well i am looking to get my first lever gun.
i was thinking of getting a 45/70 but i saw that buying shells would make me go bankrupt.
and i saw all the nice shiney brass on the henry big boy.

my question is wich round is really better the .44 mag or the .45 LC. i have read so many conflicting reports on the net my head is about to spin, so i figured i would ask some truly knowlagable people.

what i want.
a gun that i can use to hunt white tail or possible bigger.
a gun that the shells dont cost $20 for a box of 20 or i dont have to buy specilized bullets to get any hunting effectiveness
a gun that mabee has a 200-300 yard leathal range


your help would be greatly appreciated.

well i am looking to get my first lever gun.
i was thinking of getting a 45/70 but i saw that buying shells would make me go bankrupt.
and i saw all the nice shiney brass on the henry big boy.

my question is wich round is really better the .44 mag or the .45 LC. i have read so many conflicting reports on the net my head is about to spin, so i figured i would ask some truly knowlagable people.

what i want.
a gun that i can use to hunt white tail or possible bigger.
a gun that the shells dont cost $20 for a box of 20 or i dont have to buy specilized bullets to get any hunting effectiveness
a gun that mabee has a 200-300 yard leathal range


your help would be greatly appreciated.

Almost a coin flip...but your "want" items point more to the .44mag. than the .45colt simple becasue it's easier to find inexpensive but powerful 44mag. ammo.for a non-reloader. YEp..the .45colt can be made to do anything the .44mag. can do, but you won't walk into WallyWorld and pikc up a box of .45colt high perfoprmance ammo cheaply.

Neither one would be my choice for 200-300 yard shooting...if that is a must have goal, would look to a full sized rifle round.

I agree with Ribbonstone, Pistol cartridges just are not made for 200-300 yard hunting. If you must have long range capabilities, I would look into a rifle caliber lever gun. Most likley either a Savage 99 0r a Browning BLR in either .243 or .308 caliber. If going for any game larger than Deer at 200-300 yards I would stick to the .308. My personnal choices are get closer, allowing the old standard lever action calibers. (25-35, 32-40, 30-30, 32 Special, .33 Winchester, .348 Winchester .35 Remington, .444, or .45-70.) Leave the pistol cartridges to 150 Yards or less.

Lee L.

ohh really i figured they would have a 250 yard lethal range at least.

so what would you say the maximum effective safe lethal range (ability to take a deer humanly) would be.

to tell the truth i have not hardly shot rifels mostly been a shotgun man myself. untill recently.

gomer, Many cartridges are lethal well beyond their effective hunting ranges, In my opinion, I would not care to push the .44 Mag beyond the 150 Yard range, and the .45 Colt with factory loads at aound 100 yards. With hand loads in the .45 Colt I would still restrict it's range to 150 yards. Even then it requires pretty precise bullet placement to take game humanely.

Lee L.

well thats still a decent distance.
and i guess in deep woods 150 yards is the maximum i would ever get (probably around 50 at most)
i could always get a full sized rifel if i want soemthing longer.

gomer, Many cartridges are lethal well beyond their effective hunting ranges, In my opinion, I would not care to push the .44 Mag beyond the 150 Yard range, and the .45 Colt with factory loads at aound 100 yards. With hand loads in the .45 Colt I would still restrict it's range to 150 yards. Even then it requires pretty precise bullet placement to take game humanely.

Lee L.

Leathal range doesn't count; even the .22LR can kill at distances well past any sane use. If you were lucky enough to drop a .44mag. or .45colt bullet on a deer at 700yards, and it happened to hit the right place, it would kill...but that's not exactly the same thing as effective sporting range.

Call it 150yards...but 100yards or under is where these big flatnosed bullets do the best work.

Depends on what pistol you have... I got .44 since I had a Dillion press set up for the revolver. These 2 rounds work out about the same - the whitetail you hit won't know the difference at open sight range. If you have a scope on a little pistol round carbine, well...you might want to look at a different kind of rifle. If you don't have anything in this cal, I'd tip toward the 45.

Start handloading and get the 45/70 or get a 336 in 35 Rem and forget about it. Probably the best bang for the buck in the whitetail rifle world.

Start handloading and get the 45/70 or get a 336 in 35 Rem and forget about it. Probably the best bang for the buck in the whitetail rifle world.

My thoughts exactly. 35 Rem or if you want store inexpensinve...You just can't beat the ol' 30-30 good to a solid 150 to 200 yards effective and around my parts you can get 30-30 ammo on sale for about $9 a box.

Sound like a basic 30-30 would be a good choice for you. The ammo is not too expensive and you could find a good used gun cheap. The 30-30 is good for 200 yds with the right ammo and the skill to hit at that distance.

Sound like a basic 30-30 would be a good choice for you. The ammo is not too expensive and you could find a good used gun cheap. The 30-30 is good for 200 yds with the right ammo and the skill to hit at that distance.

Ironhead got me thinking again...not the gun, its the shooter. If you can put a 6" group on paper every time, while duplicating the the firing positions of a real hunt, then that's your max. range. IF you can only do that at 100yards, then reguardless of the rifle's power, it's still your max. range.

well i really have no problem with grouping.
my thing is i hate to "lame" animals. i like kills to be clean and as painless as possible. i dont want death to be long and drawn out slowly bleeding to death thats just not right.
i have always loved the .45 acp and saw that the big boy now came in .44 and .45 i was interested in both as i not only want to hunt but want to get involved in cowboy shooting.


the 45/70 is to expensive, it is a a good round i already know, but the ammo is very costly. $1 a peice or more (i have seen $2) i do not have the ability to cast right now , but i am working on it.

and i dont think i can shoot 30/30 at cowboy events (please correct me if i am wrong, be gentil)


if anyone has anymore input please speakup

If you aren't reloading ... and you want to shoot CAS ... then the choice is clear: .44 Mag. There are probably some 'side matches' where you could use a .30-30, but precious little off-the-shelf .30-30 ammo would be allowed.

You can shoot lead .44 Special loads for CAS, and step up to full .44 mag loads for critters.

Sight in 2 inches high at 100 yards, you are dead on at about 125, and couple inches low at 150ish. That's your max range, for point-and-shoot hunting.

I have a .45 Colt "Cowboy" and love it but it's a handloading proposition for serious hunting rounds, save for the expensive specialty ammo from Cor-Bon, Buffalo Bore, etc.

.44 mag no contest!!!! The ONLY ammo in .45 Colt that you're gonna find readily available at most stores is going to be cowboy action shooting ammo, which is not gonna be your best choice for hunting as a lot of them are loaded to produce lower recoil/lower velocity. If you want to shoot CAS and hunt with it, you definitely need to go with the .44 mag; much cheaper ammo also...

I agree with the others as far as effective hunting ranges; 200-250 yds. is WAY TOO FAR for the .44 mag; I wouldn't take a shot over 100 yds with mine, and even that would be pushing it for me...

yea i also was thinking about that,

100yds is still 300ft thats still a decent distance.

See my response to Carner on my limited experience with a Henry rifle. By the way, the brother in law's Henry is in 45 Long Colt not 44 mag.

I have a Marlin 44 mag CB II, and love it. It is my fun gun and load 205 grain lead to around 1175 fps. Mild recoil and accurate. My Marlin 30-30 is my go to deer rifle. I have an 1895 Marlin CB in 45-70. This is a great round to relaod for and I can spend hours working up new loads to try. It will also give you all the recoil you will ever want, especially off the bench. It does make a great rifle to hand to the daughter's cocky boyfriend to instill humility and repect.

gomer_pile
For you it's sounds like the 44 Mag will fit your needs. Plenty of good off the shelf hunting loads!
Since I handload all my ammo the 45 LC was no problem- it's true except for some High priced factory stuff -you have to handload to get good hunting ammo in 45LC !! That 44 mag will slap down deer with authority out 125 yds- but a 45 LC will do it better! Sorry 44 guy's I couldn't resist! ;)

Hey Gomer you could also move up one notch and get a Puma in 454 Casull thats my other 45 Caliber Lever!! But then again ammo is pretty pricy! Reload son, thats the key! :D

ohh i know reloading would save me a bundel.
but as a poor student buying reloading equipment is kinda out of the question. right now.

but i am working on it, just bought a book and reading up on it now.

I am 50 and been hunting most of my life(thanks dad) anyways I have only killed 2 deer out past 100 yards! all the rest were 20 to a max of 75 yards.get the 44 mag and be happy plenty of brush knock down power.
pete

ohh i know reloading would save me a bundel.
but as a poor student buying reloading equipment is kinda out of the question. right now.

but i am working on it, just bought a book and reading up on it now.


I'm in the exact same situation, read Marshal's article on reloading on a tight budget, its in the archives under tech notes I think. Anyhow, now I'm planing on starting to reload at the end of the summer when funds are a little more availible. Looks like you can start reloading for that 44mg for as little as 30-60 bucks, not too bad when you figure how much you could save.

Just a quick note; if you go with the .44 for hunting remember that you may be disappointed with accuracy using heavy hunting loads if your chosen rifle has a slower twist rate such as the Henry and Marlin have, 1:38 last time I checked. As far as CAS shooting goes, you are going to pay more and look harder for .44 cowboy ammo as opposed to .45 LC. Now, here's a suggestion; look at the .38/.357 rifles. .38 cowboy loads, plinkers, and practice stuff cheap and plentiful. Full power .357 mag. loads same thing, although for deer hunting you'll be limited to using the heavier rounds inside of 75 yards, so you'll have to practice more. I think all too often this pistol round is overlooked as far as its usefullness in hunting, but out of a rifle barrel you'll gain velocity and power over a handgun. It's never going to be an elk or moose gun, but neither is the .44 or .45. I shoot .45 for CAS and use my Marlin CBC in the same caliber for hunting hogs and deer, but for the latter I'm using some pretty hot loads. Hope my .02 helped; Happy Huntin"!

I got a puma 92 in .45 Colt for under $400 new at the store about... nine months ago now. It works well, but I wouldn't try to take down anything at more than 25 yards right now. Practice makes perfect! Besides, nothing make the fools at the larger store blink more when you say ".45 Colts" and they give you .45 S&W or .45 ACP.

- Karl

Gomer
If you can find some one shooting a 45 Colt or 44 mag lever action, preferably both, at 100 yards you'll be amazed at how long it takes the bullet to get down to a 100 yards and hit the target.
I shoot warmish loads in my Rossie 92, 45 Colt. I'm always amused by the time lag between the bang of the rifle and the slap of the bullet.
My point being, relative to most rifle cartridges, these pistol cartridges are slow!
Jim

Good point Jim; one can "hear" the difference between a psitol and rifle caliber bullet getting to one hundred yards, and Karl, you've got a good point as well. A wiser man than me once wrote that one should take a shot for every yard, out to the maximum range of the game to be hunted. If you'll be in thick/brushy country or wooded parts, and especially if you'll be hunting over a cleared feed plot, take one practice shot for every yard out to where your game might possibly show up. Can't see but a few 75 yard openings on your land? That equals 75 practice shots with the ammo you plan on using for your hunt. Anyway, pats on the back for Jim and Karls info plus I hope my .02 might help someone down the road become a better, more responsible hunter/shooter that could pass on experice to a youngster.

my question is wich round is really better the .44 mag or the .45 LC. i have read so many conflicting reports on the net my head is about to spin, so i figured i would ask some truly knowlagable people..
Addressing your specific question, I think you've already answered it yourself. The 44 is a magnum cartridge and the 45LC is a 120+ year old (albeit a proven round)cartridge. Unless you reload, any 'off the shelf' 45LC you get will be loaded to SAAMI specs, which will be below the 44 Mag. If you're a reloader, it's a different story. You'll be able to push the 45 up to the Mag loads, no problem.