gdaddybill,
In the late 1960s and early 1970s I hunted with an older gentleman in Maine. He used the family rifle for deer, a Colt Lightning in .44-40. I sighted it in for him and he would hunt the apple orchard (or what remained of such, as it was reverted to wild) behind the barn. In 1969, opening morning, he shot the only deer I ever saw him harvest from the woodshed attached to the back of his horse barn. The deer was a midsized buck and was fairly close, stopping about 20 yards or so from the back of the barn to eat apples. I did not see the shot (I was back in along the edge of a swamp, far beyond the walking capabilities of this older fellow), but the bloody spot where it fell, kicked and died was evident on the frosty ground. When I returned he already had it in the barn and we hung and butchered it. He hit it near the heart in the lungs and great vessels, but the heart was edible, and we enjoyed it that evening along witht he backstrap steaks his wife prepared. I would assume at the range of 50 yards and under, the .44.40 or some similar cartridge would be as capable a deer/hog harvester as the .44 Mag Ruger Deerfield I own (a good one shot killer if the field of fire is clear of brush and the range is 100 yards or under), and the results I witnessed in Maine that year seem to bear this out.
