44mag vs 20ga. rifled slug

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craigc You mean the sabots are pistol bullets , really? No poop? I learned something new, many many years ago. I guess my BP rifle is then shooting a saboted pistol bullet at 1985 fps. I better down load it to 1400fps. You know craig I just don't feel the recoil in the woods hunting. never have. And on the bench I can deal with it. I guess recoil is felt differently by different people. Proper platform??? Guess I should not use pistol bullets in a BP rifle. Better change to round ball.
 
This is simple stuff and if you want to believe that the 44 is a better caliber than the 100+ years old 30/30 thats your choice. The facts are that the 44 is 10" low at 150yards with a 50 yard 0. The 30/30 is only 4" low at the same range and zero. At 200 the difference gets really striking the 44 is 23" low the 30/30 less than half that at 10". Therefore the 30/30 is an easy 200 yard gun the 44 just a 100yarder. The 30/30 has a SD of .257 and a BC of /304 the 44 SD/.186 BC/.165. The 44 never has been and never will be anything but a gimick for those that want to "play" with a gun. The 30/30 has been nothing but a working gun for all of its 100+ years of existance killing far more game and people than the 44 will ever be accused of. If you want a toy get a 44 if not get a 30/30 and find out what over 7 million others have over the years. Frank
 
Thanks for all the comments but I only want to know about 20ga. rifled slugs vs 44mag. Like I said before I already tried saboted slugs but didn't get good enough accuracy to justify the price. I am only 16 years old and I couldn't handle the recoil of the saboted rounds. Also I live in Indiana so its only shotgun or certain rifle cartridges.
 
rori,

But has the .30-30 taken an elephant and similar game reliably? :p I'd like to see a .30-30 shoot through a buffalo too. :p All cartridges have their pluses and minuses. If you want to hit that whitetail deer at 200 yards, you'd of course use a .30-30, but if you wanted to whack that elk at 100 yards, the .44 Magnum will be a better round.

You're right in that the .30-30 is a longer ranged round, i.e., 200 yards compared to about 125; no one would dispute that. This thread is talking about short ranged 20 gauge slugs versus a short ranged rifle.
 
This is simple stuff and if you want to believe that the 44 is a better caliber than the 100+ years old 30/30 thats your choice. The facts are that the 44 is 10" low at 150yards with a 50 yard 0. The 30/30 is only 4" low at the same range and zero. At 200 the difference gets really striking the 44 is 23" low the 30/30 less than half that at 10". Therefore the 30/30 is an easy 200 yard gun the 44 just a 100yarder. The 30/30 has a SD of .257 and a BC of /304 the 44 SD/.186 BC/.165. The 44 never has been and never will be anything but a gimick for those that want to "play" with a gun. The 30/30 has been nothing but a working gun for all of its 100+ years of existance killing far more game and people than the 44 will ever be accused of. If you want a toy get a 44 if not get a 30/30 and find out what over 7 million others have over the years. Frank
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Toy? Gimmick??? The African Big Five were taken with the .44Mag before it was fashionable. Toy? Not hardly. Showing some ignorance? I believe so. Big time.

I do believe I said in my first post referencing the .30-30 that:
The .30-30 has more range but the .44 will take bigger critters.
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Slitrick- another Hoosier here, my opinion is that the 44 is your best bet. Thats from a Marlin 357 deer hunter.
 
Is Indiana a shotgun or straight wall pistol cartrige only state? If it is why not get a 50 caliber inline.In Ohio you have to use a shotgun ,pistol or black powder and the pistol has to have at least a 5 in barrel but can't exceed a 10 in it's not posted in the normal hunting regs and I would suggest you research what is legal before you make a decision on what to get . 150 yards is not a hard shot with a smoke pole and most states have a special muzzel loader only season .
 
"If it is why not get a 50 caliber inline"

If the 20ga recoil was too stout the 50 might be also.
The 44 mag is perfectly legal to hunt in Indiana in both pistol (4in or longer) and carbine length.
 
All cartridges have their pluses and minuses. If you want to hit that whitetail deer at 200 yards, you'd of course use a .30-30, but if you wanted to whack that elk at 100 yards, the .44 Magnum will be a better round.
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Why? At 100 yards, give me my .30-30 any day for elk....
 
Dead is dead and all of the rounds mentioned will kill deer pretty much equally well.

My considerations would have more to do with the cost of good practice and possibly recoil than any other hair splitting sub-topic.

An interesting idea for less expensive 20 ga sabot slug practice may be these

http://slugsrus.com/store/product76.html

I haven't tried them myself so I can't attest to accuracy. Still, handloading with them would be a lot less expensive than with the premium sabot loads offered by the major ammo manufacturers.

To save money, just get good with the gun you have. However, if you need to justify a new gun purchase to yourself or others (wife?) I'm sure we can all make a good case for why a .44 carbine is lightyears beyond what a 20 ga slug gun can do.
 
Why? At 100 yards, give me my .30-30 any day for elk....
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A 270gr-300gr .44Mag will break heavy bones and fully penetrate from nearly any angle. It doesn't have to expand to be effective.
 
My experience has been over and over that bullets that "expand" kill faster than bullets that punch a caliber size hole on through. They may both be dead, but i'll take the expanding bullet every time, as long as the expanding bullet also gives deep penetration.

For elk, i'd take a 30-30 170NP over my 44 mag every time...

To the OP, get the 44 mag., your chances of practiseing with it are a LOT better than a 20ga. slug bbl. and that's important!

DM
 
slitrik said:
Got a question. Which do you guys think is better out to about 125 yards - a 44mag or a 20ga. rifled slug. I am thinking of getting a 44mag. My scoped 20ga. pump gets about 7 in. groups at 100 yards with a solid rest. At 50 yards I can keep them in a palm sized group off of a monopod. Also how is the recoil of a 44mag compared to a 20ga.. I only want to know about 44mag vs. 20ga. rifled slugs not saboted rounds. Any answers would be appreciated. Thanks!
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please read the OP. He is asking about a rifled slug, out of a smoothbore, at 125yds. The slug (not sabot) is diving for the ground at 125 yds. Sure it will have lots of energy to dig a hole. You need to eliminate energy when comparing the two, and look at trajectory IMHO. Getting back to the OP, I believe the 44mag is more suited to his scenario
 
Don't you cats think for one moment that a 30-30 is not the better. Put a solid in the round and it will drill a hole into the brain matter of any elephant and do it a lot further away with more authority and accuracy. The .44 takes 25 grains of powder and the 30-30 does 35 grains, more pop everytime.
 
Don't you cats think for one moment that a 30-30 is not the better. Put a solid in the round and it will drill a hole into the brain matter of any elephant and do it a lot further away with more authority and accuracy. The .44 takes 25 grains of powder and the 30-30 does 35 grains, more pop everytime.
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Think again. As stated before, the .44Mag has been used to successfully take all the African Big Five. It is illegal to use anything as small as the .30-30 to take elephant so any discussion on that point is irrelevant.

http://www.handloads.com/misc/Linebaugh.Penetration.Tests.asp?Order=5
 
You Guys are WAAAY off Topic. THe OP Cannot use a 30-30 as it is ILLEGAL in his state to hunt deer with. Please find my link to the state regulations above.
 
I just went through this decision making process myself. We are from Texas and my 12 year old son and I have been invited to deer hunt in Indiana. We have a number of 20 guage autoloaders that would work fine with fully rifled barrels. Instead I decided to purchase an H&R Handirifle and a Marlin 1894 both in 44 Mag. My thoughts being:
1. Few ranges in my area allow slugs to be fired at all. We can shoot 44 mag anywhere;
2. The 44 mag recoils less. This is a major factor for my son;
3. The 44 mag is (in my opinion) more accurate with a wider variety of available ammo;
4. We can shoot relatively inexpensive 44 cowboy loads for practice;
5. The 44 gives me an excuse to buy a matching revolver (as if I needed an excuse).
6. The 44 carbines are lighter and handier.

I believe that both the 44 and the 20 will kill a deer stone dead. I just think the experience will be easier and more enjoyable with the 44, especially for my boy.
 
DM~,

One thing: .44 Magnum from a rifle will expand and fragment just as well as a .30-30 with the same type of bullet within its effective range, which means it'll make a bigger wound there too. A 240 grain JHP/JSP at 1900 FPS makes a devastating wound due to fragmentation and expansion on thin skinned stuff; it's like a .30-30 JSP, just bigger.
 
I've shot big game, from moose on down with 44 mags, both revolver and rifle... Until Nosler came out with a NP in 44 cal., IMHO there was no question, i'd take the 30-30 every time...

I now have some 44NP's, but i haven't shot anything with them, so perhaps the tide has turned? Until a bit more testing is done, i'll still take the 30-30, because it shoots flatter, with less recoil and is plenty of cartridge for the short ranges we are talking about here.

DM
 
Less recoil???????

Recoil is truly a subjective thing as I have NEVER thought the .44Mag carbine recoiled more than a .30-30. I remember the first time I shot my Marlin 1894S how it startled me that it was so pleasant to shoot with full power loads.
 
Yup, a 30-30 with 150 grain bullets recoils a lot less that a 44 mag with 250 to 300 grain bullets... At least mine always did.

30-30 shoots a lot flatter too...

DM
 
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