry for such a long winded answer but the moral of the story is along with this animal ive shot a number of bison now and ive seen perfect hits on animals that size and there reaction was to keep grazing. Dont expect your 44 to untrack anything. It will kill well but not quickly so just remember one bit of advice. Keep shooting till its down. Make dammed sure of your bullet placement as marginal hits on really big animals can eaisly mean not recovered animals that you will have to pay trophy fees on and not bring a trophy home.

Both Nyala and the Impala taken with a S&W M29
8 3/8's. 240 Hornady XTP's and W296, worked best yet, several deer with 245 cast, and R-P softs... Like the XTP's best.

Recently back from Africa where I used Mimek 300 gr/1000 fps., 4" cal. 44.
Warthogs which were shot - did not leave any bloodtracks before 50 m (at least), and was difficult to find in the thick bush.
They also ran 100-200 m. Penetration was straight through - also when it was hit angeled in front of the shoulder (exit in the back leg).

Antilopes ran 0-20 m (shootingdistances up to 40 m)
Zebra ran 90 m (sd 40 m).
First shot was behind the shoulders - and he "was dead" - but I shot another behind his shoulder when he started to run. The first bullet went through (almost a broadside shot). The second was found in the stomach, and it was still 296 gr.(the only bullet which was found).

do you think a 300 grain XTP wuold give quicker results on the warthogs? Why do you think this ( the long distance they ran before they died) happened only on the small animals and not the antilopes? do the woundchannels on warthogs differ from the ones in antilopes?

It`s hard to say - because I don`t have tried the XTP in .44.

You can join me next year - and go for the XTP - and I can keep going with this years load. Then we can come closer a conclusion