Ladies and Gentlemen:

Last year I asked about the 35 Remington, 444 Marlin and 45/70 Govt. for deer and black bear hunting in Pennsylvania. Thank you for all the responses.

Presently, I intend to use either a 444 or 1895 Marlin rifle with a Lyman 56 peep sight as the sole receiver sight. My shots will stay well within 150 yards.

How does the 44 magnum in a rifle stack up against the 444 Marlin and 45/70 Govt.? Is there a real difference on white tail deer?

How about black bear?

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

If memory serves me correctly, a 240 grain bullet exits a 44 magnum rilfe at about 1850 FPS while the same bullet in a .444 Marlin is published at 2400 FPS. I've taken a bunch of whitetail with a Ruger carbine and in my opinion, the trajactory is such that it is at best, a 150 yard gun sighted in 3" high at 100 yards.

The .444 and the .45-70 cerainly have a lot more punch than the .44 magnum but, unfortunately, you can only kill a deer dead, not extra dead. At typical eastern woods ranges, I don't think the extra punch is needed. Besides, hunting with the Ruger .44 carbine (early semi-auto) is like hunting with an M-1 carbine.

I have shot several deer with a 44 mag rifle and some with a 45/70 in a Ruger No1 with +P tyme 45/70 loads. Truth is I really cannot say I saw any difference in "killing" power...

In truth the 44 Mag knocked them down better out to 100 yards...

However, I did hit 3 deer with the Ruger 45/70[scoped] at 230 to 250 yards, I would not have even tried that with the 44 Mag... My Ruger was a tack driver...

On deer out to 100 yards I do not think you culd tell the difference.

On bigger game, I think the heavier bullets of the 45/70 would be an advantage.

quote:

Is there a real difference on white tail deer?

Not as far as I could tell.

Killing deer is a lot like hotrodding. You have to have something like twice the horsepower to notice the difference.

Thank you all for your sage advice.

Sincerely,

Chris Bemis

If there a difference on whitetail?

44 mag has almost no noticable recoil, twice as many rounds in the magazine, and still leaves two holes, one in and one out.

I'd choose the 45-70 for Elk or Buffalo, but on whitetails at eastern distances, the deer will never know the difference.

The .44 is fine, but I've only used one in a rifle where distance was limited to 50 yds or so on hogs. Never tried a 150 yd. shot with the little Ruger carbine, nor would I care to, but that's just me.

44 will work fine on deer. But you are in Pa. I would stay with a 444 or 45/70 for black bear there. You have some huge black bear there. When I was a college student hunting near Clearfield. A neighbor of my uncle-- Orwin Schrock shot a 714 pounder. Not something I would try with a 44 mag.

quote:

Originally posted by N E 450 No2:
I have shot several deer with a 44 mag rifle and some with a 45/70 in a Ruger No1 with +P tyme 45/70 loads. Truth is I really cannot say I saw any difference in "killing" power...

In truth the 44 Mag knocked them down better out to 100 yards...

However, I did hit 3 deer with the Ruger 45/70[scoped] at 230 to 250 yards, I would not have even tried that with the 44 Mag... My Ruger was a tack driver...

On deer out to 100 yards I do not think you culd tell the difference.

On bigger game, I think the heavier bullets of the 45/70 would be an advantage.

+1 to everything said, including the Ruger #1 45/70 being a tack driver. I happen to have one of those 2! Mine is a stainless one with yucky laminate.