Bob’s Model 44 Carbine

I cannot help but mention Big Bob’s passing one more time as well as talk about his Ruger Model 44 and the 44 Mag as a deer round. Big Bob only made it to our camp a few times. I rode him around in the truck. His legs had given out even before we got the place back in 2001. However, I always called Bob first whenever I got a deer or a turkey. He had been the major reason for my interest in hunting and shooting back in the early ’80s. Back then, I was a kid fresh out of college and he had not even gone gray. I watched his beard go gray, and then he watched mine. This was the first year I couldn’t call Bob to tell him about my buck. I miss the guy.

So what about his rifle? I had a real interest in getting his Model 44 working for a bunch of reasons. One is obvious; it reminded me of him. The other was a bit more complicated and perverse. I grew up an Ohio deer hunter. Back when I was hunting Ohio, we were only allowed shotguns, muzzleloaders, and few handguns. I always hunted with a 12 Ga. I haven’t hunted Ohio since 2001 when we got the farm. Since then Ohio has had two iterations of its new Pistol Caliber for Rifles (PCR) rules. Both have included 44 Rem Mag as a legal deer round. I’m pretty well done with hunting Ohio, but I wanted to try out a PCR-compliant rifle and get a feel for how it changes things. It really did not. I thought it would. I was wrong.

Look, I’m not saying Ohio did anything wrong. It is a huge step forward for Ohio deer hunters, and I hope and pray they eventually enjoy the same freedom of choice that Kentucky offers. However, the 44 Rem Mag was not that much of a change over a 12 GA slug. Cost? Yes. For sure. It beats $1/round plus for a deer slug. Recoil? You bet. I hardly noticed the 44 Mag’s recoil. Effectiveness? I maybe gained a few yards, and the damage to the buck was similar to what I’d expect from a slug. The overall experience did not change. I still had to worry about picking a venue that was tighter than I could have managed with a 30-06.

What will I do with the 44 Mag? I’m taking it hog hunting in Georgia shortly. I’m really sold on the round and the rifle as a whole. I have been told most of my shots will be under 40 yards. However, for Kentucky deer season, it may be an also-ran. The effective range of the 44 Mag is shorter than a 30-30. The buck I shot was only 80 yards out. The terminal effects of the bullet were okay, but not the total obliteration I see from my 30-somethings (30-06, etc). In Ohio, it would be a grand addition to the deer battery. Here in Kentucky, I can’t get all that worked up.

Where it will make sense is in exactly the sort of deep woods venue that I blooded it.  I used to do all my hunting– bow, rifle, whatever– from a raised stand in the woods.  I normally took deer at bow range (inside 40 yards) and gun season for me in Ohio was just an extension of bow season.  I took a lot of deer that way.  I have only 2 stands and 1 ground blind that I use as hunting venues. The reason why is that once I stopped bow hunting in 2007, and I focused on rifle hunting, the chances of taking a deer at longer ranges increased.  Deer are starting to feed out in the fields by the time of the Rifle Opener in mid-November.  They’re definitely off acorns out and out in the pastures by the time it ends in late November.  My operating range went from inside 80 yards to inside 200 yards.  However, I usually spend several days in the early part of the season hunting out of these deep woods venues. The Model 44 will be perfect for that.

If I ever get off my butt and do some still hunting, this Model 44 will be with me for sure. I can see why it is considered the epitome of a close-in deer rifles. In previous years, I’ve tried to spend at least a day kicking it up old-style with my Rem 1100 and 12 GA sluggers– hunting Buckeye style even if I was not in the state. The problem is that very few of my regular hunting venues require stalking, and with the creeping effects of age, I find the urge to go pussyfooting eluding me. I probably would have still hunted at least a day this year, but the sore throat, the cough, and then that thing with my right foot last weekend really killed that idea. Middle age has a way of doing that– one damn little thing after another. Watching Bob taught me that.

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