44 Magnum Softpoint

[Ak.Hiker]

I have gone back to carrying 240 grain soft points as a general field load in my 44 magnum. I have both Winchester white box and Remington express. In reading some old Elmer Keith gun notes he was pretty impressed with the jacketed soft point in his testing on Bulls. He did like his 250 Keith load better of course. I am looking for input from anyone that has used them on game. I did some penetration testing the other day in wood and they did have good penetration as well as weight retention.

[Catfish]

   My bullet of choice for the .44 mag. has been the 240 gr Serria HP for many years. The only bullet I ever recovered from a deer was from a 10 point buck that I hit at abt. 135 yrds in the left rear quater and recovered the bullet just under the skin of the right frount shoulder. Expanded to nearly 2 times it`s diameter and I for get what it weighted any more. I used to load for 4 guys that hunted deer with the .44 mag and tried a bunch of different bullets, and found the Serrias to be the best in both accuracy and terminal preformance. The Hornday XTP are as accurate but do not have the expanation of the Serrias and do less damage while blowing through. The Rem. 240 gr. bullets have great termenal preformance but are now quite as accurate, most guy could not tell difference in accuracy of Rem`s and Serrias. The 180 gr. Serrias are just to explosive on deer. I hit a small deer in the shoulder at close range, maybe 15 yrds, and the bullet opened on impact with skin and left and intrence wound of abt. 3 in. and did not get to the heart and I took a second shot to kill it. For hogs I would recomand the Hornady bullet or a FP bullet for deeper penatration

[Graybeard]

I believe I've seen a similar comment from you before Catfish regarding the Hornady XTPs and quite frankly based on my personal experience just can't understand it.

I've shot a lot of deer and other game with the 240XTP in the .44 Magnum mostly all loaded over 24.0 grains of W296. These have been fired from several handguns and rifles. The single largest exit hole I've ever seen in about 45 years of big game hunting came with this bullet fired by my wife in making her first ever big game kill. You quite literally could have put your fist in the exit without any problem. All game I've shot with it have shown massive tissue damage indicative of massive expansion and I don't recall ever recovering one of the bullets either.

What are you seeing as far as internal damage is concerned with them? Just don't understand why we'd have such widely disparate experience with them. Are you shooting at similar velocity as me? Distances? Mine have been from barely off the end of barrel to about 100 yards.

[Hook686]

24.0 grains of W296 gives about 1400-1500 fps I'm thinking. This puts that velocity at about the mid point of the Hornady XTP ballistic profile

( http://www.hornady.com/media/Handgun_Bullets.pdf#search='hornady%20xtp%20bullets' )


which shows 240 grain XTP to be effective over a range of about 900 fps to about 1800 fps. I do not understand the 240 grain XTP's not opening for catfish either.

[Mikey]

AKhiker - what were you carrying that you 'went back to' carrying softpoints?  Many here feel soft points and hps either expand too quickly or veer off target after impact with bone and prefer hardcast in swc configuration, whether 240, 250 or up to 300+ grains in weight. 

I don't recall Keith's impression of the 44 mag with a softpoint - his preference was for hardcast and the swc configuration - he specifically developed sharp shouldered bullets with sharp 'bands' to improve the bullets effect.  I do recall his disappointment once with a 38-40 softpoint but then used one of his own hardcast semiwadcutters from the same revolver to finish a bull that had de-horsed him. 

I like the 240-250 gn swc over a light load of Unique for basic plinkin' and an easy woods load.  I go heavier, to 295-300 gn in the swc when I go out for serious (larger than squirrel - lolol) game.  JMHO.  Mikey.

[Ak.Hiker]

Years ago I did not have a 44 magnum handgun but I did have a Ruger Carbine. I carried 240 Remington softpoints in that gun. When I bought a Super Blackhawk I tried all kinds of loads in it. Everything from 250 Sierra FPJ's to heavy 320 cast. I pretty much settled on the 250 Sierra in my Taurus and 320 cast in the Ruger. I tested out some 240 Winchester and Remington JSP loads several weeks ago in the Taurus and they shot very well in the gun. I just was wondering if any one else carried the JSP loads anymore. Most everyone seems to prefer cast.

[Catfish]

GB,
   I`ve only seen 2 deer taken with the 240 gr. XTP`s. Both went through like a hard cast with a .44 cal. exit wound. One through the chest and the other was a gut shot. After seeing the way these 2 bullet acted I went back to the 240 Serrias. I don`t really know how many deer have been killed with my .44 mag. reloads, but would guess some where between 25 and 30. I used to load for several other hunters. I have been useing the 158 gr XTP in my .357 max the last few years now and at the velosity I`m pushing them, well over 2,000 fps., they lose alot of weight, but are doing the job on deer. I`ve killed 4 in the last 3 years with that combo. All I know is what I`ve seen these bullets do.

[Graybeard]

OK I agree they will generally exit but what was the internal damage done? That is really what matters isn't it? Did they go any further than you'd have expected from those shot locations? Size of exit wound is hardly a measure of bullet performance to judge a bullet by in my opinion. If the critters fall down within the reasonably expected distance and if their insides look like jello the bullet did what it should. All the XTPs I've killed game with did that.

[redhawk500]

Any input on soft points as mentioned in the original post?  I read Dick Metcalf (sp) as stating the .41 Magnum 210 grain soft point was an ideal black bear load.  Any results in .41, .44, or .45 to confirm or deny this (on any reasonably appropriate medium game)?

[Graybeard]

Not from me. I use JHPs on soft game like deer and cast on tougher game.

[Lloyd Smale]

Any input on soft points as mentioned in the original post?  I read Dick Metcalf (sp) as stating the .41 Magnum 210 grain soft point was an ideal black bear load.  Any results in .41, .44, or .45 to confirm or deny this (on any reasonably appropriate medium game)?

dont know about bear but ive seen two misierable failures of them on hogs. One ended up being put down by a 357 with a hard cast and the other by a 44 mag with a hard cast. They may be fine on deer but thats about all id bet a hunt on using them

[corbanzo]

I've been loading my pack .44 with 320 casts for a few years now, but then just last summer decided to go a little smaller and faster, with 300grn JSP's, in wood there really isn't much difference in penetration, and I would trust them for protection, which is what I usually use them for. 

When Im plinking I will usually use 240 grn JHP, which have much less penetration compared to the 300grn JSP.  So far Im a fan of the JSP's, I actually started carrying a 300grn JSP in my .454 also, though I still do bring the 335grn casts... I guess that all depends on my mood

[ccoker]

hmm
this is an interesting thread as I just bought a 44
the 240g sp loads are readily available and reasonably priced and I was hoping to use them