Author Topic: Can I hunt deer with this ammo? (Read 994 times)

44 Phanatic · « **on:** November 22, 2005, 03:27:35 AM »

Hornady 180 Gr. XTP
I cannot find any 200 Gr. in stores. Vendors say 4-6 weeks until they will have any.
Will I be making a mistake by using 180 Gr. My SBH absolutely loves both of these.

Graybeard · « **Reply #1 on:** November 22, 2005, 03:41:05 AM »

Can you, yes. Do I recommend it, no.

Several folks on here seem to like the 180s and 200s in .44 mag for deer but I'm not one of them. I shot one many many long years ago with a 180 pre XTP Hornady bullet. Killed it fine but bullet failed to exit. I like big exit holes so I switched immediately to 240 grain bullets and have killed a lot of deer with the .44 mag since and never yet had one fail to exit.

I'd not depend on it to break bones and get on thru personally. Shot into the lung/heart region from broadside or slightly quartering away angles it will do massive damage to the vitals and kill quickly. But is unlikely to exit and thus the blood trail will be sparse if you don't happen to drop it in sight of you. Don't expect it to penetrate deeply from severe angles to get the job done as a heavier bullet will.

Lone Star · « **Reply #2 on:** November 22, 2005, 03:41:57 AM »

Most 180s are pretty soft and at near-maximum velocities will expand quickly on deer. That can be a good thing if you put the bullet into the lungs - particularly on smaller deer these will kill more quickly than heavier bullets. The down side is that they may lack enough pentration on quartering shots.

The original high performance .44 ammo - SuperVel - used 180-grain jacketed bullets. Lee Jurras shot relatively large game with that load, and it worked very well. The secret was that the bullets were so hard that they really didn't expand much. That allowed high velocities but decent performance on larger game. So if you hear about the use of 180-grain .44 bullets on elk and buffalo - it was probably this old SuperVel stuff.

Redhawk1 · « **Reply #3 on:** November 22, 2005, 12:20:10 PM »

I have to agree with Graybeard and Lone Star. Get the 240's and you know they will do the job well.

ihuntbucks · « **Reply #4 on:** November 22, 2005, 06:22:53 PM »

The 240's will do the job fine.Like GB said.Big exit hole easy to track with blood trail.I use 250 gr.PTHP in my SBH.No tracking;just walk up and "ground checkum" :roll: .......Rick

MS Hitman · « **Reply #5 on:** November 23, 2005, 02:41:52 AM »

I agree with the 240 grain and heavier for .44s. If you simply HAVE to shoot 180 grain bullets, it's best to go to .35 caliber. Personally, I'd choose the plain 240 SWC ammo such as Remington loads over the 180 grain XTPs on deer.

Once you get that bullet past 1000-1100 fps; punching two holes in a deer on a broadside shot is not problem.

longwalker · « **Reply #6 on:** November 23, 2005, 06:39:09 AM »

I use Federal American Eagle brand 44 Magnun 240 grain JHP. They work well on deer and I have recoved only one bullet. That was from a large buck at about 60 yardsThe bullet entered just behind the lungs hit the heart and stopped just under the skin in front of the right should. You could feel it.

Get a bigger bullet.

longwalker

Mikey · « **Reply #7 on:** November 23, 2005, 08:07:52 AM »

Use a heavier bullet - 240 gn and up, cast swc is my preference. Your Ruger will shoot those just as well as it will shoot anything else and you will be much happier with the results on your game animals. Mikey.

winman · « **Reply #8 on:** November 23, 2005, 08:42:15 AM »

Truly sorry to simply agree with the other posts but they all echo my results. I actually prefer to stir things up with rhetoric when I can. My lone whitetail kill with a 180 grain high velocity load was anemic. I still have the bullet somewhere around here, I actually found it in the gut pile. Since then I have used the 429421 Keith bullet with 20.5 grains of 2400 and have never recovered one (the bullet I mean). It simply plows through anything.

44 Phanatic · « **Reply #9 on:** November 23, 2005, 10:06:06 AM »

Thanks guys. I will have to find a 240 grain that shoots as good as the lighter ones. Surely I can find something.

S.S. · « **Reply #10 on:** December 01, 2005, 03:30:27 AM »

I load my own hunting ammunition and my load in .44
Mag is 23 1/2 grains of H110 behind a 240 grain jacked
hollowpoint. My brother was using one of these rounds in his
Ruger SBH a couple of years ago when he shot his first
Whitetail with a handgun. It Was not pretty......
A large doe came up out of the gully below his stand
at about 50 yards, It would not offer a good shot, It was
VERY late in the season and my brother decided that
that may be the last deer he would see that year.
The doe was facing him when he fired. The bullet hit the deer
almost perfectly straight on and passed through almost the entire
length of the deer. The bullet was perfectly mushroomed
and under the hide of the deers rump. That is penetration.
There was almost nothing inside the doe that was still in tact
though!! man that was a NASTY field dressing job.