Hornady's LEVERevolution 225-grain FTX is the .44 Magnum load built around a lever gun: its flexible polymer tip is designed for tube magazines, and the bullet is meant to expand on impact. It leaves the muzzle at 1,410 fps with 993 ft-lbs and a power factor of 317, 152 points over the USPSA major floor of 165; every load compared here makes major comfortably. From a 25-yard zero it sits 0.8 inches low at 50 yards and 6.7 inches low at 100, where it still carries 615 ft-lbs at 1,110 fps.

Its comparison set is mostly 240-grain hollow points, and the Hornady sits in the middle of them. Magtech 240 SJSP is the heavy hitter: 401 ft-lbs more at the muzzle, 2.1 inches less drop at 100 yards, and about 45 percent more recoil energy in the same revolver. Atomic Bonded Match 240 also kicks harder, by about 27 percent. Going the other way, Armscor 240 carries 352 ft-lbs less, and Federal HST 230 drops 4.3 inches more at 100 yards, 11.0 to 6.7, while producing about 33 percent less recoil energy in the same revolver.

Buy this if you hunt with a .44 Magnum lever gun; it is the one load in the set designed around a tube magazine. From a revolver its numbers are ordinary for the weight, and a hunter who wants more should look at Hornady's own Backcountry Defense 240-grain hard cast at 1,398 ft-lbs, 405 more at the muzzle, for about 45 percent more recoil energy in the same revolver. A shooter loading a .44 Magnum for self-defense rather than hunting is better served by Federal HST 230, which gives up 392 ft-lbs but is the softest load in the set.