What ammo for bears out of a 44mag rifle?

[teddy12b]

In preparation for the upcoming bear hunt my friend is probably going to buy a lever action 44 magnum rifle.  He's not really a gun guy and he went this route because he can also use it for deer hunting with me in Indiana.  He's pretty much set on a Rossi/Puma 92 scout/scope combo.  He's shot my Puma 92's and liked the feel of the rifle.

I have plenty of handloaded 240gr XTP-HP 44mag ammo on hand, but I think it's more for deer than a black bear.  The reason I say that is because I took a big bodied buck with it at 60 yards behind the shoulder and the bullet didn't pass completely through.  Now that we're after bears, and big wide holes leave lots of blood I'd like to get some ammo setup for my friend that would be better suited for a bear hunt than what I keep on hand for deer.  Not that my ammo is bad by any means, but why go through all the trouble of a hunt and not get the ammo that's the best fit for the job.

Basically I'm thinking about two different bullets.  1.)  Barnes all copper 225gr XPB (similar to triple shock) or 2.)  Cast performance 320gr hard cast.  I don't think there's much either of these bullets wouldn't work for, but I wanted to ask this question to the guys who know more about bear bullets than I do.


Any suggestions?

[Bigeasy]

I would take a look at the 300 grain XTP.  As long as it functions thru the #92 action, you should be good to go.  Look for around 1500 or more FPS out of a rifle length barrel.  Plenty for black bear.  If recoil is an issue, then the 225 Barnes might be a better choice.  A well designed hard cast slug will work as well, giving you maximum penetration.  In an animal the size of a black bear, I would opt to take advantage of the rifle barrel velocity advantage with heavy jacketed bullets, combining good expansion with deep penetration.  I have taken a couple of bear with both cast and jacketed big bore handguns, and they all worked about the same.....Dead bear within 20 or so yards.

Larry

[efremtags]

If shooting XTP, 300GR is the way to go. they open pretty fast, so you want some extra weight.

A good 280GR or more hardcast will work good as well and give good penetration. Go for the shoulder if you want a short tracking job.

I shot a 200lbs last year with a 45/0 405GR handloads (SP) an with 2 broken shoulders that sucker still went 60 yards.

[Graybeard]

Since I have ZERO experience shooting bears I should probably stay out of this but I do have opinions based on a whole lotta shooting and hunting of other game with the .44 magnum.

First I'll say that Jim Hack aka JJHack has likely shot more bears and certainly has shot and/or guided more folks to kill bears than likely all the rest of us on this site combined. He did bear damage control and guided hunters for both black and grizzly bears for years. I think his combination of personal kills and guided hunter kills exceeds one thousand. For a handgun he recommends 240 JHPs like the XTP but I've not seen any comments from him on rifle use of the round.

I've used the 240 XTP on a bunch of game like deer, exotics and hogs all from a handgun. My wife has used it to take a couple of rams on exotics hunts from a rifle. It works quite well from a handgun on deer size critters and on her first ram the hole out the far size was big enough for me to put my fist in from Faye's Marlin.

I've also used the 300 XTP on a big boar hog taken as he closed on me from abojut 15' thru the brain and into the shoulder. I did NOT like the damage that was done to it and have refused to use it on hogs again since.

Based on all that and more of my own personal experience I would not take an XTP or any other JHP for use in a rifle on bear or big hogs. I'd either use a heavy for caliber JSP NOT JHP or I'd use a cast bullet with wide meplat.

As I said I've never shot a bear but I've shot a lot of other game and that's what I'd do and even more so based on the use of rifle rather than handgun due to the extra velocity which tends to rip JHPs apart.

[billy_56081]

240 XTPs should be great plenty for black bear. I have personally shot a dozen bears and find them no tougher than a whitetail to kill. I have afriend who has guided for bear for many years and feels they are even softer than deer. Bullet placement is king. A 240 XTP will fully penetrate a big bear and leave a big hole to dump blood out to track them.

[mcwoodduck]

I would see what feeds through his rifle.
This is not a gun guy so I would pick one round for him.  If you load the 240's I would get him to shoot the 240's  No thinking of bullet drop with the heavier slugs for bear as to deer loads.  Just 44 loads.
A big hole in the lungs is what you are looking for.  the 240's will open up and work for you.
In NC where we have really big bears in pamilco county I carry 180 JHP or JSP loads in my Ruger carbine and M29 and do not feel under loaded.  The 180's open up nice in big game and will cycle my auto loader.  Not generally something you will worry about in a lever gun but with the longer 300 grain will they feed through the gun?  If you know the 240's will I say don't fix what is not broken.
Only time I have seen one of the VW bug sized bears I was dove hunting, wiating for the noon shooting time to arrive and had nothing bigger than 7.5's and started to think what I would do.  He kept comming to me I stood up off my Dove stool and he looked at me and went the other way.
Oh if you go on the Sportmans warehouse website they have life size aminal targets.   May be a good idea to get a 6 pack of the bears and deer and get your friend used to shooting the animals in the vitals.  the targets have a live picture along with major bones and vitals all on the front of the target.  Gives you a good idea of where and why to stick a bullet.

[AtlLaw]

I looked for the XTP Mag but don't see it on Hornady's site anymore.  Guess they stopped making it.  To bad... 

[S.E.Ak]

I don't know a single person that carries HP's in bear pistols or most rifles in Alaska. We must remember that you may shoot a blacky that weights 125lbs or 550 lbs. I like to carry 300gr hardcast like loaded by Cor-Bon and Buffalo Bore. In my 45colt rifle I feel fairly safe useing the 325gr LFN from BB

[hunt-m-up]

Looks like Speer just came out with a new 270 grain jacketed softpoint designed for hunting called Deepcurl that may be worth checking out. I liked their old 270grn Gold Dot Soft point out of my .50 muzzleloader. I think a good softpoint has more controlled expansion/weight retention/penetration than the HP's.

http://www.speer-bullets.com/ballistics/default.aspx?caliber=28&usage=0&brand=0&firearm=2

[Ak.Hiker]

The 320 grain cast bullets may be to long for your lever action to cycle. One of my very favorite loads for my Ruger Carbine is the Speer 270 grain Gold Got JSP. I see they changed the name to Deep Curl but I would guess that they would work just as well. I did some penetration tests with the carbine many years ago and the 270 grain Gold Dot went deeper than any other JSP and deeper than the 300 grain XTP and I was suprised deeper than the old Barnes 300 grain Original JSP. So I would trust them on black bear for sure. They are the same overall length as the 240 grain JSP loads so they cycle just fine. If you carry the 240 grain XTP for deer another option would be to stay with the same weight and load a JSP for black bear. I have always liked the Winchester White Box in 240 JSP as well as the Remington 240 grain JSP. 

[Redhawk1]

I would try some 300 gr. hard cast bullets from Montana Bullet works.  I killed quit a few hogs with them and was able to take out both front shoulders and the bullet passed through all the hogs I shot. As for black bear I would use the same load.

The thing about black bear they can get big, but the normal black bear is in the 150 too 200 lb category. Personally I load up for that 500 lb bear.

I use a 405 gr. hard cast bullet in my 45-70 and tack out both the front legs and lungs. Works all the time.

[dabigmoose]

HI Teddy
 That cast 320 is a perfect choice i would stay with the a round in the 240 gr and up cast or jsp as Grey beard stated . I have used a few Hollow points from a trapper model winch in the day but the shots were point blank while in a den so they probably would not be  good representation of what to use. But we used what ever we had in those days as we didnt have much choice.
Dabigmoose