Well one of my favorite rifles has been added to my collection and will be in my hands very shortly, A classic ruger 44 mag carbine but the sporter style with the finger grooves. This is the first of its kind I have personally seen and it is in near new condition.
I have a new 1.5 to 5 to mount and its gonna be one sweet deer rifle

Matt

True

I don't know if you're old enough to remember the original ads that Ruger ran for their .44 magnum carbine with the "hunter" displaying his Ruger and the "vicious" female lowland gorilla he killed with it. The ad made quite a big deal of how powerful its carbine must be to dependably kill such a huge and dangerous animal.

I'm not in any way criticizing your carbine as it's quite a find and I'd love to have one, too. I'm just musing over how we HAVE made some progress in understanding and education and no one now considers the docile and increasingly threatened lowland gorilla a game animal, much less a dangerous one.

Stonecreek, you would asume right i am not old enough to remember any ads for the ruger carbine, But i can see how amusing an add like that can be viewed today.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
I don't know if you're old enough to remember the original ads that Ruger ran for their .44 magnum carbine with the "hunter" displaying his Ruger and the "vicious" female lowland gorilla he killed with it. The ad made quite a big deal of how powerful its carbine must be to dependably kill such a huge and dangerous animal.
I'm not in any way criticizing your carbine as it's quite a find and I'd love to have one, too. I'm just musing over how we HAVE made some progress in understanding and education and no one now considers the docile and increasingly threatened lowland gorilla a game animal, much less a dangerous one.

Maybe not dangerous but certainly a big animal and it does testify to the effectiveness of a 44 Mag.

[Well, got back from my trip and the rifle is waiting to be picked up, just recieved a new 1.5 to 5 to top it with. Going to be a great weekend of testing a few loads. From the what i have been told and have read this gun likes the higer velocity loads and 240's seem to be its sweet spot. Got some barnes xpb's along with a few other brands , which I am hoping group great and this gun will be ready for the woods. Opening of gun season,

Matt

When I was 18 and working at the gun counter in the Sporting Goods section of a large retailer I sold my neighbor one of these. Back then, in the area he and I hunted, a .30-30 was standard issue.

He never regreted that purchase and proceeded to harvest at least one deer every year thereafter until his death. He never had a bad word to say about it.

I too would like to add one to my safe.

Winchester has a Supreme load in .44 Mag. It's loaded with a 250 Gr. Nosler partition , it's a great load in my 9.5 " SRH and would probably work in your Carbine ! If you are going to shoot factory ammo you owe it to yourself to try the Winchester Supreme load .

Well drove down to pick up the ruger and I completly forgot everthing is closed today and i could not do the paper work today, though my shop is only open 3 days a week he was kind enough to run the paper work through tomorrow. So i will have it ready to go by tomorrow.

But i will say what an amazing little rifle super light and handy gonna be a joy to carry this season.

Mike thank you for the advice on the ammo though i only shoot handloads in my 44 since i load for my 629 and now this carbine.

Matt

Well, not a Ruger but my first ever "big game" rifle was a Marlin 1894 20" tubed .44 Mag carbine. A buddy had the Ruger.

I never bothered with mounting a scope as the Florida swamps with +/- 20 yard shots were the norm and it shoots perfectly accurate with the buckhorn sights just the way they are.

I recall a youth more sedate than today's hectic lifestyle and as a novice nimroder I can't imagine a finer firearm to develop stalking skills. I've wonderful memories of time afield with that rifle and the magic of discovering hunting.

I too, can attest to the 44 mag carbine Whitetail's killing prowess - more than adequate for the task at hand and yes, the 240 grain SWC bullets in pretty much any flavor including cast bullets work in mine.

Have fun with your new Boomer.

I've taken a bunch of deer with my Ruger .44. And, the scope you selected is perfect for it. However, My particular carbine did not like Remington 240 grain JHPs, which have a broad, flat point that sometimes hung up at the top of the chamber. Winchester bullets are more rounded and never once failed to cycle. At the time of its introduction, the 240 grain bullet was king and the carbine's rifling is optimized for this bullet weight. If you plan to use a heavier bullet, you may have to experiment to find one that's accurate. Also, avoid using cast or plated bullets.

Ok guys well i have had the rifle since saturday, sunday was the first day at the range with it and was getting "ok" accuracy 1 to 1.5 at 50 yards, 240 hollows, i think sierras with 24.3 gr of 296. Well after maybe 25 rounds the gun start getting happy shooting just under an inch. This was the first time out and the gun is 41 years old and shooting an inch pretty good.
Well i wanted to try some 270 deepcurls i like the bullet better so today, I spent the morning at the range with some 270's loaded again with 296 cant remember the charge, was below max . The gun was shooting nicley about the same group size as the 240's nothing to amazing but pretty good for second bullet combo.
Well on sunday, i picked up a pound of the alliant 300mp powder somthing I been searching for locally, my buddy gave me a pound to try. i loaded 15 rounds 21 grains under a 270 deepcurl and cci lg pistol primer.

First group of the day 3 shots, better than a clover leaf basically looks like one hole. Same grouping at 100, was an 1in high at 50, 1/2 high at 100. The 270's with 296 were 4 to5 inches lower point of impact . So in all a great day at the range and got lucky with the load choice.

Matt

Matt , it appears that Win. is still making that Partition Gold 250 load , but the bullet isn't in the Nosler catalog anymore . That seems a little strange . I like the 300 Gr. XTP over 20 Gr. of W-296 , hits things hard ! Don't try these in your S&W .