[Tatersoup]

Just curious.

I keep thinking that the Winchester White Box 240 grain JFP would work well, but not sure it will have enough penetration.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Oz]

You won't get better. Those Win factory loads are hot and accurate and will drill any pig side to side.

Cheers,
Mark.

 

[Mckmain80]

If you don't reload then I would agree with the above.

A real thumper out of my 1894 .44 mag.

mckmain

 

[Brian in FL]

You pretty much can't go wrong with those Winchester white box jacketed softpoint cartridges.

 

[lilwoody]

Check each and every shell you are going to hunt with if you use Win white box. The last box of WB I bought had 7 shells that weren't crimped, at all! The bullets were so loose it jammed a S&W 629, I could pull the bullets out of the case with my fingers. I'm really glad I didn't load them into the 94.
As for me, for off the shelf hunting ammo there is nothing better than the Leverevolutions. Yea their a buck a piece but they just flat put critters DRT and are very accurate. I haven't made up my mind yet to use my hand loads next season or the LEs, it's hard to argue with proven results. I've got a good load that the 94 really likes with 23.2 grs of H110 and a 240 gr XTP. It will hold 3 inch groups @ 100 yds with the buck horns, off a rest. I just need to crono it to see if it's got the thump the LEs do.

 

[Corbi]

I'm going to mimick Oz. The Winchester white box ammo was the first ammo I shot through my 94. Hot and accurate is a good description.

If I didn't reload that is the exact ammo I would use.

Corbi

 

[Asherdan]

What Cobi and Oz said. I used WWB before I started reloading. Took two pigs between 150 and 200 pounds with them, both at ~160 yards on quartering shots. In one side and out the far shoulder on both. The WWB clocked at 1705 fps through my 20" 1894 and was ~2 MOA accurate.

 

[Oz]

Aint that interesting. I never chronoed WWBs but when I started to reload for the .44, I worked up a very accurate load using the old Hercules 2400 and Speer 240gn jhp, and it was well over the book maximum, the interesting thing is, it chronoed right at 1705fps. :-\

Mark

 

[Tatersoup]

Great information, all. Thanks so much.

 

[Asherdan]

Aint that interesting. I never chronoed WWBs but when I started to reload for the .44, I worked up a very accurate load using the old Hercules 2400 and Speer 240gn jhp, and it was well over the book maximum, the interesting thing is, it chronoed right at 1705fps. :-\

Huh, when I started reloading my standard hunting load became a .430 240g XTP loaded with 20.5g of the Alliant 2400 for 1745 fps. I stopped there because of cloverleaf accuracy. For cheaps, I can load the Magtech .429 240g SP to 1720 fps with the same charge and accuracy. I checked three manuals and got a range of 20.5, 21 and 21.5 as max charges, so I felt good about stopping where I did.

Was that max load you're referencing the old Alliant 18.7g one they finally revised to 21g with their 2008 manual? I went with Hornady and Lyman info and took that with a grain of salt.

To stay on topic, a 240g JSP at ~1700fps is very good medicine.

 

[Oz]

That load was 22gns of Hercules 2400, WW cases, CCI 300 primer, Speer 240gn jhp. The bloke who owned the chrony wouldn't let anyone else shoot over it so he did the shooting and got a 1 inch group, then wanted to buy the rifle.

 

[viking]

I had a 1894 in 44 that did not like much, however when I fed it the old go to load of 22 grains of the old 2400 and a 240 grain XTP it shot fine.