Ammo suggestion

Guys my reloading buddy is gone. I have a older Ruger .44 mag carbine. It will handle a lot hotter load than a handgun I'm told. I also read that to shoot only jacketed bullets because of fouling the gas ports. It was designed for a 225 grain bullet if I remember correctly. I hunt hogs a lot so I want some thump, does anyone have any expierence with decent factory loads. Mine is tube fed, so no hard pointed bullets. Any suggestions ? Thanks

At one time we had 3 Ruger .44 carbines, I still have one in the gunsafe. Between the kids, my wife, and me, we have put a lot of deer on the ground with the Ruger carbine going back to 1980 or '81.
Bill Ruger designed his carbine to shoot 240 grain bullets. I do not hunt with hollow point bullets out of our carbines due to bullet fragmenting years ago. The velocity is increased a good bit over a pistol which took it outside the design parameters of some of the older hollow point bullets. Instead we shoot 240 grain soft points. This a jacketed bullet with no hollow point.
I would say about any factory 240 grain soft point will work well as we never had one fail. They do expand a lot.
Winchester White box 240 grain JSP's will do what you need done to any hogs.
Non jacketed bullets will clog up your gas ports faster but jacket bullets do also, it just takes longer. It pays to know how to break down the carbine to clean the gas ports. When shooting mine I do this every couple of years as regular maintenance. If the rifle starts acting sluggish when chambering or if I get failures to feed I clean them right then.
Used to be there was an online photo illustrated link on breaking down the Ruger Carbine and cleaning the gas ports.

44 factory ammo

I test fired several types of factory 44 magnum ammo in a rifle a couple of years ago to try to find the most accurate ammo for my setup (H&R single shot with scope).


I almost gave up, thinking the inexpensive scope might be the problem, when I fired a few rounds of CCI Blazer 240 g JHP. It shot a 3" group at 100 yds, compared with much worse results from much more expensive ammo.


It made me wonder if some "handgun" ammo wasn't loaded with the same precision as ammo designed for a rifle.

I don't have a carbine but recently pick up a lever gun. I have been looking for flat nose and everyone seems to be out of 240 gr JSP, don't want JHP to run in it. Pick up some cast but have been holding off on using them.

Jester896 said:

I don't have a carbine but recently pick up a lever gun. I have been looking for flat nose and everyone seems to be out of 240 gr JSP, don't want JHP to run in it. Pick up some cast but have been holding off on using them.

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sgammo.com has a variety of jacketed soft points in 44mag, prices seem to be pretty decent. I have bought other ammo from them numerous times.

I took a deer with 240gr Sig Sauer Elite Vcrown it’s joint project with Sierra bullets. Did really well not insane priced. 1894 limiting edition Trapper think it has a 14in barrel. Not sure it feels like red Ryder.

I would NOT recommend shooting "hot"
hand-loads in any semi.

The bolt blow back will kill the gun.
(Even in a Ruger)

I'd stay with a factory load or if you do load,
stay with factory pressure.
(Even in a Ruger)

Dead is dead. .44 in .44 range will kill them just as dead.

Hillbilly stalker said:

Guys my reloading buddy is gone. I have a older Ruger .44 mag carbine. It will handle a lot hotter load than a handgun I'm told.

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Whoever told you this was grossly mis-informed.

The original Ruger .44 mag semi-auto (circa 1962) was regulated for 240 gr. pistol ammo, which was the "standard" at the time. There was quite a dust up when people tried loading lighter bullets and jacking up the velocity. It wouldn't work. The heavier bullets seem to work some, but the gun was designed for 240 gr. bullets.

Semi-auto rifles are "timed" so that all the parts work together in the right order, and typically depend on mid-range loads. I am not aware of any semi-auto rifle that will work well with "hot" loads, starting with the M-1.

There was a later version with a modified action, but as far as I know the same thing applies as far as pressures.

Anyway, back to your statement, I shoot published loads in my revolvers that would probably blow the bolt out of a Ruger carbine. One reason is that I can load the rounds long for more space in the case, which you can't do for the carbine.

Get a reloading manual and try to find the section that says "Really hot loads for Ruger carbines"

transfixer said:

sgammo.com has a variety of jacketed soft points in 44mag, prices seem to be pretty decent. I have bought other ammo from them numerous times.

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thanks! I have only been trying to add them to other orders for stuff. I have about 200 cases rounded up so it is time to do something.

JackSprat said:

Get a reloading manual and try to find the section that says "Really hot loads for Ruger carbines"

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I use 240gr HP or SP bullets in my 44 carbine with good results..

I have shot Winchester Silvertip 210gr HP "pistol" bullets in it with no feed failures, and they killed deer just fine....Not my first choice but i had a box left over after i sold my Ruger SBH.....So i used them..

JackSprat is right on this one. Stay within published factory pressures and velocities for the .44 that you find in the reloading manuals.

What I think you might have understood is that with a longer barrel, you will likely get a higher velocity out of the carbine than from say a 6" barrel pistol. This would be with the same pressure/load, not a hot load.

For example my 45 Colt loads in my Redhawk will run about 1100 fps; the same load in my 20" barrel Model 92 will go about 1300 fps. This would be a warm load for the Redhawk but well under published maximum pressures..

This is why the JHP doesn't do well in the .44 Carbine, it is traveling at a higher velocity than it was designed for.

It's hard to beat the Winchester white box 240 grain softpoints for hunting. Usually cheap at Walmart, to boot.

Thanks for all the info guys. I guess I didn't explain well enough. I tried the white box Winchesters and they shot, but didn't group very well. I went with my buddies reloading because he loaded me some tougher bullets up for better penetration (Barnes bullets I believe). When I said "hotter", I was referring to the hottest within the loading manual, not something dangerous to me or the rifle. My buddy has shot his 2, .44 mag rifles for years with no problems. I have shot his reloads for 5 or 6 years without a single failure to feed or failure to fire, and had great performance . I was just wanting advice on the hotter or harder hitting factory ammo. I didn't mean to come off as a rookie, I just haven't tried a lot of different factory ammo in this rifle. I love the rifle , I have killed a lot of hogs with it. Thanks again.

For what it's worth I have a Ruger #3 44 mag and it really likes HSM 305 grain "bear loads". Cloverleaf groups at 50 yards.
HSM also has a 240 gr hard cast cowboy load at 1150 fps. If I had the semi auto 44 I would at least give those a try