Seeking opinions on .44 mag leverevolution for hunting... any advantage?

[ImARugerFan]

Ok, I'm going to bring my 7.5" super redhawk out for whitetail for the first time this fall in upstate NY. I won't be shooting more than 50 yards, probably 30-40 yards being a typical shot. The numbers for the leverevolution ammo look impressive, but is there really any advantage to shooting one of these such a short range? Would I be better off with a 240 grain xtp?

edit: I'm just looking for which is the most effective deer killer, obviously I'll have to make sure that it shoots accurately out of my gun before taking it in the woods.

 

[pps]

I see no advantage from a revolver. From a rifle with tubular magazine, there is the added benefit of improved ballistic coefficient for greater range. I'm not sure you will be shooting a revolver at rifle distances.

 

[ImARugerFan]

It's slightly faster, and slightly lighter than the xtp. I just wonder how well they work once they hit the deer. Is the drop of a regular round insignificant out to 50 yards?

 

[Majic]

That load was developed for rifles and carbines. You aren't going to see those numbers from the shorter barrel of a handgun. Even a carbine has over twice the barrel length of your SRH.

 

[ImARugerFan]

No, they list separate numbers for the round fired out of the rifle. Here is hornady's page promoting the ammo.

http://www.hornady.com/story.php?s=760

At 50 yards however, the velocity/energy are nearly identical between the 240xtp and the lever round. I wonder which penetrates better.

 

[Quigley]

I see no benefits to the Leverevelution round for you other than they look cool. They are designed for the tube magazine rifle and the recoil might be more than you are used to. Stay with a factory HP or handload your own. The 44 Mag handloaded to 1350fps pushing a Barnes 225 gr Triple Shock copper solid will amaze you and all your hunting buddies with clean one shot kills out to 100 yards.

 

[Jim March]

Well, this *should* act as a "pre-clogged" type JHP, sort of like the Cor-Bon Pow'R'Ball. What you end up with is a hollowpoint that can't suffer a "clog failure" in which clothing or fur/skin turns your hollowpoint into something closer to hardball and you get no expansion at all.

That's assume Hornady did everything right of course. Cor-Bon succeeded with the Pow'R'Ball, except by using a really huge ball they ended up with artificially low projectile weights - 100gr 38Spl, 185gr 45ACP, etc. Hornady is using less rubber in the nose so their projectile weight isn't as crippled.

I've examined the 357 flavor without taking one apart. The rubber is soft enough to bend but otherwise still pretty hard. At a guess this is a "delayed expansion" design that should punch deep into a critter. They're likely not the best for personal defense but should work in a pinch.

 

[ImARugerFan]

That's how I was seeing it. Energy/velocity is very close when fired from a handgun at short range, I was more wondering about the effect of the bullet itself. I'll go with the XTP rounds I think since they seem to be tried and true, and many people seem to be using them for deer with good results.