Handgun Hunting Afield

   I was sitting in a hunting blind one cool Tennessee morning but for one reason or another the deer weren’t cooperating. The farmers picked the corn and there were still plenty of ears with colonels on the ground. Normally the deer would come in and glean the missed crop but this morning they simply didn’t get the memo. The set up was perfect. There is a gap in the fence 35 yards to the right  of the blind. On a normal sit here, deer funnel through the gap. 118 yards in front of the blind is a heavily used fence crossing. On most days I would have a scoped revolver in the blind with me. I can shoot anywhere between the gap and the blind with one of the wheelguns. 

    This morning was different. Knowing that I had from 0 to 118 yards to shoot I brought a scoped Marlin 1894 .44 Magnum and a 1961 Ruger Flattop .44 Magnum. This would cover the distances and was a test of sorts. I had been trying to find a one load fits all for the .44 Magnums. Between my son and I we have  12 .44 magnums. Coming up with one load to work well in all of them would be a huge advantage at loading time. I can easily crank out 500 .44 Magnums cartridges  in about an hour from one of the Dillons. Most of the handguns would shoot the same loads well. Certainly good enough for 100 yard shots. The 1894 Marlin was  altogether different.

  Years earlier I started working on loads for the .44 Marlin. The Marlin had been particularly finicky. It liked the 240 grain Sierra over H4227. I got the load data from a friend that had an identical Marlin.  In fact it would consistently stick 3 of them in 1.5” at 100 yards. The handguns however hated the load. I really wanted to have one load for all and if the need arose to take one of the handguns after elk or moose I would simply load my heavier stuff for that particular gun. At that time H4227 was plentiful. It was my go to powder for some .44 Special loads so I tried to keep it on hand all of the time. I went to buy some one day and the local supplier told me they were out and it was canceled off of their last order. I scroungedaround and found 1 lbs of it. I was informed that it had been discontinued. I  made a phone call and got a political answer about the interchangeability between IMR4227 and H4227. At the time the manuals showed data that was certainly not interchangeable. I temporarily put the .44 Rifle on the back burner where it stayed for several years. 

Out of the blue I decided to revisit the .44 Marlin. By this time I had started loading the 240 Grain XTP with 22.00 grains H110 for all of the pistols. While I have been told that it is below recommended starting charge by some manuals I still have manuals with that load and in fact one of my older manuals shows a starting charge of 19.8 grains of H110. I certainly don’t recommend that load but the 22 grains has been consistent and accurate from all of the guns. 

I had to go through my notes just to see but apparently I hadn’t tried that load in the Marlin. I loaded up a batch of them and headed for the range. I figured it would be close at 100 yards to the other load. At least enough to see if it would shoot well from the Marlin. I used sandbags on the bench for a rest, lined up the crosshairs and squeezed the trigger. The point of impact was a couple of inches away from where the Sierra bullets landed. I worked the lever and fired again. This shot landed about an inch from the first one. The third shot confirmed that I had a winner. The whole group was under 2” and it was the exact same load I was running in the handguns. I adjusted the scope to be zeroed at 100 yards. A quick trip over the chronograph told me that the 240 XTP was leaving the muzzle at 1648 fps. From the same loads vs. my 7.5” barreled .44 Magnum that is a gain of a little over 200 fps. With the sight in at 100 yards that makes -7” at 150 and -21 at 200. Energy at 150 yards is 649 foot pounds and 544 foot pounds at 200. So while the gun certainly isn’t a long range tool if pressed into duty it would handle deer at that range. What all of this means is that the gun offers an easier way to shoot 100 to 150 yards than a handgun and a little more energy is needed. 

Back to the blind…
I had the handgun ready but absolutely nothing showed itself. After several hours I decided to get up and stalk the wood edge behind me. I left the handgun in the blind (totally safe where I was) and headed through the woods with the little Marlin. As I reached the field at the edge of the woods I spotted a lone deer picking up acorns under a bid oak tree. I pulled my rangefinder out and learned that it was 115 yards from me. I plink with lever guns farther than that and easily shoot drink cans off handed so it wasn’t really a challenge. I pulled the rifle up and put the crosshairs on its aorta, compensating for the downward angle and pulled the trigger. At the report of the rifle it was over. 

In this day and time when we hear “pistol cartridge carbine” most of the time we think of a 9mm semi auto that uses Glock mags or such like. Once upon a time when the handgun was chambered in 44/40 or 38/40 the pistol cartridge carbine was a way to increase the shooter’s fire power. It can still do that today. 

Happy Handgun Hunting-RDY