Thanks to the Indiana "rifle" season, my son got his second deer (first was a buck, last year) today with his (formerly my
) 1894 in 44 mag, using factory Winchester 240 soft points. It was a doe and dropped like a sack of flour.
A guy in the gun shop a few weeks ago was buying some of those $3 apiece saboted slugs and saying he liked them because they were not only accurate, but were 'awesomely powerful' - the box said it fired a 250 grain [saboted pistol] bullet at 1875 fps. The funny part is that a few minutes earlier someone came in wanting a Handi-Rifle in .44 Mag, and this guy was one of the ones who talked him out of it and into a Handi-Rifle in .500 S&W, because they didn't think that a .44 Mag had enough 'punch' for whitetail.
I've not chrono'd my son's loads/gun, but I'll bet that what he's sending downrange is just about identical to those fancy saboted slugs. Deer don't seem to complain about the difference, anyhow.
Very true. I had a so-called "expert" tell me once that the 30-30 was "ok" for kids and women to shoot 80 lb deer with at 50 yards! I laughed out loud and then calmed myself enough to thank him for that nugget of wisdom. Imagine that, he was actually mad that I laughed! 
