#10MinuteTalk - .44 Mag: Deer Destroyer or Antiquated Relic?

I remember a story from a Vietnam vet, he was an advisor in 1963 and was told to provide his own sidearm. He took his ruger super Blackhawk and got into a fire fight with and let a shot off. He swears that there was a 5 second loal in the shooting.

“Cardio is NOT its thing” fantastic synopsis Mr Muckenhern!

Many deer have fallen to my Ruger Super Redhawk. In northern WI your longest shot is 150 yards, and a .44 mag is all you’d ever need. Thanks Vortex for giving it the credit it is due!!!!!!!!!

My grandfather passed down his 1976-1977 (ish) .44 Ruger Carbine to me Thanksgiving of 2020. Took that beautiful rifle out and shot an 8 point 2 weekends later. It’s my go-to stand rifle. Hunting whitetail on the east coast I’ve never set myself up in a scenario where I’d have over a 150 yard shot. Just my style I guess. Love my .44 Ruger Carbine!

Before settling on the 44 Special cartridge, Elmer Keith had tried hotrodding the 45 Colt. Due to the design of the 45 Colt cartridge, and the weakness of available guns chambered in 45 back then, Keith blew up several guns and decided to go with the 44 Special. Keith’s story is pretty incredible and it’d be interesting to see more time dedicated to him.

One point that was not brought up, but should be in any discussion on the .44 is how well it and especially the .44 special work with cast bullets. With the .44’s you really can shoot less expensive cast bullets and not loose any effectiveness on game. And it’s and ideal cartridge to start casting your own bullets for!

It's always interesting to see how younger folks react to the things us old bastards have been using for decades.

I’m a late onset hunter here in southern Michigan. After “experiencing “ a 12 gage slug gun I went and bought a Marlin 1894 in .44 and shot a nice buck with it. 240 XTP Hornady destroyed both shoulders and dissolved the lungs. Unfortunately that was a Remlin and I had no end of mechanical issues with it so it was replaced w a Henry single shot. I paired these w a Ruger SBH Hunter Bisley and I can attest to the fun shooting and good effect on deer sized critters w this load. Happy New Years boys!

I live in Pennsylvania. Things were getting too easy for me using my 30-30 a few years back. I wanted to challenge myself. I started carrying a .44 Ruger Super Blackhawk (open sights). I have killed a dozen+ deer with it ranging from 15 yards out to 80 yards. They drop the same as using my 30-30. I have never in my 25 years of hunting had to track a deer and I shoot a minimum of 2 each year. (I only shoot neck or head). I reload my own .44 using Hornady 240 gr XTP. I am looking into getting a "companion gun" as you would call it. There is just something about shooting that large cal. wheel gun and I would recommend it to anyone. Great show guys! Very informative. Keep up the great work.

For deer and black bear, with the right bullets, the .44 Magnum is a good 150 yard cartridge. It is probably our most useful big game carbine/revolver combination in general.

Ryan has taught me more about different cartridges than probably anyone. And he’s sent me down more rabbit holes than most.

Would love to hear about the 41 magnum or 30 carbine. Both straight walls.

I liked hearing a conversation on this cartridge. I have a Ruger Model 44 Carbine my dad purchased for me in 1984 when I was 7 to use as my deer rifle as I got older. Still have it to this day, and seems like people are always trying to buy it from me, but I'll never get rid of it.

You guys should do a talk on the old 41 mag sometime. I would love to see it since it's a relatively unknown cartridge, but it kicks butt

I have a Ruger 44 carbine and love it. It is fun to take to the range and watch people's faces when It goes off, because everyone just assumes that it's a 10/22. Looking at the current asking price for them I got a heck of a deal on mine when I paid $400 for it 5 or 6 years ago.

A 10 minute talk on the 44-40. The first cartridge that was chambered in both the rifle and handgun.

Still my favorite rimmed pistol caliber. Like it in a revolver and love it in a rifle. An old Ruger Deerfield is without a doubt, at the top of my list of guns I regret letting go of. Have had 44 Specials, Magnums and the God Father 444 Marlin. One could say I am fond of this diameter bullet lol

I bought my first rifle this year, a Henry Big Boy Classic in 44 mag just before deer season started. It’s definitely a cowboys gun with its octagonal barrel, brass receiver and yes a brass buttplate. I knew I was going to handload my deer hunting ammo but needed some brass so I bought a box of 240gr hollow point fed American eagle($72 a box ouch) I hunt from a tree stand in the THICK woods so I sighted in at 25 yards. Just to see how it would do I lined up 6 one gallon water jugs at 10 yards and it went through 2 and landed in the third, I weighed it and it was now only 120gr that was not going to cut it for me. So to the hand loading books I went and found a load that used a 265gr atop a charge of 19.5-21.5 grains of h110 (now we were cooking) I found that 20.5 grains seated to 1.630 had the best accuracy and would put them in one BIG hole with open sights, I tested this load with another 6 one gallon water jugs at 10 yards and to my amazement it went though all 6 and keep going till it hit the base of my 25 yard target 😮 it had expanded more than I expected but it sill weighed 228gr now I was ready to hunt. Opening day was the 13th but temps were in the low 70s by 10am so I waited till it got a little colder, and when it did I got up in the tree stand around 6am and waited for them to roll on in. I could see a group of deer off in the distance about 7:30 and by 8:30 they gave me a shot, 2 of them walked down to about 25-30 yards from me, I was with my dad and told him here we go I lined up the buckhorn sights on the first one to go broadside and… BOOM it dropped so fast neither my dad or the other deer knew what had happened, the second deer jumped back about 10ft but didn’t know what happened and went broadside, so I said to my dad do I shoot again? Hem thinking I missed it the first time said SHOOT EM!! Boom down it went and the others ran off. After getting down from the stand my dad walks up to the first and says I thought it fell over there? That’s when I walked to the 2nd and said it did but I shot that one first, let’s just say he was shocked. So after all of this what I am trying to get at is, 44 MAGNUM need more be said

Interarms single action in .44 mag was the first pistol I ever bought. 40+ years later I still have it and use it for hunting with my Marlin lever action in .44. Always been a great combo for deer.

1956 was a very very good year. I was born and, 5 days later, my wife was born. Then, secondarily, many good cartridges came out in that year as well.