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Has anyone had any experience with Buffalo Bore .44 mag ammo? I am planning a trip to Yellowstone this fall. I had looked at there all copper round but it seemed to heavy a Mt. gun
Has anyone had any experience with Buffalo Bore .44 mag ammo? I am planning a trip to Yellowstone this fall. I had looked at there all copper round but it seemed to heavy a Mt. gun
I think their heavy for caliber hard cast ammo goes a long way toward making less powerful rounds like 9mm, 357 mag, 40, 45, and 10mm a more viable option for large predator protection. If you're carrying a 44 magnum I don't think you need exotic ammo.
@MaxP I'm not sure of exactly how well versed you are in reloading, but I've considered attempting to get close to that load with my dad's Redhawk. Although i prefer something in the neighborhood of 300 gr hard cast for (black) bear protection loads.I would go with the DG line for the .44 Mag. It’s a 265 grain LeHigh solid that will be your huckleberry for bear production.
But if you are staking your life on a bullet, you would be much better served by a monolithic solid than a cast bullet. I’ve experienced way to many failures to consider them reliable.
@MaxP I'm not sure of exactly how well versed you are in reloading, but I've considered attempting to get close to that load with my dad's Redhawk. Although i prefer something in the neighborhood of 300 gr hard cast for (black) bear protection loads.
5 or 6 years back my uncle was lucky enough to harvest a black bear that weighed in at 425lbs field dressed. Needless to say my old Taurus 66 with stout 158gr xtp handloads felt inadequate as a backup. I lent it to him with 100 of those loads to get a bit familiar. He told me later on after realizing how big that bear really was he'd about shat hisself knowing that 357 was all he had for up close and personal.. Guess that's the risk you take when you chose a muzzleloader as your main bear gun.
Max, when you have had cast lead failures, have they been fragmentation events? Blown up on bone?
I'm curious because I fully support the view that on very large heavy boned game, a monolithic solid is the safer bet. I am generally not sold on "hard cast", i.e. linotype and harder, for any game. My experience is minimal expansion, and fragmentation, as opposed to a somewhat softer lead which seems to hold together better, but may not give one the penetration needed on big heavy boned game. But I believe you have a good deal of experience with big and heavy? Appreciate your observations.
The DG load is a good one but knowing the velocity they run and the fact that they've cracked some model 69 cylinders, I would probably use something else in the MG. If you handload, it would be better to load that particular bullet using Lehigh data, which gets it around 1100-1200fps. That said, I would not hesitate to use a cast bullet on anything in North America. You're more likely to be assaulted by an antifa protester than a grizzly. Not to mention that if you shoot a grizzly in Yellowstone or anywhere else in the lower 48, you better have a good lawyer.
The Lehigh 265gr was available as a component long before Buffalo Bore loaded it.
Not to mention that if you shoot a grizzly in Yellowstone or anywhere else in the lower 48, you better have a good lawyer.
The Lehigh 265gr was available as a component long before Buffalo Bore loaded it.
As I said, the Lehigh was readily available long before Buffalo Bore loaded it. I know, I ordered two boxes of every size they had. The only thing they have now they didn't have then is the 10mm version.
It's definitley not a Speer bullet. They're produced of solid copper on a CNC lathe.
Thanks for the input. I ordered the Keith hard cast 158 gr low recoil. I hope I did not make a mistake. I felt the lighter recoil would give a better chance at a repeat shot. At 80 years I don't handle recoil very well. I might order the monolithic bullet also. Don't know how they would recoil.
Chances are we wont see any bears up close but this time of the year they get active. We have a black bear that likes to swing by my place but he is not a problem yetplus I have a rifle close by.
A few claw marks would help greatly! Lol
Yep, a few claw marks might help, but they probably wouldn’t be necessary in court - because if you’re attacked by a grizzly (or more likely, attacked by a bison) in Yellowstone, the chances are there’s going to be a dozen or more witnesses to the attack. And several of the witnesses will be using cell phones to record the event. In my experience in and around Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, the better question about what kind of ammo to carry in your handgun in case of a large animal attack would probably be, “What ammo for a large animal attack when you have a human audience?”The real site was the half dozen idots hopping the fence running after the bear as fast as they could with their cameras and cell phones waving wildly in their hands!