I realize this question is quite controversial and it all depends on what you want to do with it but I would like to know what people shoot for all things and what you all believe is the best multi purpose. So far I have shot only 240grain in Remington, winchester, and blazer. The blazer was quite light recoil and nice for target, well to sight in the gun, the Remington and winchester rounds had far more recoil. I would like to get good at shooting high recoil. But for personal protection I want something that will work well on most aggressors. I am always traveling around and go hunting often. I would like a round that can take down a bear but will do good for hunting, since thats what im looking forward to do with the gun. Im still new at this so please bare with me as I need to learn the whole load, velocity, stopping power thing. TIA

Luzbel

.44 200 gr. Win Silvertips have worked for me ever since the came out..Rifles better for bears; .30 caliber and up.

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NRA Life Member and Instructor

Back when I actually did carry my 629 Classic for defense I settled on Remmington's 210gr SJHP.

Sadly, they no longer make it anymore in a factory loading. I wish enough folks would bug Remingtion for it (the original catalog number was R44MG6) that they'd bring it back.

The bullet is still available though so I have a handload that comes close to the original factory ballistics.

As SD guns in black bear country, I carry a S&W 329 for backpacking and a Ruger Alaskan for car/ATV camping....all 2.5" barrels. Hornady 300 gr for some reason doesn't suffer to badly from velocity loss with the short barrels, so I am happy to be getting around 1069 fps velocity/761 ft-lbs energy with that load.

I also have a 7.5" Ruger SRH. I'm not a hunter, and while the SRH is lots of fun at the range, it is to big and heavy to be of any practical use hiking and camping. Hornady lists the 300 gr at 1150 fps velocity/881 ft-lbs from a 7.5" barrel.

For practice, I shoot Remington 180 gr which is usually more reasonably priced, and has less recoil than the Hornady's.

You will find this interesting (JJ Hack posts)! http://forums.accuratereloading.com/...10798#43810798

Lots of good valuable info here, thank you gentlemen. I do not intend to use the gun for hunting bears but I do want it to respond in case I am hunting something like hog or deer with it and run across a bear. I might want too much from a round but something that is well rounded is my goal. I already bought Lee's Single stage reloading kit and im just waiting for my reloading manuals so I can buy the powder, bullets, and primers. I hope to be able to make something that works. How would I test ballistics? a cheap way? lol being a college student is really hard on the wallet and with bullet prices making gas prices look like a breast feeding child shooting is a challenge.

You can line up gallon water jugs and shoot them (at least 6 or more with a .44). It will give you some info on the expansion of your bullet and a rough estimate of penetration.
I always shoot up some hard stuff as well, like big chunks of wood. Then I split them open and see how far the bullet went. This gives you an estimation of how well the load will do against bone and such.

Keep in mid that water jugs simulates a well placed unobstructed chest shot, something that might be realistic while hunting....but will never happen on a defensive shot. To get more realistic, you can put hard targets like wood or a side of ribs in front of the water jugs, to better simulate how the bullet will do after is passes through some bone.

"Velocity" is effected by barrel length, so don't ignore that. Manufacturer's publish velocities for long test barrels, that are overly optomistic in real life. http://www.gunandgame.com/forums/pow...-velocity.html

"Energy" is a rough indication of "stopping power". Energy=(mass X velocity squared), so it tends to some extent to overrate velocity (which gets squared!) and underrate bullet mass and caliber, at least when calculated for a big bore handgun. The calculation is probably at its most realistic when used for fast moving rifle bullets.

Energy Calculator (read the notes about "Efficacy", sectional density, etc.): Muzzle Energy Computer

Don't underestimate bears! A buddy of mine was deer hunting. He was anticipating long cross canyon shots with a .308, so he was using a middleweight bullet that was designed to expand even at long range (even after much velocity loss). He scurried down a brushy hillside, and at the bottom came face to face with a mother bear and two cubs! She charged him and he fired three rounds into her before she went down. Most likely, shot placement under stress wasn't perfect (downside of having to use a scoped rifle at very close range!), but also his bullets "blew up" at such high velocity and failed to penetrate deeply. Now....he carries a sidearm while hunting!

My dad has his 270 scoped but it has an "isolator" (i guess you would call it) that lifts the scope up and allows you to use the sites. Yea the side arm is a must. both my dad and I got the 629's for defense and lately we've been using them as CC. hard to conceal but works. Thanks for the info. I will be deeply reading into all of it!

For what its worth S&W test fires their .44's with Federal 240 gn hp.

For an all-around .44 I like the Win. 240gr JSP, #Q4240. They also make it in a HP. I used it productively for whitetail (and the occasional pesky 'yote) until I discovered Hornady's Leverevolution round. I like to keep my Ruger SBH on my side even when I have a rifle.

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Fast is fine;accurate is final

for defense; federal premium, personal defense 240 grain hydro sok jhp.

pinking reloads; 240 grain cast; 9 grains unique.

Ditto On The Winchester 44 200 grn. Silvertips

Garrett Cartridges Inc. 44 mag .45-70 .44 ammo ammunition bullets african hunting cartridges is all I use for hunting - I believe in penetration and Mr. Garrett wrote the book on it. He developed a load for a 329pd at a little over 1000fps, all the way up to some +p stuff that I simply cannot control (yet).

My favorite handload for my .44 is 13.5 grains of Unique, with either a225 or 240 grain bullet. Solid deer killer!