Just wondering your experience on how the 44 magnum performs on hogs, either rifle or pistol.

I guess by "Hogs" I mean the medium to large variety.

FMJ? JHP? JSP? Hard Cast SWC?

How about out past 100 yards?

357 mag performs well. I would imagine the 44 mag would do the same. revolver or rifle?

I've not had any complaints or problems with the .44 special with cast bullets so I would imaging the 44 mag would just be more of the same.

Devastating! Although not my first choice, I do like what it does with fmj
ammo.
DC

It is enough gun...

My only experience with the 44 for hogs is with a handgun and far less than the 100 yards you mentioned. JSP and JHP both did extremely well!

Taco time, as a teenager, I had a neighbor that ran dogs on hogs. Whenever I saw him loading the dogs, I headed to his truck, ready to go. He always carried a 44. Mag. He never used hollow points though. Out of all the hogs he shot in close encounter, intense action, and in my presence, all I ever saw him take was one shot. Hope this information helps.

I used to hunt everything with a Ruger Super Redhawk in 44 mag, had a Burris scope on it. Shot a handful of hogs with it. It kills them with good shot placement. I had some Garrett 330 grain Long Hammerheads left over from an Alaska hunt and popped a few with those, they are a powerful load, (can only be used in a Ruger Redhawk) those will kill stuff if it crosses their path. lol. A little rough on the wrist after a few shots though.

Yea, I tend to gravitate to the .45 auto or the .357mag, due to the recoil of the .44.

44 mag straight out flattens them. I have called probably 40 out of a trap with one. I lost my faith in 45ACP after shooting one in the head 4 times to kill it. 44 mag wipes their feet out from under them and will leave smoke coming out of their head!

Dropped a couple with a Ruger carbine with 240 grain HP. (Head shots)

1 large boar, 40 yards with 300 grain Flat point out of a 7.5" Super Black Hawk
went down quickly! also a head shot

Which bullet were you using in the 45 ACP?

I’m not sure about him, but I shoot the 230 grain ball ammo...I like it better than the hollow points.

If I were limited to one rifle, it would be my Marlin 1894P.



I shoot a 310-grain home case bullet of a 6/4 alloy, 60% linotype/40% wheel weights, that is water quenched and has a 21 BHN. I've been shooting it with a full load of H110 but will move it to Lil'Gun on the next loading cycle.





The two hogs above are reminders for me how effective the 44 Mag is. They were shot in the 130 to 140-yard range and just quit living on the hoof. The POI of impact displays the effectiveness of a large meplat (72%) on a tough bullet. That is the point of entry. It is not uncommon to find blood splattered up to 15 yards on the entry side.

I would not be able to guess how many hogs I've killed with this rifle in the 15 years I've owned it. It has accounted for the most hogs I've killed in a single shot and the most killed in the shortest time span.

A particularly larger sounder of medium to large hogs was terrorizing a feeder early in the afternoon, the feeder was a 100 yards away from a tower blind so, at 70 yards, I strung out a heavy line of corn toward the blind. Sure enough, two dozen hogs came running in at feed time, and after a few minutes, they found the line of corn and started working my way. The angle of the line was perfect, so I aimed through the line and at the shot killed four hogs where they were standing. All of them hit the brush, but as they hit a sendero that angled out from the tower, I killed another at 100 yards (DRT). I thought they would stay in the thick brush between the two senderos, but another large hog popped out and headed down the sendero at high speed. At 167-yards that 310-grain slug hit the base of his tail and went out his chest, rolling him up in a dusty ball. Six hogs in seven seconds. Had I been a bit sharper, I could have killed seven in the same period as I did not expect them to leave the security of the brush and enter the other sendero.

I can't think of a better rifle and calibre with which to hunt hogs. I've got a Ruger Deerfield in .44 for exactly that purpose.

Not having a 44, all I can contribute is that in shooting hogs with my 357, the 158 gr Keith style wadcutters did a better job than the 125 gr JHP.

As pointed out by the ones who have responded the 44 Mag works well for hogs. I like Ranch Dogs use of heavy large meplate bullets, but I have used others 240gr soft and hollow points, 265gr Partitions, 300gr XTPs and 300gr hard cast lead bullets. All work but like RD pointed out those heavy hard bullets work and penetrate very well.

I alos like my Marlin 1894LTDSS in 357 Mag for hogs, again with partitions or heavy cast bullets.

Great round, good for what you want. I used it out of an early Ruger vaquero on mostly trapped and snared feral hogs. I liked 245 gr. Keith style semi wadcutters on top of 10 grains of Unique at the time. I went to a Vaquero with a shorter barrel in 45 LC shooting similar bullets at similar velocities. Works just fine also. If there is a snivel it is that the bullets still have some oomph after going through the hog.

Bang, flop

Excellent info and stories! Won't doubt the 44.

I used to night hunt pigs with my Marlin 1894 stainless in 44 mag with 240 grain XTP bullet. It will flat out hammer pigs. It's a great round. Out of a 16" barrel, the 240 XTP was running 1760 fps.

No experience with the 44mag, only the 460XVR. I know my round is faster than the 44mag, and that may play a factor in bullet performance, but I have lost hope on anything other than a 315g SWC. That’s moving out my 8 3/4 barrel over 1900fps. It gets full pass through a in pigs at 100yards, haven’t had a chance to try it farther. Every bullet other than the that one had miserable results, usually leaving me not finding the animal. On the ones I did find, I saw lost of expansion and separation with little penetration

With the 357 Mag, I use a 190-grain bullet of my design. I use 38 SPL brass at 357 Mag pressures. Hogs sure don't like it.



190-grains at 1770 FPS.

That's wild stuff Ranch Dog! Didn't even know people shot 190's in the .357 or high pressure in .38 cases.

Contrast your .38/357 experience with some comments on another thread that suggest the 7.62x39 and .243 WIN are not adequate for hogs.