44-40 meets deer

[w44wcf]

This was posted on another forum by a hunter who lives in Minnesota.

Well, I had success this weekend with the 44-40.  It had been raining and sleeting for two days. I was not using my deer stand, because the deer were not moving. I was still hunting and pushing the marshes and watering holes. I pushed this 6 point out and he went up into some higher ground and pines. When I worked my way to the pines I spotted him again. The shot was from 75 yards and in thick cover. The whole buck was not visible due to trees.

I could see the rack and left front quarter between two 4" pine trees. We were both looking at each other and I knew I had very little time before he'd be gone. I thought about all the practice shots with this rifle for the last nine months and lined the old Marlin up. I aimed a little high due to the range. One shot from the 44-40 and he just dropped. I cycled the action and waited for any movement. Retrieved my brass and I'm a very happy Hunter.  

He reported that the shot did go completely through the deer. He was using a cast 200 gr. RNFP .430" dia. 14.3 BHN loaded to original factory ballistics of about 1,300 f.p.s.

NEAT!  Congratulations!    Nice shooting!  



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[Space Cowboy]

A great hunt!

I shot european roe deer (samse size of game as seen in the pc above.) I hit the roe deer 5 cm behind the front leg, just where the heart is. The bullet hit the bone at the entrance and exit side as well, but it did not expand. It passed clearly through the game. The deer did not suffer: run for maximum 15 meters, then collapsed.

In my country you need 1000 J to hunt wild biar and roe deer, and 2500 for red deer, fallow deer, and muflon. So the 44-40 with its 1200 J energy with BP is enough for the roe deer.

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Howdy
Looks like a Vintage kill to me . Have you fixed any jerky yet . Congratulations on you Deer . 

[w44wcf]

Rowdy,
I copied the pic and story from another website. The fellow lives somewhere in Minnesota.

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[The Trinity Kid]

Who says you need a hot-sauce sized super magnum to kill a deer.  When my mom shot her deer five years ago, she used a 30-30.  75 yards, he only went two feet, and that was from the impact of the bullet.   That was with a Marlin, so now I have to see how my 85 year old Winchester does.

--TK

[Rafe Covington]

Congrats on the deer, nice shooting.

Rafe

[w44wcf]

"14.3 BHN" John, is that about a 30-1 lead to tin mix???
Looks like a perfect double lunger shot 

Mike,
30/1 runs around 8-9 BHN so it is quite a bit softer. At 14.3, unless the bullet hit bone, it would not expand at  44-40 velocities.

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