How good is the 44 magnum as a handgun and long gun deer hunting cartridge?

In my opinion the .44 Magnum is highly versatile and still one of the best handgun cartridges ever. Now it has limits, but at ranges out to 100 or 125 yards it works very well. It's capable of taking everything from woodchucks to wildebeest and more.

The 44 mag has been around for a while. You do your part and it will serve you well. Alot of people like carrying rifle and pistol in the same caliber.

Safe shooting
Doug

As far as revolvers go it's at the top of my list,it's just hard to beat weather you reload or you have to buy them off the shelf.

i would have to agree with the others it a very good cal. and
everyone should have one or two you cant go wrong.

I have to jump on the band wagon too. I like the 44 my self. You have options from 180gr - 400gr(if you go with Beartooth bullets)The heaviest i put through my SBH are 320gr. It shoots them well enough. I hear Marlins have a problem with heavy bullets because of twist rate. But the cartridge its self is good out to 100-125 like stated by Gary above. As for power, i have heard of it being used to take Elephant. Not my first or tenth choice, but shows what it is capable of. The 44 is the 30-06 of the handgun world.

I have taken whitetail with the 44 mag in the Marlin 1894 20 inch barrel and with a hard cast bullet it is a very good stopper. I shot a SBH and have had bad results on whitetail but marksmanship was the culprit and not the cartridge.

if I had to make an educated guess I'd say the 44 has probably taken more animals then any other, if your going to be hunting animals the size of deer and avg black bear out to about 100yds your good but like was stated earlier the 44 has taken elephants, cape and aisian buff, bison and grizzly so you can't ask for much more than that out of one cartridge. If you think you may want to chase bigger stuff on a regular basis I'd look at the 454 or bigger.

The .44 Magnum is an outstanding choice in a revolver-probably the best- for game the size of deer etc.

Welcome to the board Jerry!


I'll throw in another vote for the 44 being the best all-around cartridge, and a good place to start in the handgun world.

I have to agree with all that the .44 is one of the greatest all around cartridges and an excellent deer stopper. I have an Encore with a 26" bull barrel in .44 mag. With the right loads she gets them out there to 150 yards with excellent accuracy while still packing her punch. It might even go farther but that's all I can do where I shoot. I too love the reloading versatility of having bullets from 160 - 400 grains. The largest I've shot is a 370 cast bullet and it was nice. Another reason why I love the .44 is because with sabots I can shoot the same array of bullets through my .50 caliber muzzle loaders. We are a .44 family because my wife has a H&R rifle in .44 and I'm looking at ordering the new Rossi trifecta with the .44, .22 & 20 gauge barrels for my daughter (she only 4 now but the time will come). And lets not forget that you can get the shot shells for the .44 making it a decent close-range small game gun as well. What can't you do with it?

The .44mag is my favorite handgun round. I can use it on anything in the lower 48 states. I would even use it on a bison with the proper load and up close and personal. Every sence the bigger bore handguns came out, to many people think that it's lacking something. There is nothing lacking in .44mag with in it's 100 or so yard range. I hunt deer, elk, and bear with mine and have complete faith in it. As was said it's a great round to start hunting with in a handgun.

You can`t go wrong with a fortyfour....

Excellent cartridge! Plenty of power for mid-size stuff, managable recoil, plentiful ammo and components.
Welcome to the board!

Ive hunted with just about every caliber over the past 30 years and the .44 is by far my favorite in a revolver. Works great on critters here in Texas!

If I am hunting with limited range of up to 100 yards (which is very common in the east) then I will always take my Revovler and my choice is the 44 RSRH. Don't like to carry a big heavy long gun when traveling through the bush. If longer range is available then I will take the long gun in either 270 or 30-06. I absolutely adore my 44!! I like that, think I will use it in my signature.

With the RIGHT BULLETS bullets it'll do darn near anything you ask of it.

I shot my 1st Mule Deer with a .44 at 80 yards. When I touched off the shot, I saw a flash of red and brown. It turned out to be a strip of hide about a inch wide and four inches long stuck in the sagebrush. The deer was balled up 8 yards down hill.

I shot a deer in the shoulder from about 15 yards with a Federal Cast Core 300gr. and it blew all the meat and hide of the shoulder blade and punched a hole clear threw, alittle over kill, but I was also hunting bear at the time and wanted enough to get the job done on them as well. The .44mag is an outstanding caliber and it was the number one caliber for hunting for many years in revolvers.