Just started thinking about hunting deer small ones central NC with a hand gun. Have ruger super black hawk 7.5 barrel.Would like to know realistic opions on range bullet choice.Thank for all your imput in advance.

Welcome. The 44 is plenty fer whitetails. Any good jacketed or cast bullet 180gr and up will be fine. Range will depend on your abilities, but a general rule of thumb is 150 yds max range.

In a word, absolutely! And a darn fine deer caliber it is.

I use the Hornady 200 gr. XTP hollow points. The one Pa. whitetail I got with it was just about 100 yds. Dropped him with one shot.

JTJ,

Welcome to the site! Your 44 Blackhawk will serve you well on NC whitetails - the previous posters were spot on on their recommendations...stay under 125-150 yards and any of the 180 plus grainers would be fine in a factory loading. Personally, I like to use the jacketed bullets for our Carolina deer, 200 gr handloads with Hornady XTP's to be specific.

Best of luck to you this coming season!

I second what SChunter said. I live here in Franklin County, NC and have yet to see a deer that the 44 wouldn't be perfect for.

I agree that the 44 is plenty of gun. However, I would opt for a little heavier buller. I shot a Sika buck, standing broadside, last year with my 44 & handloaded 240 gr Speer. It did not exit with a behind the shoulder (and a touch high) shot. I want a hole in one side and out the other.

I understand that Sika are a little heavier built animail than are whitetails. But it difficult to have too much punch in my opinion. Dead is dead. I will have a partition 250 or a 270 in mine for next year's hunt.

The .44 will work great on deer and with good shot placement and good heavy bullets it will work well for anything that walks in the lower 48.

As all the others have said the 44 is a great deer caliber. The range at which you shoot is up to your abilities but most people figure 100-150yds of course with optics you'll extend it from iron's. There are too many good loads to list but at the top of the list I'd have to put the Nosler Partition golds but the Winchester Silver tip is also excellent as are countless more.

I agree with all of the above in saying the 44 is a good deer round.

I have 2 bullet molds for my 44. A 240 grain Flat Nose semi wad cutter gas check that I have had for years, and a new 310 grain Gas Check with a large flat point. I would imagine either bullet would work fine on the normal deer I will encounter.

I plan to keep my range down to under 100 yards with my revolver. This is no problem where I am hunting anyway. I just moved my main ladder stand last week to a new hot spot that I discovered this last deer season. If the deer are on the well used trail, the shot should be 35 to 40 yards.

I didn't realize that Win. made a Silver Tip in .429. Nice....that's what we always used in our 30-30 and .32 Win Spec. lever guns.

They do, but I think the it only weighs 210 grains.

Thanks for all good info got a 100 rounds of factory partions with gun if they shoot good probaly hunt with those.Far as range 95% of places i hunt 50 yard max so all i need is lots of practice.

Save the factory partitions for hunting and find something else to practice with and practice a lot. The 44 is more than capable for deer and a heck of a lot of other stuff.

"44 mag enough to deer hunt"

Is this a real question?

iv been lurking but couldn't stand it any more so I had to ask/??/

In reality, there is nothing wrong with ANY question, IMHO.

LOTS have little background in cartridges and HERE is a GREAT place to ask such a question.

With even MY background that was my "first thought". Is someone pulling our leg? I don't believe anyone is.

Keep in mind that everyone even relatively new has read some of the advertising that THEIR round is "more powerful at *** yards thana 44 MAG at the MUZZLE". Nothing WRONG with that but it would put a dim light on the 44 to someone newer than I.

So my reply to the post initiator is this.

The 44 mag is a great round!! I used it in three dif types of pistols several years with my fav being a Smith 29 with 8 3/8 barrel. I ended up using 250 grain LSWC cast bullets and a gas check to reduce the unbelievable amount of damage that I found the jacketed hollow points showed me on deer.

I didnt really take LONG shots but with the furthest two just over 100 yards, the performance of the 44 reloads left NOTHING to be desired.

I only shot a half dozen deer from 30 to the mentioned 100 yards plus but the furthest ANY of them went after the shot was 20 yards.

Within the ranges bullets could be accurately placed, there walks NO non dangerous game in the US that I would feel the 44 mag is insufficient for.........AND a search on the web will shot just about any of them down for the count by SOMEONE who has successfully taken one.

Like ALL weapons of choice it's bullet placement first, the proper bullet for the game animal second tied with the distance the round will perform. The 44mag will do it's part as it has several decades now.

LOTS of wheelgun rounds around that "out perform" the 44mag but the 44mag will kill any deer that walks this earth with a decently comfortable recoil that anyone can handle with a little practice.

For a wheelgun (not knowing what you had in mind or simply forgot LOL) the 44mag would STILL BE my choice for the typical woods hunting situations here in Indiana. Should funds allow for one, I would love to have one strapped to my hip this fall along with my SP 260 Rem that I will be carrying.

Never know when a whitetail will appear on top of you here. At 50 yards on a semi spooked buck, a wheelgun would give me a MUCH faster shot.

Just my limited experience and admittedly biased opinion of course but if NOT talking about WAY OUT THERE SHOTS, yes......the 44 mag is a God's plenty for whitey!!

Hopefully this gives you some insite and I haven't confused the issue.

Oh yes areal question. I have read some stuff out their that people wouldnt hunt any thing bigger than a ground hog unless they had a .454 causull with hard cast bullet so i was concerned about jacketed bullets and kinetic energy.Feel very confident now if i do my part bullets will do theirs.Thanks

ya gotta be careful of what you read....n actually believe. people will have ya believing a lil .243 won't kill a deer or a 44mag is weak n underpowered....now that there are all those big boomers out there.

I have always hunted with contenders for a handgun, never a revolver. I had looked at a 454 Super Red Hawk at a gun show, and probably came close to taking it home with me a while back. I ended up with a 44 magnum Super Red Hawk. I think I made the right choice. I would not mind getting a 480 Ruger at some point, however I think I should get comfortable with the 44 first with heavy hunting loads, then decide if I want something bigger. I was reading a post the other day talking about how much harder game was to kill now that 100 years ago. In 1910 a 45 Colt was one bad handgun capable of taking a whitetail with athority. Today some would lead you to think it takes a 500 S&W to take the same deer cleanly. (They were making fun of advertising hype by the way) I was talking to a fellow the other day with a 500 S&W on display. He had ran less than 50 rounds through it, and had owned it for a few years from what I gathered. Does he enjoy shooting it? I would guess not. For a great number of us a cartridge in the 44 Magnum power range is all the handgun we can comfortably shoot. The only issues I read about concerning a 44 Magnum for deer hunting is with light bullets that over expand, and do not go out the other side. Shoot them with a bullet that will go out the other side in the right place and you will fill your freezer every year.

Shoot a lot, and get comfortable with it.

Hi,
Don't want to hijack this thread, but with all the talk of bullet weight, it's important if reloading, to also include some value for velocity or energy wouldn't it?

I'm new to loading for the .44 Mag and have been shooting a 240 gr LSWC at about 900-1000 fps to get used to the gun. But I also want to hunt whitetails and would like to know how much hotter do I need to load a 240 or 265 gr bullet to have enough kill power. I think this info might also help others who are new and following this thread. Thanks.

actually the best formula for figuring "Killing Power" is the Taylor Knock Out value conceived by John Pondoro Taylor a renowned elephant hunter from times past. The formula is simple: Bullet Weight X Bullet Diameter X Velocity divided by 7000. For example I have my 475 running a 400gr XTP at 1350fps (avg) which gives me a TKO of 36.6 or just 37. Your 44 with supplied data would be 240 X .429 X 1000/7000giving you value of 14.7 or 15. No formula is perfect as it does not account for bullet placement or bullet performance such as expansion, weight retention etc but this is as good as it gets and is a good tool for comparing cartridges. Play around with the formula comparing common pistol calibers and velocities to some rifle cal's and velocities and you may be surprised.

I agree for nc deer a 44 mag will work good. Get a good 4 power and under scope or redot for it and keep shoots within 100 yards and you should do well. practice alot

I'm hunting with a 44mag ruger rh with 240gr xtp and dropped 2 whitetails this last year. One dropped where it stood and the other one went about 30yds. Lots of practice and good bullet placement and you will have no problem.

I got an eight point with my 10 inch Contender last season. I'm using 240 grain XTP's in it and my SBH. I've also used this load in both guns on lots of hogs.

wapitirod, thanks.

You picked up on my original point. Only citing the bullet weight doesn't say enough about the potency of the load being fired. It's only part of the information. That bullet could be going 850 fps or 1300 fps and each have a very different killing or wound channel effect.

Of course if citing a specific branded ammo like the Hornady 240gr XTP, that factory load can be looked up. For example that Hornady ammo has an MV of 1350 fps. Quite hot.

I've done a lot more digging/reading since my post and have come to the conclusion that I need to crank a 240 gr LSWC or 265 gr JFP to 1200 fps or so to make a potent and shootable .44 mag. whitetail load. I'm going to try a few different recipes.

Your maximum range will be determined by how good of a shot you are with your revolver. Can you shoot a 4 to 5 inch five shot group off sandbags at 100 yards? Not many beginners can. Whatever range you can shoot a 4 to 5 inch group will be your maximum range. Under field conditions without your sandbags your groups will get bigger. I like a scope for deer hunting. Ruger makes several different revolvers that come with scope rings. These are really nice because you can easily take the scope on and off your revolver. I like the Super Blackhawk Hunter because I can tune the trigger pull down lighter than on other models.

I sure would like to know how to tune the SBH Hunter trigger as you describe.

Maybe a PM so that this thread doesn't stray too far off?

Alot of good advice here.
Back to the question (above)
The 44 Magnum in a 7 1/2" SBH pales in comparison to the power and range of even the meagerest deer rifles.
So, to make-up for that when it comes to medium and large game, so to speak -
Heavier is better than lighter.
Shorter is smarter than longer.

Keep your bullets above the 240 class (heavier is better, nothing is really "too" heavy, and no hollow points)
Keep your distance well within your comfort range of consistantly close groups (about the size of a grapefruit for big game). If that is 125 yards, good for you! (You're a darn sight better than me with an open sighted Magnum revolver, and I've been hunting deer with the .44 Magnum for 25 years or so! )If it's 40 yards, keep it 40.

I can hit anything I want, off-hand, within about 60 yards with my only hunting revolver, a Blackhawk 44.
Factory 270 gr Speer GD SP's.

Don't try and make the .44 Magnum into something that it was never meant to be and you will be just fine.

Renster

los of good information- I've been hunting New York Whitetails for twenty years now- best advice has already been given- practice x3- when you get bored stretch your yardage and start all over there is a post here for steel targets... they make practice more fun... I joined IHMSA and became quite consistent with a model 29 smith at 220 yards... that said the longest shot taken with open sights was 45 yards, I know I could do it at longer ranges but patience is part of my hunting arsenal and I haven't had to so far. Good luck.

Just to add on what others have said. All my 1st handgunning experience on deer was w/a Ruger 44. You said you were shooting small ones. It'll kill big ones just fine too. A lot of game bigger than deer have been killed w/1.