Buffalo Bore 44 Mag 180gr JHP – Decisive Anti-Personnel Load

Description

The Buffalo Bore 44 Mag 180gr JHP is the jacketed half of Buffalo Bore’s anti-personnel pair. Where almost everything else in their catalogue is built to drive through bone, this one is built to open early and stay put. A 180 grain jacketed hollow point at 1500 fps carries about 899 ft-lbs, and from a carbine that figure climbs past 1500.

• Buffalo Bore 44 Mag 180gr JHP Overview
• Anti-Personnel 44 Magnum Load Ballistics
• Why The 180 Grain Jacketed Hollow Point Bullet Expands So Readily
• Specifications
• Guns That Take This Fast Opening Home Defense Revolver Ammo

Buffalo Bore 44 Mag 180gr JHP Overview

Buffalo Bore item 4I is their Anti-Personnel 44 Magnum in jacketed form. The 180 grain jacketed hollow point runs a nominal 1500 fps for roughly 899 ft-lbs. Twenty rounds per box.

Buffalo Bore chronographed it at 1500 fps from a 5.5 inch Ruger Super Blackhawk, 1480 fps from a 5.5 inch Ruger Redhawk and 1387 fps from a four inch Smith & Wesson Model 329. From a 16.5 inch Marlin 1894 it gave 1871 fps, and 1961 fps from the 18.5 inch version.

At 1961 fps a 180 grain bullet is worth about 1537 ft-lbs. That is rifle territory from a pistol cartridge, and it is the reason a 44 Magnum lever gun makes a serious house gun.

Most people who own a 44 Magnum bought it for the outdoors, then kept it by the bed because it was the biggest thing in the safe. Buffalo Bore built this anti-personnel 44 Magnum load for exactly that owner, and being specific about the job is what makes it good at it.

Anti-Personnel 44 Magnum Load Ballistics

At 1500 fps a 180 grain bullet produces about 899 ft-lbs, from grains times velocity squared divided by 450437. Slightly under the standard 240 grain 44 Magnum figure, achieved with a bullet that recoils considerably less and gets back on target faster.

The four inch Model 329 still turns in 1387 fps, or about 769 ft-lbs. For a 26 ounce alloy framed revolver that is a lot of performance from a load that does not hurt to shoot.

The difference between this and the cast version of the same load is small on paper: 1500 fps against 1550, 899 ft-lbs against 960. The real difference is in how the two bullets behave after impact.

Trajectory and sight regulation favour the lighter bullet at defensive distance. A 180 grain jacketed hollow point bullet leaves the barrel quickly enough that point of impact stays close to point of aim inside twenty five yards in most revolvers.

Why The 180 Grain Jacketed Hollow Point Bullet Expands So Readily

A jacketed hollow point expands by design rather than by softness. The copper jacket is scored or shaped so the nose peels into petals around the cavity, and the jacket then holds the lead core together rather than letting it shed. Expansion is wide, consistent and repeatable.

Being light for the calibre helps in two ways. The bullet arrives faster, which drives expansion harder, and it carries less momentum once open, which keeps penetration where you want it for defensive use indoors.

Against the cast hollow point in the same line, the jacketed bullet generally opens a little more uniformly and holds more of its weight. The cast bullet is cheaper to make and tends to expand more violently. Both are honest choices; this is the more predictable of the two.

What neither is meant for is animals. A bear or a hog needs a hard cast flat nose that will push through a shoulder, and a fast opening home defense revolver ammo design is built to do the opposite of that.

The jacket also means no lead exposed to the bore, so this load leaves nothing behind to clean out and shoots the same on round twenty as it did on round one.

Everything about it follows one decision: a 180 grain jacketed hollow point bullet moving fast enough to open every time, and no faster than it needs to.

Specifications

Guns That Take This Fast Opening Home Defense Revolver Ammo

This is standard pressure 44 Magnum and suits any firearm chambered for the cartridge in sound working order. Buffalo Bore tested it across Ruger single and double actions, the alloy framed Smith & Wesson Model 329 and Marlin lever guns.

The lever gun numbers are the ones worth planning around. If you keep a Marlin 1894, a Rossi 92 or a Henry in 44 Magnum for home defence, this load turns it into something with real authority while keeping the muzzle blast and the overpenetration risk lower than a heavy hard cast bullet would.

In a short barrelled carry revolver the light bullet weight is the whole point. 44 Magnum carbine defensive ammunition and a pocketable revolver rarely share a box well, but this one works honestly in both.

One caution that applies to any 44 Magnum indoors: the muzzle blast is severe, and a carbine only partly tames it. Keep hearing protection where you can reach it.

44 Magnum Carbine Defensive Ammunition Availability

This Buffalo Bore 44 Mag 180gr JHP is in stock and ships from our Collegeville, Pennsylvania shop. MAG5 Firearms is a family owned FFL dealer, and orders of this 44 Magnum carbine defensive ammunition normally leave within one business day.

The cast version of the same load is the Buffalo Bore 44 Mag 180gr Cast HP. For a heavier general purpose bullet see the Buffalo Bore 44 Mag 240gr JHP, and for animal defence the Buffalo Bore 44 Mag 255gr Hard Cast Keith penetrates far deeper. Tested velocities are published by Buffalo Bore Ammunition.