I love the .44 mag. Although I don't have a lo of hunting experience, I do have a lot of shooting and reloading experience. If you had a hard time finding ammo for the .44. Try Midway USA...midwayusa.com. When they have a sale, I buy huge amounts of all calibers from them. Then I load the brass for the next several years. Midway is rarely out of ammo, unless their is a shortage like last year.
When I plan a handgun hunt, one day, I'll use my .44 revolver and stuff it with cast lead loads of about 260 grains moving at 1,100 out of the muzzle. With iron sites, I'm good for 3" group at 75 yards with the 5.5" barrel.
Several brands are available at midway, cabelas, bass pro, etc. with the hard cast lead loads.
Go here, http://beartoothbullets.com/ and read about hunting with the .44 mag and other articles about wound channels on game with handgun calibers. Great info!
Good luck with that rifle. I have one with a 4x scope, one with a red dot sight and one open sighted. They are great and a lot of fun at the range.
