Can anyone recommend an ammunition for .44 magnum that would be best for hogs, deer and other such animals?  The gun I have is a Winchester model 94.

I've shot a few deer and quite a few hogs with the .44 Magnum from both revolvers and lever action rifles. The only ammo that I was NOT happy with were handloads using the Speer Gold Dot 270 grain flat point. I had 3 out of 4 hits on hogs fail to penetrate more than about six inches, the bullets came apart and did not penetrate.  Surprisingly the 4th was a pass through and penetrated over 12 inches of hog.

My preference in a factory load would be a 240 grain jacketed soft point, with a 240 jacketed hollow point coming in second.


This stuff is good ammo.

Cool, I'll try this through my rifle. Thanks for the recommendation!

I have only shot one hog. It was with a 629 S&W with a regular 240 gr cast lead semi wadcutter and it worked just fine. It was a handload with 2400.
This load is accurate in several 44 pistols and my Marlin lever gun.

Cast lead flat nose bullets are pretty old school but they have a decent reputation for killing critters

I neglected to say that I've used a variety of ammo, factory loads and handloads, everything from 180 grain JHPs to 300 grain Hornady XTPs and the *ONLY* fail was the Speer 270 Gold Dots.

I killed my first deer 35 years ago, with a Ruger 44 carbine.  I was shooting Federal 180 grain JHPs, because they grouped better in that gun than 240's.  Even the 180 JHP load was a broadside pass through on that little forkie.

240gr Hornady XTP's are great bullets. Probably a bit spendy if you're not loading your own though.