I took both of my north Georga bucks this year using my 1894 .44 mag. The load is a 200 grain XTP on 28 grains of W296. Book velocity shows ~2100fps out of a 20-inch barrel. (now that I have my Garmin in hand, I will get actual numbers my next good range day)
I am not complaining about the performance of the XTP load, both bucks went down quick and had good blood trails. I'm trying to get away from lead bullets for hunting. In 2022 both of my deer was taken with a .280 using Accubonds. I process my own meat and pride myself in getting all I can while being extremely clean and meticulous. Long story short, I found lead fragments in cooked meat. One in hamburger, I will put that one on me for trying to save too much meat. The other came out of, off of a roast cut out of a hind quarter, I'm still baffled on how a tiny fragment could end up there. I went to Nosler E-tip in the .280 and the Barnes TTSX on the .308s.
This year I had one complete pass through and I recovered one bullet from just under the skin on the other with the .44 mag. Pics below, Recovered bullet weighs 186.7 grains. That's 13.3 grains of lead that went somewhere.
Non lead choices are limited and my leading candidate is the Barnes XPB, the only other option I see is Lehigh Defense extreme penetrator, the only 2 nonlead I have found marketed for hunting. I cannot find any rifle data on either of these. Anyone use these out of a rifle on game? I can find plenty reviews on the XPB from a revolver but no rifle reviews.