Rifle Loads For The .44 Remington Magnum
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 3 months ago
These five bullets cover most of the applications for which a .44 Mag. rifle can be used—from plinking to hunting. The projectiles are (l. to r.): Rim Rock’s 200-grain Cowboy RNFP; Hornady’s 200-grain XTP; Hornady’s 225-grain FTX; Northern Precision’s 250-grain Sabre Star and Speer’s 270-grain DeepCurl soft point.
The author goes on to outline some of the advantages and disadvantages of each bullet.
I’d like an educated take on what he says from experience hunting with this round. Mainly I have .44 magnum from Buffalo Bore, choosing that since it tends to be some of the hottest round on the market (I haven’t tried Underwood, who has a monolithic round for sale).
I tend to think that a .44 magnum out of a lever action rifle would be lethal for eastern whitetail, bear, coyote, and about anything you could find east of the Mississippi.
What have readers taken with the venerable .44 magnum?
On September 1, 2022 at 1:56 am, xtphreak said:
Whitetail and one feral hog.
240gr XTP in my 20″ Rossi 92 over 18.5gr 2400 CCI LPP works a treat.
It doesn’t like the 240 LSWC I load for my 629, hangs up on the shoulder.
Those get 10 gr Unique CCI LPP.
And they’ll put deer down authoritatively, if within what range I’m comfortable taking a pistol shot, like 25 yards or less.
On September 1, 2022 at 8:30 am, Latigo Morgan said:
While sort of on topic – I loaded up some powdercoated 250 gr. cast Keith style semi-wadcutters last night with a couple different weights of H110. Not that H110 gives you much room to play with. What I’ll be testing today is a minimum loading and the midrange loading. I figured, why go with the max charge until I try the lower charges first?
The only thing I’m worried about is maybe I crimped a little too heavy on them. But nothing is more annoying that not being able to cock the hammer because a bullet has worked out of a light crimp and is jamming up the cylinder – and the OAL on these rounds are kind of long, anyway at 1.70″.
On September 1, 2022 at 1:25 pm, Ned said:
I have an old Ruger 44 carbine autoloader. A friend with no rifle used it on a mule deer hunt years ago. Used a factory 240 gr hp – full penetration at about 50 yards broadside, 3″ exit, DRT.
Twist is too slow to adequately stabilize 300 grainers, but works well with Hornady 265 grainers and Speer 270’s. Haven’t used cast boolits in this rifle. Have shot 180 gr for high velocity plinking loads at varmints.
It was nice to be able to use the same rounds in my Super Blackhawk as the rifle, though i mostly shoot cast in the revolver. Rifle was a different animal in velocity with same loads – almost 1900 fps with hot 240s stoked with H-110.
On September 1, 2022 at 2:21 pm, Furminator said:
I use the 240 Hornady XTP over 22 grains of H110, maybe a touch milder than the factory load with that bullet, in a 16″ Marlin 1894. Punched right thru a doe muley at 80 yards. Based on the exit wound the bullet did not appear to get much expansion but still quite effective on thin-skinned game.
My buddy dropped a buck antelope with a 4″ revolver at 75 yards using the same bullet over 10 grains of Unique. Again, went right thru him. The manual says those loads are around 200 fps slower than H110 and of course they lose alot out of a handgun vs rifle.
I wouldn’t set out to kill a black bear with a 44 but as a sidearm I wouldn’t feel undergunned with my revolver.
On September 1, 2022 at 6:22 pm, Brian T said:
I used a 16″ Marlin with 200 grain Hornady XTP @ 2000 FPS to take a nice 10 point white tail at around 70 yards