Ruger's Big Bores: The 99/44 Deerfield & .45-70 No. 1

Guns Magazine, May, 2001 by John Taffin

Whether you fancy a modern semi-auto or a traditional single shot, Ruger has a handy hunting rifle for you.

After dropping the .44 Mag. Carbine from production 15 years ago, Ruger now re-introduces the .44 Mag. in a new incarnation -- the Model 99/44. This new, gas-operated .44 Mag. weighs 6 lbs. 3 oz, and has an 18 1/2" barrel with a 1:20 twist, and six-groove rifling instead of the old 12-groove rifling. The rear sight is now a folding aperture. Ruger scope rings are provided, and the list price is $649.

As so often happens with manufacturers, Ruger dropped the original .44 carbine because of the cost of production. In the new Deerfield, this expense has been addressed with simplified gas-operated feeding mechanisms. Instead of a tubular magazine, the new Deerfield operates from a four-round rotary magazine.

According to Ruger, "all major components of the Ruger Deerfield carbine are made from heat-treated, chrome-molybdenum alloy steel. The rotating bolt has dual front locking lugs that lock directly into the reinforced receiver, which provides the most rigid of breeching systems. The interlocking relationship between the hammer, firing pin, bolt and receiver prevents the firing of the cartridge until the bolt is fully and securely locked in the receiver." All these features combine to create a very enjoyable .44 Mag. rifle.

An Old .44 With New Tricks

Although the Deerfield comes with a gold bead front sight and a receiver-mounted peep sight, we chose to use a Simmons 4x scope mounted with the excellent Ruger rings. Being a semi-automatic rifle, the Deerfield sends fired brass flying out of the top of the receiver where it bangs into the bottom of the scope. For those who may be concerned about their scope being beaten up by the fired brass, Ruger provides a wraparound protective covering for the scope. Be advised that this covering will not fit all scopes, depending upon the size of the turrets.

The Deerfield is quite selective as to which ammunition it will use. Overall length must be such that cartridges will enter the magazine, thus precluding the use of some of the heavy-duty hunting ammunition now available with long 300 gr. bullets.

One notable exception is .44 Mag. ammunition loaded with 300 gr. Hornady XTP JHP bullets. Such loads are available from Black Hills, Cor-Bon, and of course, Hornady. Speer's heavy-bullet loading using the 270 gr. Gold Dot also feeds flawlessly. The Deerfield easily handled and shot those .44 Mag. loads with both 180 and 200 gr. JHP bullets. Ruger cautions against the use of cast bullets because of the danger of lead buildup in the gas port.

Having done considerable shooting of .44 Mag. loads in leverguns from Browning, Marlin, Rossi and Winchester, we expected quite a pounding from the Ruger Deerfield. Leverguns in .44 Mag. can take their toll after a long shooting session.

The Deerfield, however, due to both the gas operating system and an excellent stock design, keeps felt recoil to a minimum. In fact, this is one very pleasant-shooting rifle. The recoil experienced by the shooter is much less than one would expect for the muzzle energy that is delivered.

The Big-Bore Dozen

For testing the Deerfield, 12 factory hunting loads were chosen from seven different manufacturers. These included Black Hills, Cor-Bon, Federal, Hornady, Speer, Triton and Winchester. The lightest bulleted load was Federal's 180 gr. JHP, which also featured the fastest muzzle velocity at 2,105 fps. Three loads -- Black Hills, CorBon and Hornady -- were loaded with the 300 gr. XTP bullet.

The Deerfield will primarily be used as a relatively close-range hunting rifle for animals the size of deer and black bear. For this application, no one should have any problem precisely placing shots with this .44 Mag. carbine. Tests show that this is one very accurate rifle, especially given that we are shooting rather stubby sixgun bullets instead of conventional rifle bullets. At 50 yards, three-shot groups of less than 1" were not at all uncommon.

Black Hills' 240 gr. .44 Mag. loading, one of our favorite sixgun loads for hunting whitetail deer, clocks out at 1,643 fps from the Deerfield and places three shots in 3/4" at 50 yards. It repeats this with Cor-Bon's 300 gr. XTP load at 1,563 fps, and also with Hornady's 300 XTP load at 1,462 fps. Winchester's 250 gr. Partition Gold clocked out at 1,675 fps and placed all three shots in 5/8", while Triton's 240 gr. JHP, with a muzzle velocity of 1,733 fps, even bettered this with a group of 1/2". This is one good-shooting, easy-handling, light-weight .44 Magnum.

Speer's 270 gr. Gold Dot, with a muzzle velocity of 1,645 fps, grouped its three shots into 11/8" at 50 yards and gave a 100-yard performance that would make many a bolt-action rifle envious -- three shots in 11/4".

Big-Bore Single Shot

Many of Ruger's firearm designs show a nostalgic link to the past. The Single-Six, the Blackhawk and the Super Blackhawk all have their roots in our frontier past. Ruger also reached into the past to bring forth the Model No. 1 single-shot rifle. While the Deerfield is a compact semi-automatic rifle for deer and black bear hunting, Ruger's No. 1 single-shot rifle has been chambered in a whole array of cartridges, from flat-shooting varmint rounds to some of the most powerful rounds available.