what does a soft point do when it hits game.

Nothing expands on dry media or wood like it does when it hits meat, or anything else with fluid in it.
Wood especially, often wedges the nose of the bullet shut so it can't expand while driving through the wood fibers.

.44 Mag soft points will expand in a deer.
They just expand slower and maybe not as much as a hollow-point for deeper penetration.

rc

I'd use them if thats what you have been using and are sighted in with.

You put a .44 Mag bullet of about any discreption through a deers boiler room and you will be eating venison pretty shortly.

They ain't that hard to kill when they got air and blood in all the wrong places.

rc

In the old days, the factory 240 JSP were pretty stout structurally. They'd about go through an elephant. Don't know how they are now.. I handload different stuff for different stuff pretty much.

Expansion is going to be limited to the exposed lead sort of mashing over like a rivet. Depending on what you're shooting, this can be a good thing.

In my .44 SBH, the Hornady LeveRevolution loads are absolutely devastating on whitetail out to farther than I'd be willing to try a shot, not to mention extremely flat-shooting with the spitzer shape of the bullet. Through-and-through penetration, extreme expansion at high velocity, it basically leaves a cone-shaped void through the vitals.

Lobo,

Expansion depends on the Brinell hardness of the exposed lead and the speed at which it's being driven as well as what it hits along its path. Even if it doesn't expand it's still a large projectile passing through an area it doesn't belong.

If the bullet is placed properly I agree with RC you'll have venison for dinner!

lobo...you seem like you have a good handle on it and won't have any issue at all hunting with that round. It seems anymore that people forget that cheap ammo kills plenty of game every year.

Plus, a .44 Mag bullet unexpanded is 40% larger than a .30 caliber unexpanded bullet.

threefortyduster said:

.a .44 Mag bullet unexpanded is 40% larger than a .30 caliber unexpanded bullet.

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Very true. However, a .30 Luger with hardball is a fine varmint cartridge.

I have some experience with the WWB 44 mag JSP ammo. I was shooting it from my Marlin 1894SS at the range and dug a couple slugs out of the soft sandy backstop. I was pretty surprised that the recovered slugs weren't expanded after slamming into the 50yd backstop. When I used them on deer later that year they acted like a FMJ. There was very little spoor on the ground even after a solid hit. I have since switched to Hornady 240gr JHP and haven't a problem.

Three years ago I killed a whitetail doe with a 240gr Magtech soft point. The range was 50 yards. The gun was a Marlin 1894. As far as I could tell the bullet didn't expand at all. The deer was dead in less than 10 seconds though. There was plenty of blood and finding the deer was easy.

My buddy whose land I was hunting on has killed about 10 deer using his marlin 44 mag and winchester WB 240 SP bullets. He has remarked before that he didn't think they were expanding but the deer drop very quick just the same. So if those are not expanding from a rifle they will not expand from a pistol.

The soft point bullets must be designed for game tougher than white tails. If you are going for lung shots and hollow point might be better. My buddy did hit one deer in the spine with a soft point. The bullet exploded and blew out the top of the deer. He lost half the backstrap. It looked like one of those Velocer Rapters bit a chunk out of his back.

I think the tougher hollow points might be the Hornady XTP bullets. Maybe they would expand without tearing up too much meat.

We only used the 44 mag rifles because the area is getting built up with houses. He moved the deer feeder so we have a dirt bank behind it and we are going back to regular deer guns. He is going to use a 6mm and if I hunt I will use my 7-08.

336A,
did you recover the deer?

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Luckily I did, however if it wasn't for the snow on the ground that day I may not have. I didn't find any spoor for a good 25yds from where I hit him, when I did find it it was tiny pin head sized droplets. I really like how the ammo shoots from the gun almost as if it were made for it, but the terminal performance left a lot to be desired. The Hornady bullets are phenominal in the terminal performance aspect of things, but not as accurate as the WWB 240gr JSP.