Looking for New Deer Rifle for next season.

[Mad Dog]

Boys, as many of you know, I don't post here too often, but have posted successes of my son Dan with his handi rifles, over the last few years.  My son has me inspired to get a handi rifle for our Indiana deer season.  Here in Indiana, we can only hunt with pistol caliber rifles with caliber diamete and case length restrictions.  My son uses a 44 mag, purchased in the fall of 2008, on a SB-2 receiver.  I know the new ones are on the SB-1, with synthetic stocks.

I just sold my Marlin 1894, 44 mag., because of accuracy issues past 50 yds.  I'm not giving up on the 44 mag, because I love the terminal performance of the round, particularly when using the hornady leverevolution rounds, on deer.  I know the barrels are made by Marlin, and don't want to get into another frustrating accuracy issue with a handi, that I had with the Marlin.

For you boys hunting with the newer 44 mag handis, how has your accuracy been?

Also, I've given some though to the 500 S&W.  I have a Marlin 1895 GG, in 45-70 and love it, but unfortunately I can't hunt deer with it, here in Indiana, due to case length

The terminal performance of the 500 comes close to my 45-70, plus I reload.  What do you think?


Mad Dog

[wreckhog]

Buy a used gun that is a proven shooter.

[Ololique]

Hey MD!  Fellow Indiana hunter here...  That sounds like a very oddball Marlin 1894 that you had.  I've worked with a couple of them over the past few years and have had nothing but fantastic accuracy.  Anyway, if you're looking to get into a Handi for Indiana, the 44 Mag is a top performer.  I do custom loading for a few guys here at work who own them and together they've killed over 10 deer in the past couple of years with my 44 loads.  Anything from 2000fps 210gr Gold-Dots, 1700fps 240gr Xtps, to subsonic 310gr WFNGC...  They've all been very successful.  If you don't reload, the 44mag is a good choice, although I've yet to see one shoot to my satisfaction with factory ammo.  If you do reload, then I highly suggest the 357 Maximum.  The conversion from Mag to Max can be done by a monkey and it's fast and cheap.  My 357 Max shoots a 200gr Sierra RN bullet at 2100fps (actual chrono'd velocity), easily matching 35 Remington performance.  I've taken 9 deer with this rifle in the past three seasons and have had fantastic results.  One shot, one kill - nothing has gone over 50 yds.  I've never seen better blood trails by anything I've used before.  The recoil is so manageable that I actually saw the blood splash from the bullet impact on a button buck I shot this past weekend!  Try that with a shotgun!

The 500 S&W is quite a big boomer for Indiana.  I know a few people who use them...  They'll kill a deer about 5 times over, but they work!  I own a 500S&W revolver and it's a handfull, but is truly WAY more than you need for deer hunting.  They can cause you to develop a real nasty flinch too, so be careful in choosing the 500 S&W.  They are super hard on scopes and mounts too!  Throw in the cost of factory ammo, and the 500 S&W looses alot of appeal real quick.  Reloaders on the other hand can do ALOT with this round...

[Dixie Dude]

If you reload, use larger diameter bullets for the Marlin .44 like 0.430".  Most factory loads are 0.429".  I think Hornady's are 0.430". 

[Mad Dog]

Thanks guys.  Yes I do reload.  Got everything for a 44 mag, and also reload for the 45-70, which I took to Africa, in 2008.  The 500 S&W is secondary to a 44 mag[yes it is overkill, but so's a 45-70].  I also tried .430 handloads in the Marlin, and they weren't anymore accurate than the .429s.  Doesn't matter, I sold the Marlin last nite.  Yes I killed 5 deer with it in the last 2 seasons, but I also cleanly missed 4 deer in 2 seasons with it at ranges from 85-100 yds.  I've killed over 80 deer in Indiana, since 1980, and that Marlin is the first gun I've ever been dissatisfied with.  My old 870 slug gun could out do it with the old winchester foster slugs.  I got 2 deer Sunday, with my CVA wolf, and am going to use it the remainder of the season.  But I'd like to get another rifle for next year.  Gonna lean towards the 44 mage handi, and see what happens.


Mad Dog

[petemi]

My .44 Handi, thanks to Tim, grew up to be a .445.  It's an older overbored barrel, but it always shot LEs well.  Now, I just load larger bullets and it shoots fine.  I think the overbore problem is ancient history, I believe the new ones are gonna be fine.  Getting .445 brass continues to be a problem.  

I've had three .357 Maxies and all have been shooters.  My 16.5 inch shortie is pick of the litter.  It shoots everything you can feed it very well.  It's not been out on deer yet, perhaps next week.  The .38-55 and .445 are in line ahead of it.  I own Marlin 336s and Ruger M77 MKIIs and 10-22s, but the rifles I go to are the Handis.

The last shot, below, was sighting in with LEs.

Pete

[mmt7714]

I have a recently acquired handi in 44 mag. I think it is about a year to 2yr. old. I think it is on an sb2 reciever, at least thats what the factory barrel says I haven't broken it down to check, and it is quickly becoming my favorite gun. I love shooting it and accuracy is very good. I think they had some bore issues with the older ones but seems like they have gotten that fixed.

Mike

[petemi]

SB2 on a barrel doesn't mean didly squat.  I don't know why Remington doesn't smarten up and put
SB1 or SB2 on the frame.  That's so basic, it is stupid.

Pete

[mmt7714]

in the short time since I posted that I have read where the barrel markings don't mean anything for the reciever. I am new to the handi game but learning a little everyday.

Mike

[quickdtoo]

MD, all of the SB1 factory 44mags have Marlin made barrels that shoot .429"-.430" bullets very well, you won't go wrong with them, you can identify those SB1 frames by the marking on the right side of the frame, no other H&R frames have markings on the right side except some of the special edition firearms like the RMEFs.

All of the late 2006 and later Marlin made barrels have the tighter bore, mine is an early 2007 accessory barrel, it shoots the LE ammo very well, the target below was shot at 100yds with a peep sighted Handi.  

Here are a couple articles from the FAQs on the 500 S&W, you can plan on 2" 100yd 3-shot groups with the 500, some get them to shoot a bit better, but 2" is very common, that's the best I've been able to do with 350gr XTP at 2150fps, 385gr Rem CL Bonded at 2044fps, 440gr CP at 1900fps and 700gr RR at 1435fps.

Tim

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQY/is_1_53/ai_n16866654/

http://www.shootingtimes.com/longgun_reviews/ST_hr500sandwmag/index.html

[Dinny]

357 MAXIMUM, 'nuff said!!

http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,214603.0.html

Thanks, Dinny

[tobster]

Another option is to trim down 45-70 cases to legal length. Since you already own a 45-70 and also hamdload it might be something to consider. I have yet to try it myself, but some here have with satisfactory results.

[Mad Dog]

tobster,  I have thought about doing that, but don't want to get a hangup in my Marlin GG.  If I would do that, I'd get a 45-70 handi rifle, and go from there.  The only thing I would really need is a poer trimmer th make the initial case cuts.


maddog

[teddy12b]

Good luck with this.  I'm thinking about the same idea too.

[JSLHandgunner]

.357 Max all the way! I also live in In. and it's a proven killer. The only thing I'm going to hunt with from now on. I've hunted with several diff. rifles, shotguns, muzzleloaders, and handguns and the Max. is the only WAY.

[Lon371]

 Another vote for the .357 maximum. Has put 2 deer in my freezer this year. 

Lonny