I may have already asked,but, I am currently shooting the 240 gr. American Eagles. My gun seems to like them. I am curious if anyone has used them on deer, and what the results were. I have a Redhawk with the 7 1/2" barrel. I will be reloading for this gun in the future, but for now I am stuck using factory stuff. Any input will be greatly appreciated.

That is Federal ammo. It lists a 240 grain at 1440fps. The box has it listed as a hunting round. All right that being said… that ammo should be awesome. If you hit something with that round they are going to know it!

I am not going to go crazy with long range shots. My comfortable shot right now is 75yds or less,and where I hunt, I cant see farther than that anyway. I know someone would bring this up,so I thought I would save some time.BTW, gun has open sights,no scope planned for this gun.

My dad and I have worked with quite a few load combinations for our .44 SRHs. We mainly use Sierra 240 grn Sports Master Power Jacket bullets. Accuracy has always been "good enough" however performance at all .44 Magnum ranges (0-100 yds) has always been excellent. This, in our experience, has always been a great bullet for the .44 Mag.

When I start handloading,those and the Nosler JHP's will definatly get a try,as well as the LBT stuff. Where I hunt though,If I dont drop it on the spot,I need a good blood trail to get the deer as quickly as possible,or some other guy migth claim it as his(has happened B4).

While I mostly use Hornady XTPs in my 44 now, I've killed several deer with the 240 Fed AE round. It was always very accurate in the various 44s I've owned and terminal performance was awesome. The only downside to it was whatever powder they loaded, it was very dirty and left alot of residue behind. I would definitely recommend it though and wouldn't hesitate to use it again myself.

BTW, the velocity listed on the box is 1180 fps. Don't know how accurate that is.

I wonder if it has changed

http://www.federalpremium.com/products/details/handgun.aspx?id=87

Sureshot, I just started reloading this year and it is a must for the 44. You can load a wide range of loads. I am using the 240 xtps with 23.5 H110. I have not gotten a deer with the 44 yet! I have used them in my muzzleloader for 4 yrs now and had only 1 negative shot to speak of. Mainly on my part! Bad shot placement, still got the deer about 350 yards away! Keeping my handgun shots to a short range if possible. I am in some thick cover!

SS43, A friend used the 240gr American Eagle ammo on a feral goat at around 30yds with a double lung shot. The goat showed no reaction to the hit and after a fast walk of about 40 to 50 yards the goat fell over. Later after checking the inside of the rib cage we found the the bullet penciled through through without any expansion. He now uses Hornady ammo with the 240gr XTP.

I have found the XTP's in 240gr to be very accurqte when loaded over a full charge of win 296. I have taken a number of deer and a large pile of hogs with this bullet. It doesn't matter what velocity that I load it to, it NEVER EVER expands. NEVER.
This year I went to a Homecast kieth style bullet with the same results. Very accurate with No expansion. It's also a damn sight cheaper than the xtp's.

Chaos

What about 240 vs 300gr. bullets?

Really...in PA? Naw...can't believe that!!

It's happened to me also...shot a buck, it was dead, went for my pap, came back to two guys standing over it. Said they walked passed and the deer lifted it's head so he shot it and claimed it. In the end, I got the antlers (and more time to hunt) while he took the meat.

That's why I ALWAYS hunt w/ a big hammer on the first few days of the season...338JDJ#2, 45-70, etc.

In regards to your .44...I like cast slugs from Penn Bullets. The 320gr'ers in several of my .44 Mag's are awesome!!

Oh...BTW...my brother used the same factory ammo as you several years ago and dropped a SWEET 11pt. He was launching the 240gr Magtech's from a Winchester carbine.

Well, according to MHO, the 300gr bullets might be overkill for smaller animals but I certainly go with them anyway. You want to be on the safe side. 300-320gr LFPs at around 1340fps for wild boar and 300gr XTPs at slightly slower speed for deer are pretty failsafe options - I just tested this at a preserve hunt in PA. Hollowpoints expand in boar but don't exit all the time, which can be a problem. On "softer" animals, like whitetail, lead flat points risk going through the animal like a pencil without any knock-down effect at all, whereas the hollowpoints normally do a very good job on deer. And the big 300gr XTPs expand very reliably. This cannot be said about e.g. the 300gr Sierra jacketed soft points, which I haven't tested on real game but which didn't expand at all when I shot them in wet telephone directories.

All the deer(only 8 with a pistol) I've shot have been with factory loaded Remington 240gr. hollow points. I have no complaints at all, I've had two bullets not make it through the deer only because the bullet impacted the opposite shoulder joints. In fact I much prefer the pistol rounds to rifle because they hold together much better. Other then the x-bullet every rifle round I've ever taken a deer with has blown apart. Anyway that is another discussion.
Suffice to say I'm very pleased with the performance of 240gr hollow point bullets and for use on deer they are excellent!

Well I am new and had your same delima.I have nosler partitions,nosler jsp,platinums,and a few others shot and tried.I shot my first true pistol only hunted deer a week ago with the partition over 23.5gr of H110 and had excellent results.They are a little pricey compared to others but seem to be worth the extra.The next one will be shot with nosler jsp and I hope to have the results soon.Seems I read onetime where Gary said they are overlooked the JSP.

This year in California we are stuck using lead free bullets to hunt with so barnes 225 grain XPB is pretty much the only thing we get to use now. However we have been handloading them for years and feel there is no equil on deer and small-madium pigs. (300lb). The few bullets we have recovered all have had 96-99% weight retention and some weigh even more because of the flesh bits they pickup. I know of no other hollow point that will do this. They also expand to a diameter of nearly .75 caliber. The wound channel on a deer is devistating and a 225 at higher velocity will penetrate fully in most cases. Cast 300+ grainers and XTP's are great on big elk and moose but a 225 will kill any deer on the planet if you hit it right!!!

I have shot deer with 240 grn remington factory loads and also reload 240 grn remington soft nose bullets. I hunt Ohio and have shot many deer at 20 to 30 yards with these 2. I have had all deer on the ground within sight. I higly recomment remington bullets. Great expansion and retention. Also, I use a 6.5 in S&W 29 Classic.

Jeff

Sureshot and Dan B., The last time I hunted in eastern PA, I went to my spot before sunrise and as the sun came up I watched some does for awhile and after a few hours I left taking another trail back to the road. I passed 3 hunters in their stands that were spread out to about 200 yards and none of these hunters knew the other was there. Another time a friend of mine shot his deer with a 45-70 when another hunter popped out of nowhere and tried to say that the deer was his. To top it off we were on private land that was posted.That was the last time I hunted eastern PA.James

Interesting!

I recently purchased a box of 225gr CorBon DPX copper bullet cartridges. Awfully expensive though. Will test these in the near future.

Aren't the Cor bons the Barnes x-pistol bullet? You are right ,they are $$$,but if it does the job it is worth it.
I cant wait to get started hand-loading on my own. The possibilities are endless. some one mentioned the Remington bullet. My 270 win, shot the factory load pretty good,and every deer I shot with it went right down,so I figured that would be a good place to start working up a handload. Gun now shoots groups 1/2 the size of factory loads. My Redhawk did not like the factory remmy's,but maybe a handload...The price of remmy components makes it worth a try.

Yes, apparently. Cor-Bon markets them as "Cor-Bon DPX Ammunition 44 Remington Magnum 225 Grain Barnes XPB Lead-Free" and they also argue that they are "pure copper Barnes X-Bullets". Somewhat confusing. I will test them in non-game media before I put them into field use....

My favorite ammo for my Ruger SRH and SBH Hunter is either Winchester Supreme 250gr Platinum Tip HP or 240gr Hornady XTP by by D&G Reloading at http://www.qualityammo.com I've had good luck with both.