180gr. hp in my 44

[short shot]

I'm thinking of using them this deer season ,has anyone had any experince with them?I'm shooting them out of a rifle and wondering if they might be to "soft".I've been using 240gr. sp. I'mjust curios about the 180gr.

 

[Al Thompson]

Hi Short, welcome to TFL!


I chrono'd some of the 180 g. UMC loads out of my 20 inch Marlin 1894. They were hitting 2100 fps.

I share your reservations - never tested them, but worried that they would be too soft.

I initially bought a box for my 629 - looking for a social load. The UMC 180s were loaded to max, big muzzle flash, lots of noise. Sort of ruled them out for the handgun after the first two, tried them in the rifle as an experiment.

Currently Winchester 240 JSPs are my bambi load.

 

[Art Eatman]

Hmmm. 180-grain at 2,100.

.30-30: 170-grain around 2,200.

7.62x39: 139-grain around 2,300.

I don't think I'd worry much, inside of 100 yards. After 100, you have that old "fat bullet slow-down" problem...

Art

 

[Al Thompson]

What about the construction, Art? Do you think the jacket would be stout enough to handle the extra velocity?

I'll keep an eye out - if I have any left, I'll cut one open and mic it.

 

[short shot]

What I was thinking is that these bullets were made for a pistol more than likely and would they stand the extra velocity?I'm sure that they would hold together on a broad side shot ,but I ain't sure what would happen if I got into the shoulder.The reason I asked this question is because my rifle seems to like these things .

 

[KilgorII]

I personally don't use a bullet lighter than 240 grain in my .44 lever because I don't want it to fragment and fail to penetrate.

I like the XTP (240 and 300 gr.), but the partition gold (250 gr.) and GoldDot (270 gr.) are excellent too.

Then there's alway hardcast...

But I won't go below 240 grain in a .44 lever.