which 41 bullet for deer

[onegoodshot]

Which 41 JACKETED bullet would be best for deer using FA/Ruger only loads? Maybe rate them.
The bag contains Remington 210 SP 41's.


I see posts about the "old hornady xtp's" looks like I have three different boxes all with the same item numbers. Any difference in them?

[cmillard]

I would say the 2 hard cast bullets would be the top choice.

[Deleted]

You don't have any poor choices there. I feel the XTPs are a bit tougher than the others, but I do like the Noslers and Sierras too. The cast bullets would certainly work well too. Hmmm... everything has a really good track record.

Edited in accordance with original parameters.

[bradshaw]

My late shooting partner Ed Verge killed his share of whitetails with the old Hornady 210 JHO in his S&W M-57 8-3/8" .41 mag. I don't remember Verge taking a second shot to do his whitetail work. He loaded 296 and H110. The Nosler .41 210 JHP looks like the old Hornady bullet, right down to pure lead core, and my experience with .45 Colt and .44 mag recommends Nosler as the replacement for the old tried-and-true Hornady JHP . The Sierra .41 210 JHC should perform much as the Sierra .44 240 JHC. Can't tell you about the Hornady .41 210 XTP. Across various calibers the XTP has earned a sound reputation. I have found the jacket of some XTP's to peal back alongside the wheelbase, shearing some lead, as in a wadcutter. This isn't all bad. Can't tell you about the newer Speer bullets, but the old swaged half jacket were very effective in .44 and .41, both SWC and SWCHP design. Speer tried for years to discontinue its swaged half jackets, but loyal veterans beat the jungle drums. These bullets may have fallen victim to higher velocity loading. Reloaders who pushed them too hard may have screamed "inaccuracy," but it's not the fault of the bullet. At moderate velocity these bullets hammer. Obturation gets severe at elevated pressure, especially in a rough or oversize forcing cone.

I would avoid medium burn powders----including Blue Dot, which can spike rapidly in the .41 mag----and stick with 296/H110 as all-temperature top shelf.
David Bradshaw

[Encore64]

I have had excellent results with the 210 grn XTP HP and Nosler 210 grn HP. The Sierras seem considerably harder. The 170s are faster and expand well on deer. The Sierra 210s seem to go thru deer without expanding much, but love them on hogs.

[sixshot]

I've been loving the 41 maggie for 45 years & deer have been hating it for the same length of time! I've always used the 230 gr Keith slug cast from an old Saeco #411 mould. This bullet & 17 grs of 2400 has killed a lot of deer.
I think your choices with jacketed are excellent, it really doesn't take a lot to whack a deer with correct bullet placement. Don't ask your jacketed slugs to making raking shots like a cast bullet, keep them broadside & eat backstraps.
The Sierra 170 gr slug has an outstanding reputation on deer but I've never used it. I know enough people who have to say it must be great. The 210 XTP's will kill deer as well as any of the rifle rounds, again with good hits. With the list of bullets you have it really comes down to trigger time, they'll all work.

Dick

[contender]

It's hard to add anything to what has already been stated. But,, I've grown fonder of the cast slugs over the years,,,!

[oldschool]

While I don't have but one deer (75 lb doe) under my belt with the .41 Mag, I am the lone dissenter and would shy away from the Sierra 170 JHP.

On my deer, the first shot was a bit too far back and was followed up by two quick shots to the lungs and shoulder using the Hornady 210 XTP (which performed perfectly, by the way). However, upon field dressing the deer, I was disappointed to see the 170 JHP had come apart without hitting bone. Lots of internal damage (looked like a grenade had gone off in there). It left two exit wounds, telling me that I wouldn't want to try a lung shot with it on a larger deer. Could have been a fluke, but taught me a valuable lesson.

[cas]

I will be hunting with some Sierra 210's next week. Though it is highly unlikely that I will get to shoot anything with them, in which case they will work just fine.

I chose them because I had more of them than anything else and wanted to be sure I had enough to work up a load and hunt (I've had dismal luck with that not working out as of late with a rifle so I was being cautious). Of course afterwards I found two boxes of XTP's I don't know were there.

Relatively speaking I'm new to the 41 mag. It's my brother in laws gun and what's left of his bullets. A long barreled 657 he bought but sadly never really got to use. He bought it for silhouette shooting, but I'm going to take it in the woods in honor of his memory.

All I really know about the bullets is we tested some Sierra 170's in his 8 or 10 inch Encore is various media and weren't too thrilled with how easy they came apart and into so many tiny pieces. I know he shot one buck with his 57 and some Sierra's, don't recall if it was 170's or 210's, with what due to a mixup turned out to be only a medium level load. Three rounds double action as it ran by him when he just stepped off the ladder of his tree stand. Two in the chest, one in the paunch. We tracked that deer for the rest of the day, many many miles and never recovered it. Eventually tracking it to a gut pile, so we must have run it into other hunters.

The next deer was a a hot loaded XTP. It dropped on the spot. As he got ready to climb down it got up and ran away never to be seen again. (Ran off into other hunters who shot it)

After that he switched to those heavy LBT's. He finally hit one that stayed down with those.

[cmillard]

the 170s sound like they grenade inside flesh. probably driven to too high velocities and lack of heavy jacket and bonded jacket/core

[bradshaw]

I will not contradict Dick's experience, nor the experience of others who study the subject seriously.

If one is looking to disparage a light JHP from the .44 magnum on whitetails, I am the wrong person to ask, having taken them to the meat pole one shot at a time with a variety of 180 JHP from such revolvers as M-29 4", M-29 8-3/8", Redhawk 5-1/2", Redhawk 7-1/2".

Years ago I filled a 55 gallon drum with water, climbed a step ladder, and fired one round of Federal 44B 180 JHP into the center of the column. The bullet fragmented, with the base of core and jacket intact. What shocked me was the dent in bottom of the drum. The bullet penetrated all that water with enough energy to dent the bottom. Next, after replacing spilled water, I fired a Federal 44A 240 JHP into the water. The 240 JHP mushroomed perfectly, and made a deep thumb-size dent in the bottom of the drum, stretching the metal to the breaking point.

I believe what pistolmen Dick and John Parker call for is FORGIVENESS, the quality of a bullet to cover your shot when presentation is not perfect. The term, by the way, I picked up from chronograph maestro Dr. Kenneth Oehler. Which is why, despite fine results from light bullets, I prefer standard heavier slugs.
David Bradshaw

[cas]

I had 3-4 of these but it looks like this is the only photo I still have. IIRC this was one of the better ones.
Granted its faster than most 41 revolvers are going, and water is probably one of the toughest things on a bullet, but we felt we should have a little more left over when we were done.



I'll have to search to see if the other photos and the details are still on the net.

[sixshot]

Water is a very tough medium for bullet testing but it is repeatable & thats a good thing. As mentioned I've never used the 170 Sierra but there sure seems to be a lot of the "fast & light" crowd that loves it..I don't know. I've always felt it better to "over whack" them than under, just me.
I still believe, even though I don't use them that most of the jacketed bullets will work great on deer. I've only taken a half dozen or so with them but never had a problem & my longest ever deer kill was with an 8 3/8" model 27 nickel using the 150 gr Sierra JHC, more luck than skill back in the early 70's but the buck didn't know it! The 41 maggie just seems to have a bit of an accuracy edge over most sixguns because, like Ken said, they have always been built right, nothing to "fix" to make them shoot, just get a good sight picture, put steady pressure on the trigger & get out the skillet.
One of the few revolvers I ever saw Elgin Gates shoot was a 41 of some sort, can't remember. He usually had the whole table covered with Auto Mags!

Dick

[bradshaw]

cas.... Forgot to mention that when I stood on the step ladder and fired my Redhawk 5-1/2" down into a 55 gallon drum full of water, I got soaked. The Federal .44 mag 180 JHP looked similar to your Sierra .41 170 JHC at 1586 fps. My Redhawk unleashed the Federal 180 at 1610 fps----exactly the velocity listed by Federal. The Federal .44 180 and 240 JHP look to be copied directly from Sierra, and are absolutely just as accurate. While Federal never told me they copied the Sierra, I don't easily subscribe to coincidence, and believed Federal copied the profile, while opting for a slightly softer core. My experience says the Federal opens a little sooner than the Sierra, then holds together pretty well. I cannot see how on a lung shot----if you really hit the lungs----the 180 doesn't spell "curtains." As my spiritually favorite hunt is tracking, where adverse presentations are to be anticipated, I much prefer driving a known 240 JHP. Reducing caliber to .41, the 210 represents proper JHP weight. To load cast in either magnum, reaching for a bit more weight sounds right, but not at the expense of a punching meplat.

My experience with the .41 magnum in the game fields is entirely vicarious, with the late Ed Verge doing the shooting, and me the witness. As we proved to each other, one shot kills are foremost the work of marksmanship. We never relax this rule, whether the distance is 100 yards or five feet.
David Bradshaw

[jsh]

I got 300 of the 240
Semi wadcutters from the gent I was directed to over at the Ruger board. Lynn I believe is his name? None the less a fine looking bullet. This was a 240.
I have tinkered with this a very little bit. It shows promise but I may be trying to push it too hard. I am using starline brass. Any one have a pet load that will do the work on 100 yard white tails? I have been reading and a lot of folks sure talk up a medium range load of unique. I know I know speed isn't everything.
Thanks
Jeff