Doc, Remington/UMC .44 Magnum L44MG7?

[Dan Goodwin]

Dropped by Wally World too late to pick up any 9mm Blazer Saturday morning, the only ammo sitting there was a box of UMC .44 Mag with 180 JSP loads. So I snatched it up to be part of the general panic.

The Remington website shows these clock 1,610 fps out of a 4-in. test barrel.

Any idea how these would perform on deer or humans inside 50 yards? I have .44s from 4-8 3/8th -in., but carry the 4-incher most frequently.

Has anyone used these on game?

[DocGKR]

Sorry--we have not tested that load, just the Rem 180 gr JHP.

[tpd223]

Dan, I'm going to guess little or no expansion, lots of penetration.

Might make a decent close range deer load, especially from a carbine, I'm not sure a person would slow the bullet down much.

Just guessing from past JSP experience.

[DocGKR]

Well, as I have stated before, a variety of equally important methodologies are used for terminal performance testing, including actual shooting incident reconstruction, forensic evidence analysis, and post-mortem data and/or surgical findings; properly conducted ethical animal test results; and laboratory testing—this includes the use of tissue simulants proven to have correlation with living tissue. Test locations can generally be gleaned from the various reports. Since LAIR closed in the early 1990's, good lab testing has been done at Picatinny, Crane, FBI BRF, CHP, and a few other LE agencies, as well as at a couple of other places.

[bernieb90]

I saw a guy try to kill a 200lb boar with this load from a 6" S&W revolver. The range was very close (10-15 ft) as he was hunting with dogs. He was in an elevated position firing down on the boar from above (the boar was in a wash). The first bullet struck the boar in the back, but did not hit the spine. I did not see an exit wound in the chest. There was no response from the boar. The second shot hit the base of the skull, and knocked the animal down. It tried to get up again, but was hit in the head by a .41 Mag HP (fired by the guide from a 4" Taurus Tracker) that penetrated the skull, and terminated any further activity.

Despite very appealing energy, and velocity numbers (which is why this guy chose this load) I strongly prefer heavier bullets for hunting any type of big game with the .44 Mag. 240gr expanding bullets perform very well on deer sized game, while 300 grainers (XTP being the best of the bunch per Dr. Roberts' testing) can be counted on for good expansion, and deep penetration even on heavy stuff like big hogs, and even elk. If you really need penetration then it is hard to beat the heavy LBT style cast bullets.