I am purchasing a Ruger Super Redhawk w/a 7.5" bbl this weekend and I just purchased a Bushnell Elite 2-6X32 to put on it and now I have to decide which ammo that is available to me locally will do the trick effectively for deer and/or hogs.

I'm looking real hard at the Hornady 240gr XTP. How about the Hornady 225gr FTX? Any real world results from you experts?

What about the Winchester 240gr Jacketed soft points?

What say you?

The 240 XTP works well. But....do you reload?

Yes I reload and plan on doing so for this handgun eventually but I want to try some factory ammo to start with.

240 XTP will do everything you need and will probably show pretty good accuracy.

The FTX bullets don't make a whole lot of sense in a revolver. You don't typically shoot far enough that the difference in BC means anything substantial and the lighter weight offers...meh...performance.

Where that gun will really shine is with heavy for caliber bullets (300 gr and above). Driven even at moderate velocities (1100 fps or so) they will generally be accurate and will properly ventilate anything you hit with them.

"PROPERLY VENTILATE"

I like the way that sounds.

XTP or Swift HP. THey give a little more internal damage than XTP.

Both the Winchester and XPT are good factory rounds and work well on deer. My handloads are 240Gr jacketed soft points for deer and bear

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll be picking up a few boxes of the Hornady 240gr XTP's to try out it sounds like.

I'll let y'all know how well they shoot for me in the near future.

I've loved XTPs since the advent of muzzle loader sabot bullets.
Currently have two boxes for reloading the .460.

And the price is nice too.

One can go crazy buying ammo these days with all of the excellent bullets/powder combos available. In reality, I've shot my deer and hogs with some inexpensive Remington 240 gr. jacketed soft point ammo. Neither are that heavily structured and 240 grs. of .44 Mag. goodness is more than enough.

All of my "cull" ammo ends up being hog ammo.

The Hornady ammo shot GREAT!

The Winchester ammo shot HORRIBLY!

I'll be buying a few more boxes of the Hornady ammo just to have on hand for future use.

On a side note..........how does the Hornady brass work for reloading later? I've already got 50 rounds of ammo shot up of the Hornady ammo so I think I may as well get some dies, powder, primers, etc and try loading some of my own recipe ammo soon.

The Hornady brass is as good as any, and their loaded 240gr ammo has helped me in the past.... This pig was shot with the factory Hornady 240gr load as was the ram...

Can't go wrong with Hornady, whether using their brass, ammo, bullets, or reloading equipment.

The one thing to watch out for with Hornady handgun brass is if it was factory loaded with their FTX bullets the cases will be shorter than normal because those bullets are longer than usual.

Ok, thanks. The ammo I'm shooting is the Hornady CUSTOM 240gr XTP 1350 fps @ the muzzle.

That brass should be normal length, then.

Ruger and Hornady make a great pair, you can"t go wrong.

I have some .480 Hornady brass I have had some trouble with as it won't fit any of my shell holders. The rims are thick on this brass and it will not fit either of two shell holders I have. I turned the rims down in thickness with a file to get them to fit .Starline brass fits fine.The brass came from factory ammo.

Junebug, have you reported that problem to Hornady? There may have been something wrong with their equipment.

I've heard lots of folks say that about Hornady 480 brass.

I have heard that you can send a couple of pieces of brass and your shell holder back to Lee and they will open it up to fit the brass for you .Hope that is true as I have some more unfired Hornady ammo and its a pain to file the rims thinner to fit the shellholder.

475 linebaugh, as well.

Well that's odd. I wonder why that is?

I am not sure why but they will not fit Lee or RCBS shell holders, at least not the ones I have.

Nor will they mine.

+1 for the Swift and XTPS. Now if Nosler would bring back the Partition, for handguns. 😉