It is an honour to be able to contribute to this thread. When you search for hunting with the Winchester 73, this is a thread that comes up often and so I have come across this thread many times since I am a both a .44-40 fan, a lever action fan, and like to use them for hunting. (I actually just did my first CAS match last weekend also too)
I bought this Uberti '73 short rifle six weeks ago, it has a 20'octagonal barrel. I load it with soft lead cast bullets from an Accurate Mold designed by John Kort (W44WCf on this forum), his 43-215C and 36 grains of 3F black powder. This gets me 1200 - 1220 fps which is about right, this will shoot 5 shots into 3 inches at 100metres with the factory sights.
Rarely have I been so excited to receive a rifle. And I have had a lot of rifles in my time, but I was really looking foward to this one. As well, it came just n time for a hunting trip I had planned to the mountains the next week. The deer here are European red deer, same species as American elk.
on this trip I shot two red deer hinds, both looked the same below. (My camera died after this one photo, it was the only picture I took on the whole trip) Both were shot with black powder .44-40 loads replicating the original ballistics of the cartridge.
I found that despite the low velocity, and the soft pure lead, the bullets all exited. The first deer above was shot once and died only a few feet from where I shot her. A second deer shot later I had to shoot again because I shot too high - the wound was mortal I discovered later, but I wasnt waiting to find out, because I was experiencing what black powder shooters knew better than me, because of the cloud of smoke when I fired, and with open sights, I wasn't sure exactly if I had hit the deer where I intended, and I didnt get to see the the animals reaction to the shot as one might with smokeless modern rifles. So I payed the insurance, as they say.
So all bullets completely exited going through and through. I ddint autopsy the deer properly, I would have liked to see exactly what the bullets did, but it was getting dark soon and I was a long way from camp.
I was well pleased with how the .44 Winchester performed. I carried it a great deal, as the hunting where I am is all backpack hunting, and shifting fly (spike) camps often, and with many river crossings and climbing up ridges through thick bush too. I am glad I got a short rifle, as a 24 inch barrel might have been too heavy for carrying, I am pleased with it as it is.
I am also pleased with the performance of the black powder load and bullet, I cant see where these deer would be any deader if I shot them with my .270. And I got a real kick out of this rifle shooting black powder...the thumping concussion of it is always impressive.