Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Hornady 44 cal. 200gr. XTP?

Has anyone used the 200gr. on WT deer? Or should a heavier bullet be used?


Thanks,
jr1968.

I have use it in 240 gr in 44 and 158gr in 357mag on a lot of deer and hogs with good results fla deer are a lot smaller than ny deer

My Marlin shoots the 240's best. And the Hornady factory loads shoot accurate enough that I don't even hand load for it anymore.

Its been a while, but I've loaded it in the 444 using 44 Rem mag load data..

Recoil is as mild as a hiccup....

Loaded it that way for kid who was using Grandpa's old lever gun he wanted to take out,
since gramps had passed away and left him the gun... the kid was 12 or 14 range...

he was hunting within woods ranges of 100 yds or less...

shot placement was easy for him... and the bullet did its job easily...

Oregon Blacktail...antelope sized deer.

Pistol or rifle ?

My family used the 200 grain Hornady and Speer bullets in muzzleloaders before the XTP line was introduced. The 240s back then didn't expand reliably. Once the XTPs were introduced we went to the 240s and stayed there.

Too light for my tastes, but I’m old school. memtb

I’ve only used the 240 grain XTP in .44 mag (rifle and revolver) and the 210 in .41 mag. Both have worked well for me on deer.

I seem to recall having read an article once in which the writer opined that best practice was to stay somewhere around the “standard” bullet weight for revolver loads intended for hunting, that by doing so, one would achieve the best combination of speed, penetration and accuracy. Makes sense to me.

A friend of mine shot a whitetail doe a few years ago with one out of a marlin rifle. We found the bullet in it . It weighed 196 grains. I wouldn't be afraid to use them.

My new rifle is a CVA Hunter with a 1 ;20 twist, I went to my local gun shop to get some 240 gr. XTP's, but all they had was Sierra 210 JHC's, so I got those to load up and see how they shoot.

If not I will have to order some 240's



Do you remember the yardage of the shot ?

jr1968

The 200 will get the job done within reasonable range but the 240 or heavier is a better choice for bigger deer. We had a good size buck shot with a 240 XTP at 55 yards broadside behind the shoulder and it didn't fully penetrate. Killed the deer just fine, but I wouldn't want to hit one in the shoulder with the 200 after that experience.

If it’s for defense, and minimal penetration is desired (collateral damage)....then this is your bullet. If for hunting, I’d certainly go with a heavier bullet. As I much prefer exit wounds, I like cast bullets for most any game, particularly for hogs and/or larger big game! I’ve found that wide metplat, hard cast bullets work quite well on antelope, smaller bear, etc. if you’re hunting larger big game, or larger hogs, go with a heavy for caliber (260 grain and up), wide metplat, hard cast! JMO. memtb

My favorite 44 cal XTP is the 300gr. It expands just as well as the 240 but with more bullet shank behind it. When cranked up to MZ loader speeds it is way good. I never recovered one. I like this bullet so much that i tried to use it in 54 cal inline Remington MZ. Accuracy was not good with a sabot. So i had to move on to 45 cal version 300gr. which works but sectional density is worse.I have not shot anything living with the 44 cal 300 gr XTP from a pistol. The XTP is a good bullet for the money.

it was about 50 yards

Use that bullet exclusively in my 629 Classic with WW296 powder. It has accounted for a good number of white tails for me with zero complaints from me or the deer. Moving obviously faster than the 240 grain but still has a significant punch....I found it to be an excellent load.

I used the 200 Gr. XTP in my T/C contender with a 10" barrel for Whitetails. Worked fine. Always got ggod penetration with an exit wound and nice expansion on broadside shots.

Up front, I am not a big fan of XTPs. Even though whitetail aren't hard to kill, I think a 200 grain .44 bullet is too light. You will really have to pick and choose your angle. I prefer more flexibility from a perspective of available shots.

I have to concur with this. We shot about a million wt deer with 80 grains of pyrodex or 777 under a 240xtp and they are really reliable killers of normal size wt at normal ranges.

That said, we've found more than a few seperated from jacket and not complete pass throughs, including one pretty miserable failure on a shoulder of a very very large buck.

So there deer is dead, how can you complain? 1lost deer (on good hits) out of literally hundreds... cant say thats a bad record.

But with the 300 grain you get the same deadness and we've never trapped one inside of a deer. in 1-28 twists they seem ot be as accurate if not maybe better/more tolerant of powder charge variation.

To the OP, I used th 180 and 200 xtps in sabots way back in... late 80's very early 90's? Like many, I was chasing speed in a ML rifle. I hit 2 deer with them... hoestly dont recall if it was 180 or 200 grain.

one was a lung shot at about 45 yards on a110lb doe. She ran 20 yards and died. The other was on a wounded deer (not my shot) and I hit it in the head from about the same distance and it was predictably devastating.

So, thats a sample of two, which is about worthless.

I used the 200 grain XTP bullet in my .44-40 carbines with loads at velocities (depending on my whim) between 1300fps and 1700fps. I have noticed no difference in performance or penetration between the 200 grain and the 240 grain XTP bullet on our red deer, which are much bigger than whitetails.
It is also a very accurate bullet in three different .44 rifles.