Which .41 mag bullets for deer? What do you think of Sierra?

[cas]

Which to use?

My original intention was to ask about the Sierra JHPs, but I figured what the heck, show you what I have.

But mostly I wanted people's opinions on the Sierras. "My" only experience with them was helping my brother in law track a nice buck for miles, one he shot in the chest broadside about 10 feet. Two in the chest, a third either far back or a miss. He'd just dropped off the last step climb down from his tree stand when the buck chased a doe right past him, and he double action'd him as he trotted by. We tracked him a long while for a long way, little blood and never did get it.  We did find out later that the load was going a lot slower than expected...  1000-1100 fps maybe, but still. At that distance it should have been plenty. So since then I've wondered about the bullets and been sceptical. (I have several hundred on hand, these all belonged to my late brother in law)

I thought I had a lot of XTP's, but it turns out all the boxes I was thinking of were .40s and .44s.   The XTP would be my first choice, but there are probably only 15-20 in that box. Same for the PMCs. They look very similar to the Sierras, it wasn't till I held them side by side that I could tell they were slightly different. 

I also have several hundred of those Remington jacketed flat points. 


I suppose I could sight the irons in and then sight the dot in with whatever, then hunt with the XTPs (or just by more XTPs).
("Hunting" with it will in all liklihood won't be more than one or two evening sits, with a low chance of seeing anything.)

Any input on those bullets? 

[contender]

While my handgun bullets are either in the 7x30 waters,, or cast,, for hunting purposes,,, I'll throw in my measly thoughts.

If I were to have to choose between the choices shown,, I'd choose the XTP's by Hornady. They have a proven track record among many handgun hunters who choose a jacketed revolver bullet for hunting. So,, I'd buy another box & start loading.

[rjm52]

Gary Reeders favorite hunting bullet for the .41 on deer size game is the 170 Sierra JHC... The load I use is the same bullet with 26.0 grains of H110... Velocity is in the 1600s with a 6.5" barrel.

Haven't killed a deer with that bullet but did with the .44/180 at about the same velocity and it was one shot and down.

From the expansion testing I have done, if you can't get an impact velocity at your maximum shooting distance of at least 1200 fps to insure good dynamic expansion, use has cast HP or large meplat hardcast.

Bob

[bigmuddy]

Well….

I shot a doe last week with the Sierra 210, as well as one last fall, same gun same load. The deer last year was hit farther back than I wanted and left no blood trail. Found it quite dead shortly after the shot, and the bullet performed well on the soft tissue hit. A lot of internal damage to lungs and liver. Shot one a week ago from same stand. Aimed for and hit high shoulder. Saw this one go down after a 50 yard dash. Surprised me again seeing no blood. On recovery I found what was left of the bullet under hide on offside shoulder. First time I have ever recovered a bullet from a handgunned deer. Found the bullet hit upper offside leg taking out about an inch of bone. High entrance no exit explained lack of blood trail. Damage to lungs and top of heart was extensive.

One deer with the XTP 210 right behind shoulder. Deer mad dashed about 75 yards and I lost sight of it there. That’s where I found it, but again not much blood. This one was taken from a shot while on the ground. Plenty of damage internally but exit hole didn’t show much expansion.

I have some of the Remington softs but haven’t used them on game. I know a bear isn’t a deer, but when I hunted with Wayne Bosowitz in Maine he swore by them. Said he’d killed a ton of bears with the Remington factory loads and never shot one twice.

If I don’t go to a cast, my next 41 deer will be with the Remington.

For what it’s worth I shot one with a Speer Deep Curl that bled like an elephant with a nose bleed. If I would’ve known they were going to be impossible find I would’ve saved a few.

Dan

[giblett]

New to the 41 game with limited experience. Have shot 2 pigs so far with some 200 grain bullets that i think are Remington. One dead after a 20 yard run and the second was no recovery with a decent blood trail but played out. Running a speer gold dot now over 22 grains of h110.wouldn't hesitate to use sierra bullet either as ive good luck with the in 10mm on pigs. Im good on the 41 speers as i have around 500 of those but out for my 44 mag.

[handgunhuntingafield]

I don’t use a 41 but I have killed several elk with a 240 Sierra in a 44

[sixshot]

If you're going to use lighter weight bullets then shoot soft tissue, double lung shots are fatal. A deer isn't hard to kill, it might run a little ways but a double lung shot & there's no air in the tank. You don't know if you got both lungs if you don't retrieve the deer. If you are shooting a harder, solid bullet then break both shoulders, if the transmission is gone the deer will be laying right where you shot it, it might not be dead but it's not going anywhere.
All the bullets you show are good bullets but a jacketed bullet is designed to operate it's best at a certain speed, go above or below that & you might get a failure. I've heard a lot of good about the 170 gr Sierra, never used it but a lot of other people have. I've killed many dozens of deer at 900-1000 fps with a cast bullet & I always get exits.
I still think a lot of tree stand shooters can sometimes shoot over the near side lung & hit the off side lung, just a guess on my part but this same thing comes up a lot of times. A double lung shot is a dead deer. Good luck hunting.

Dick

[bigbore5]

My dad has used their 240gr 45 bullets for a long time on deer. He swears by them. Two uncles use the 41's and like them.

I personally don't use jacketed bullets from a handgun at all anymore. Haven't in 30 years. A proper hardness wfn-hp or swc-hp has been much more reliable on deer. Even a wide meplat solid cast on the soft side performs more consistently than a factory hp from my experience.

For deer, I mostly use a 357mag loaded with the MP360-180 using the large pin, cast at 15bhn moving at 1200fps. I've never recovered one from a deer. Even with double shoulder shots, it exits, leaving a sizable hole. Usually I shoot double lung and they don't go far at all. But our deer here tend to be smaller.

[rleprechaun]

210gr. Swift A-frame

[bradshaw]

Oct 15, 2023 0:02:00 GMT -5 cas said:

View Attachment
Which to use?

My original intention was to ask about the Sierra JHPs, but I figured what the heck, show you what I have.

But mostly I wanted people's opinions on the Sierras. "My" only experience with them was helping my brother in law track a nice buck for miles, one he shot in the chest broadside about 10 feet. Two in the chest, a third either far back or a miss. He'd just dropped off the last step climb down from his tree stand when the buck chased a doe right past him, and he double action'd him as he trotted by. We tracked him a long while for a long way, little blood and never did get it.  We did find out later that the load was going a lot slower than expected...  1000-1100 fps maybe, but still. At that distance it should have been plenty. So since then I've wondered about the bullets and been sceptical. (I have several hundred on hand, these all belonged to my late brother in law)

I thought I had a lot of XTP's, but it turns out all the boxes I was thinking of were .40s and .44s.   The XTP would be my first choice, but there are probably only 15-20 in that box. Same for the PMCs. They look very similar to the Sierras, it wasn't till I held them side by side that I could tell they were slightly different. 

I also have several hundred of those Remington jacketed flat points. 


I suppose I could sight the irons in and then sight the dot in with whatever, then hunt with the XTPs (or just by more XTPs).
("Hunting" with it will in all liklihood won't be more than one or two evening sits, with a low chance of seeing anything.)

Any input on those bullets? 

*****

cas.... trusting your reporting but, without a carcass target ballistics can’t be verified.

If possible, set up a line of water jugs to test the load & revolver, with an eye to recovering a .41 Sierra 210 JHC. If the bullet fails to expand it may penetrate 10 or so 1-gallon jugs. As for the shooter, is he practiced at 1) double action fire, 2) on a moving target? A running buck @ 10-feet is a RUNNING DEER. For the unpracticed, it may come as shock that the temptation to look at a close, fast target is huge. This cannot be explained, it must be learned on the Firing Line.

Training for a SIGHT PICTURE under all shooting conditions means for the well practiced that, even when you retain no clear memory of a sight picture, you were still going for it. Working for a sight picture works to eliminate abstraction under pressure.

In the absence of practice title panics take over. The “I hit it!” tells me the shooter is not in control. Without a practiced----not abstract----picture of LEADE... SQUEEZE... FOLLOW THROUGH, there is a huge chance the bullet intersects where the deer was, not is. Even at ten feet. This easily accounts for a gut shot, or a couple of guts shots. If the bullet exerts little impact an adrenalized athlete like a whitetail can run around a mountain, eventually coming to rest at a coyote picnic. A wounded deer that travels a mile or more without trying to rest started out fired up.

In pursuit of a whitetail with one or another reputable hollow points, mine are magnum charged. These bullets are tougher than hollow points configured for auto pistols. I trust a good .45 ACP hollow point to expand in the 800 fps zone. I have no such expectation for a jacketed hollow point I’d carry in a .41 or .44 Mag. I would trust a cast, powder coat SWC or Long Flat Nose to impose better hydrodynamic shock in the 800 to 1,100 fps range that a magnum jacketed hollow point.

To repeat, a water jug test should provide at least part of the answer.
David Bradshaw

[pleadthe2nd]

I am in the Speer Deep Curl club, they just work, very effectively, unfortunately they are nowhere to be found, glad I stocked up a few years ago, have about 350 left, hopefully they'll be back. The statement about an elephant with a nose bleed is correct, blood trails from the Deep Curls are impressive.

[bigbore5]

I hate tracking deer, especially in our NC thickets. Cast hp's just work better than anything else I have seen on hearts and lungs. But if I had to use a jacketed bullet, it would be the deep curl or xtp loaded heavy.

[x101airborne]

After losing one deer I always panic when I see a deer run. I dont care if it is 10 feet or 1000 yards, I panic. I would test, test and retest whatever I was thinking about using. I have only killed a handful of deer with a handgun. One doesn't count because I was helping a neighbor track one he shot with a rifle and it jumped up in front of me and all I had was my LEO duty Glock 22, so that is what I used. Told me a lot about my duty ammo though.

One question I haven't seen asked yet, how big are your deer? Ours are typically 140 pounds soaking wet but a cheetah cant catch em. They also offer less resistance to a harder bullet. Bigger deer may require a different answer.

[reflex264]

In the .41 I like the 210 XTP and 210 Nosler. If something bigger 265 grain LFN or 210 grain A-Frame.

[bigbrowndog]

I just placed a 210gr. Swift AF from my 414sm on a muley at 170ish yards. Drove the bullet from the last ribs quartering down and forward and found it under the skin at the base of the neck. Beautifully mushroomed and about 24+ inches of penetration, if youre going after whitetails or pronghorns a 210 Speer or Hornady should do the trick if you’re going after muleys or elk look long and hard at the Swift, if jacketed is your choice. If cast, then a 250-270 grain HP would be my choice.

Trapr