[P95Carry]

I have reloaded .44 mag for ..... ever .. and forget last time I bought factory. Have considered tho getting some for hunting cos no time to really fine tune my current loads. They would do .. quite well but I want superior bullet characteristics .. and tho I have - for instance - XTP's on hand ... won't be time to do the load work-ups.

So ... what factory is good these days .. and I mean FULL power loads, not whimpy things more like 44 spl!!

Rem? Win? Hornady? .......... what's your thinking?

[Preacherman]

Depends what you're hunting. If you're after really big stuff (moose, caribou, brown bear) I'd highly recommend the Buffalo Bore or Garrett monsters, or (as a cheaper but still very good alternative) the Federal 300gr. CastCore load. For elk and larger deer, I'd suggest Remington's 275gr. Core-Lokt loading, or perhaps the Cor-Bon offerings. For smaller whitetail and similar-size animals, the Hornady XTP is very good indeed, as is the Winchester 250gr. Partition Gold. However, I like to simplify my life a bit... to me, in .44 Magnum, a good solid (e.g. the Federal 300gr. load) does all-round hunting duty.

[P95Carry]

Thx Preacherman ... yeah forgot about the Fed. This is only for Whitetail so .... main concern is good bullet design and ballistics .... with a reliable power factor.

[treeprof]

Speer 270 gr GDSP.

[Majic]

If you have reloaded the cartridge forever, you should already have several loads fine tuned to your handguns. The deer hasn't changed phsyically so the newest, latest, greatest bullet out there today really doesn't do anymore than the old tried and true bullets of the past when fired out of a handgun.
A good cast bullet will bring down game just as well as any Jacketed model.

[P95Carry]

Majic ... in theory you should be right .. but ......

I used to load and shoot with a 240 grn Lyman cast SWC and had some very good hot loads worked up.. for years. I got rid of those moulds and my Redhawk .. (can I really have been so stoopid!?) .... and only got back into the cal when I got my SBH .. later then a SRH ... but my replacement mould was throwing a different bullet ... just a 230 grn Lee SWC and one I am not all that keen on .... and this has been a rather light load (for me!) .... I now have new moulds for 240 and 300 grainers . neither of which I have gotten to using yet ... so I do in fact have some work to do.

Nothing wrong with casts ..... of course .. they suit me very well .... but this is one of those occasions when I am considering some good factory ...... apart from which, some extra brass will be useful!

[RCL]

P95Carry, here's a couple of links to check out, both load good ammo, both use either the 240 or 300 XTP.


http://www.hornady.com/
http://www.black-hills.com/

[P95Carry]

Thx RCL (and others) .... I am leaning towards the Hornady but main thing I am trying to be sure of is that no one reports any particular brand as ''whimpy'' .. maybe I am too influenced by some of the factory 357 out there .. some of which I cannot regard as true .357 mag power, at all.

[Hal]

(Odd as this might sound in light of another thread)(please for cross readers I didn't say "all of")

I'd take a hard long look at CorBon's hunting loads.:what:
Well,,,yeah,,,Peter has it right on those pages - - no gimmicks - -.

[OH25shooter]

In my S&W 629 I tried Hornady 240 gr. XTP and Winchester Partition Gold 250 gr. Both accurate, but the Hornady gave a tighter group. Use it for whitetail deer hunting.

[umc180gr]

P95,
I am currently shooting a S&W 629 MG. I occansionally like to try a few differnet loads. As you can see from my screen name, I love Rem UMC 180gr .44's. They have some awesome power and some impressive muzzle flash for my 4" barrel. I have also shot Winchester white box 240's and Hornandy 300gr XTP's. Neither were as impressive as the UMC.

[P95Carry]

Thx UMC and . again to the others ... most useful to have people's input.

I did in fact ... in the end ... make time today pre a range visit with my boy - to load up some decent hunting load .44's .. using my 300 grn XTP's.

Had to reset all press etc . and set up powder throw but ... fitted it in and took em to the range. They are 18.8grns H-110 pushing the bullet ..... results were well acceptable .. at 50 yds I had 6 shots well in the black ... and the odd thing was .. three were separated by maybe couple of inches .. and each of those had another shot keyholing! Wierd. Shoulda kept the target but patched it to re-use. Tho if I find it still has the shot pattern showing, may scan that and post it.

[P95Carry]

In case of interest .. what are the odds of gettin six shots at 50 yds where each of three, gets keyholed by the other three???

http://www.bedford.net/design/shoot/jb_shoot/xtp_44_100.jpg

Not the tightest of groups perhaps but ... I'm happy with that for goin hunting!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BTW .... I had patched these with black sticky patches .. bein a mean SOB I was gonna re-use this target .. but ran outa light! So - removed patches, but that left some mess where adhesive had stuck a bit too well, so holes not as clean lookin as they did.

[Dr.Rob]

You forgot the VERY well made and deep penetrating Winchester 240 gr jsp. Great hunting bullet. Slow expansion, lots of penetration.