Sirs,

What is considered "good" for a standard, do-it-all type hunting load for a .44 mag? Would say, a 255 grn cast boolit at 1100 fps have me covered for most of the whitetail and hog hunting I might do in East Texas?

Thanks in advance,

quote:

Would say, a 255 grn cast boolit at 1100 fps have me covered for most of the whitetail and hog hunting I might do in East Texas?

It certainly would.

quote:

Originally posted by Tex21:
Sirs,

What is considered "good" for a standard, do-it-all type hunting load for a .44 mag? Would say, a 255 grn cast boolit at 1100 fps have me covered for most of the whitetail and hog hunting I might do in East Texas?
Thanks in advance,

When I used the 44M, I liked a little lighter bullet with more velocity to get some expansion & hydro shock. I liked the 200 gr jacketed @ 1400 IIRC. I like the 357 mag now with a 125gr jacketed @ 2000 fps in a 11" contender.
But that load will probably work fine too...

Brayhaven what 357 load are you getting 2000fps out of a 11 barrel Iam barely breaking 2000 with a max load of h110 out of a 18 inch marlin carbine barrel.

I like a 240 Sierra JHC, 23 gr. 296, and a CCI 350 for 1300-1400 fps, depending upon the gun.

I still use the Elmer keith load of 22 grains of 2400 with a standard primer with a 240 grain XTP.

buckeyeshooter, have you ever chronographed that load (22 grains of 2400)? That was a load I used a lot many years ago that I never got the opportunity to chronograph and was curious as to how fast it goes......

Yes, you will be well served with those specs. I too like Elmer's load but I've been using universal lately and like it.

I get 1374 fps out of a s & w 29 with a 6 1/2 inch barrel.

Thanks buckeyeshooter! That is exactly the gun I was shooting them out of -- 6 1/2-inch M29 Smith.

I am going to admit to being different because I like the heavier bullets/boolits in my Ruger .44. I used to use the 240 XTP but I recovered all of them with chest hits which had me worried about a bone hit or a quartering shot. A lighter, more explosive bullet scares me with the lack of penetration. The 300 XTP works much better, giving good expansion and complete penetration. The 240 XTP works better at a lower velocity.
Don't worry about speed, anything from 1000 fps up will do the trick. Even lower will kill deer just fine. For big pigs, I would want a heavier bullet with more velocity then I would use on deer.
All of my hunting is done with fairly hard cast boolits between 320 and 330 gr's now. I use LBT styles with large meplats. With a large meplat, no expansion is needed.
The 255 gr out of the S&W should work very well. We found the 240 was over stabilized in the S&W and watching bullet flight at long range through a spotting scope showed the bullets corkscrewing around the flight path. Going 250 gr's and up made them run stable. However, the 240 XTP and silhouette bullets were extremely accurate and I shot a lot of 1/2" groups at 50 meters with them. At different ranges, the point of impact would change a little but not enough to worry about.
My suggestion is to stay with 255 to 265 gr bullets in the S&W. Load for the best accuracy, don't worry about 50 to 100 fps difference.

Since then I have also moved to heavier bullets out of everything. That was nearly 20 years ago when I was reloading (my circumstances have conspired against me reloading at this stage in my life)and I loaded more 240 grain bullets because that was the standard. Did experiment a bit with 300 grain bullets....... I too think you will be more effective from a penetration standpoint with heavy for caliber bullets (hardcast of course!).

240-250 SWC and 10 gr. Unique does 1200 on the nose out of my 5" 629 Classic. It's accurate and recoil is mild. I've killed two deer and a boatload of small game with it.


Okie John

Years ago when I first bought my .44, 1956 I think it was, I was rabbit and pheasant hunting. Found a sitting rabbit in real thick stuff so I decided to try and take the end of his nose off with the .44. The ground was muddy but I didn't give it a though until I touched one off.
I came out of that one covered in mud and the rear half of a rabbit. From the mid point of the rabbit forward there was nothing left. I don't remember what bullets I loaded but never shot another rabbit with the thing.

I guess I'm on the heavy side. my favorite .44 bullet is a 330 gr hard cast wfn. I have also had good results with the 320gr. SSK. The SSK has two crimp grooves and I use the rear groove for my redhawk and the front groove for my blackhawk's. My accuracy load has me at 1375 fps from my 5&1/2" blackhawk and over 1400 with the 7&1/2 blackhawk and 7&1/2" redhawk.
From my scoped redhawk I keep 6 rounds under 4" @ 100yds with both bullets.