Big bore scoped hunting revolver

I'm very pleased with my Ruger Blackhawk Hunter (stainless, Bisley grip) in .44 mag. It is indeed a shooter. My longest take with it is a 6-point whitetail at 65 yards, but I believe I could have taken one at a good deal greater distance. I have a 4X on top of it.

I also use a Contender super 14" in 30-30 Win. I've taken several deer with it at various distances. One was WAY longer than I should have been shooting, but one shot and down.

Good luck.

Velocity gives flatter shooting for distance. All bullets drop after leaving the muzzle and slower bullets drop more over a given distance to target. The 45 Colt is a fine cartridge but it is not built for speed. I have a big frame Ruger in 45 Colt and you can handload a 45 Colt to higher velocity for it or buy boutique ammo that is loaded hot. However Ruger does not recommend it. I looked on their website and found nothing about it so I emailed Ruger and asked that question. Their response was, "All of our Firearms are designed to handle all US Industry Standard Ammunition made to SAAMI Spec. We cannot recommend using the 45 Colt +P in our guns as it is not a SAAMI cartridge." FWIW the SAMMI spec for 45 Colt is a Max Average transducer Pressure (MAP) of 14,000 PSI. Now will a big frame Ruger safely handle more, very likely yes. But if you get a revolver chambered in 454 Casull or 460 S&W, the MAP for those rounds is 65,000 PSI so you have a lot options for speed which equates to flatter shooting plus either of these will shoot 45 Colt as well. YMMV

I mainly hunt with a scoped 9 1/2" Ruger Super Redhawk chambered in .44 Magnum. I have it sighted to be dead on at 100 yards. My 5-shot groups at 100 yards average less than 3".



The orange dot is 3" in diameter.


This year, I've gotten back into T/C Contenders and will be using a 14" T/C chambered in 7-30 Waters. At 100 yards, I put 5-shots into a 1" group!





Unless you plan on hunting T-Rex, I see no need for something in 45-70. The recoil in a handgun can be.......well......enlightening!

My go to hunting handgun is a S&W 29 with 8 3/8" barrel topped with an Adco red dot on a Leupold base. If you are seeking T-Rex, a 300gr bullet loaded to the upper end will do the job.

Lafitte

I used to shoot a 44 mag Redhawk with scope at 100 yards for target shooting. The integral mounts were just right for me and the gun could do anything I could do. This was 20 years ago and I suspect that combination is still effective and somewhat economical too.

I have the Contender in 45-70Govt. and 44mag. The 45-70 is fun to shoot but you don't want to run a lot of rounds through it. The 44mag is equally as fun and is a little easier on the wallet. I reload for both just because I like the consistency of my own ammo.

I think the Ruger Super Redhawk is hands down the most gun for the money you can find for such as you are describing. I've got one in .454 w/ a 2x Weaver and it does very well.

A piece of advice I'd offer is don't over-scope the gun. I find the 2x manageable even when shooing off-hand. The 4x my brother had I was really only comfortable shooting off of a rest.

Everything mentioned above would serve you well but mt choice would be a BFR.

I would probably buy a BFR in .460 S&W Magnum since I could then also fire 454 Casull or .45 Colt ammo in the same revolver. The .460 will shoot flat out at distances and any of the three cartridges could be used for hunting depending upon what you are hunting.

I have a super redhawk .44 magnum with a 2x scope that I consider good out to 125 yards or so before it starts dropping like a rock. If I wanted a gun with a bit more reach out to 175yds or so, I'd get another SR in .454 because scoping it is so easy and I am confident with the SR's accuracy. Anything further and I'd start looking at a TC contender in a bottleneck cartridge.
A .460 would be neat, but I don't see the value over a .454 for long range target work when a contender can offer better cartridges for long range 200+ yards.

Honestly, it sounds like a .44 mag SRH or the hunters model SBH with scope mounts would suit you fine. I use mine for the same, target shooting to 150yds with plans to hunt to 75 or so.

Another vote for the 460 S&W. For longer range pistol hunting it's hard to argue with a 200gr bullet at over 2100 ft/sec.

The S&W revolver is a real nice gun and Wilson Combat makes a scope mount that fits up with no modifications. It's still big, but I think it balances nicer than the BFR.

You can shoot 45 Colts or 454s when you don't need all that power, expense and muzzle blast.

Wear ear protection, even hunting. It's REALLY loud..... 60k psi chamber pressure and a muzzle brake.....

I've had a TC Contender before in .44Magnum, then a nice 3-screw Ruger Super Blackhawk and for the past 20+ years my dream deer slayer . . . a S&W 6" barreled Model 29-5 . . . all of these in .44 Magnum.

You live in Texas so a scope might be better for you, but in my Georgia woods I top my M29 with a 1st generation Bushnell Holosight. This rig has been my main deer gun since about 1998.

Even in a fresh clear cut I once dropped three deer in their tracks within seconds, including a big doe running broadside at 65 yards. Like the other two, she dropped like a stone. I love the Holosight, for it is much faster to swing and accurately hit.

I also took three deer once in a deep wooded bottom, also in mere seconds with three shots using this ultra fast handgun. It is quite accurate and sometimes I pull off a stunt for friends hitting a milk jug with it @ 200 yards (just hold 34" high and it will rainbow right on in with my preferred 300gn. hardcast lead flatnose bullet.

Don't sell a S&W N-frame revolver short. Accurate followup shots are really fast, especially with a holosight . . . and it might be a whole lot of fun if you shoot in open land.



PS: It also works well on coyotes! This one @ 47 yards. Lots of fond memories with this wonderful wheelgun . . . and lots of deer taken with it too!!!

I do all of my handgun hunting with a 6.5" .44 mag Blackhawk flat top. IMO a .44 mag or .45 Colt will do anything you can expect of a handgun. Either will completely penetrate anything up to elk sized game, and do it with cheaper and easier to find components than a .454, .460 or .500. Those calibers are also a lot easier to practice with and come in manageable sized revolvers. A Super Blackhawk hunter or Redhawk would be a great choice for easy scope mounting and won't break the bank.

You can't go wrong with the SBH Hunter(Bisley or regular) in .44 Mag or .45 Colt, a Redhawk, or an N frame Smith.

My handgun hunting began when I was pretty young shooting rabbits and such with my pop's Colt 38 Army Spl. Using the 158gr RN bullets it took me a while to figure out the whole aim at the belly and hit the head thing, since the muzzle rise was getting me nothing but empty cases. In my teens and early 20's I got a LOT more serious about things and picked up a BH in 41 magnum. Open sighted I was sub pie plate accurate open sighted and offhand out to 75yds with the Remington 170 and 210gr factory loads, as well as the same bullets in my handloads.

I swapped that one for a Redhawk around 87 or so, and also picked up the RH in 44 mag. Either of these open sighted are great for hunting. If you handload the 41 is tops in my book, if not the 44 will do all you want to do. If I were strictly looking at one to set up as your wanting, I would probably look hard at the SBH Hunter which already has the points for the mounts milled into the barrel rib. I would not go above a 2X powered scope as has been mentioned it might be great to have the power from the bench, but in a field situation it isn't very easy to use.

I had a 4X Leupold mounted on my 44 for years, and finally removed it after having not one but three nice bucks slip right by me in heavy cover. I was out in a position where no rest was available and I simply couldn't bring myself to point and shoot. The reticle was jumping around like a ping pong ball in a lottery bin. Not saying the 2X would have been much better in that situation, but at least I would have been able to see more than just a blob.

Now I use open sights on them all. I have three RH's chambered from the 41 through the 45 Colt. All have 7.5" barrels which I also feel is better for hitting things at longer ranges. While I know thee are a bunch of folks who have and do use the 5-6" barreled one in the same fashion, I just like having the longer sighting distance.

Other than good optics or sights, your going to need good loads. Not saying you need the top end magnum of the magnums, but loads which are consistent, and that you can bring yourself to shoot hundreds of verses handfuls of. If your loading them yourself, I highly suggest using cast, as you will be able to practice twice as much as you would with jacketed. What you have to remember is that you don't actually have to run a 250'ish grain bullet to light speed in order to hit and or kill something. You can easily have this bullet hitting 1200 - 1300fps or even a touch less, drill a big hole through something. With cast verses jacketed, you get to use the diameter of the caliber and meplat to do the work, where with jacketed your more or less going to have to have the velocity to get the bullet to expand. Not saying that it won't still make a decent hole, but nothing like the wider flat meplat will on a good cast will even at a lower velocity.

The end all will be your practicing and how much you will be able to afford to do. It won't matter what the caliber if you aren't proficient with it. I shoot all the time and there is only one revolver, shooting one load, I am confident with out to 100yds. I have shot literally thousands of them through the years and know how and where they hit at different ranges. That all said, I have retired that load and moved over to cast now, and am right back to the beginning. I am great out to 50yds but that is as far as I would attempt to use them on any game animal. Its not that I couldn't hit something further, but just hitting something somewhere verses hitting just where I want to is worlds apart.

So in your quest for this new rig, you should add in the cost of ammo either factory or handloads, as well as components, as like mentioned your time on the range will determine what is going to actually work out for you. As for caliber, anything from the 41 up through the 460 will do everything you are looking at, your proficiency with them will be the determining factor.

How about a BFR in 454 Casull? That way you can shoot .45 Colt also without having to have the super long cylinder that the 45-70 version has. Frankly if I was getting a long cylinder BFR I'd just assume to get .500 S&W or 460 S&W.

I recently picked up my first BFR, a 454 with 7.5" (really 8"+) barrel and it's great, got it for just over $800 new before tax. For the money the BFR is the nicest single action out there, and although it may not be a Freedom Arms, it doesn't cost $2000+ either.

BFR's in general are very accurate as they come with hand lapped barrels and have a LOT of nice features for the price. Think of the BFR as a nicer Ruger with better fit and finish.

The Super Redhawk 454 is a great option if you'd rather have a double action and I would have went that route if I didn't like single actions better, but I've owned two SRH 454's and both were nice.

Go with the original silhouette revolvers; the Dan Wesson SuperMags. The .445 will do what you want without the recoil of the .454 or .460.

Nice choice

Saleen322 said:

Velocity gives flatter shooting for distance. All bullets drop after leaving the muzzle and slower bullets drop more over a given distance to target. The 45 Colt is a fine cartridge but it is not built for speed. I have a big frame Ruger in 45 Colt and you can handload a 45 Colt to higher velocity for it or buy boutique ammo that is loaded hot. However Ruger does not recommend it. I looked on their website and found nothing about it so I emailed Ruger and asked that question. Their response was, "All of our Firearms are designed to handle all US Industry Standard Ammunition made to SAAMI Spec. We cannot recommend using the 45 Colt +P in our guns as it is not a SAAMI cartridge." FWIW the SAMMI spec for 45 Colt is a Max Average transducer Pressure (MAP) of 14,000 PSI. Now will a big frame Ruger safely handle more, very likely yes. But if you get a revolver chambered in 454 Casull or 460 S&W, the MAP for those rounds is 65,000 PSI so you have a lot options for speed which equates to flatter shooting plus either of these will shoot 45 Colt as well. YMMV

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No manufacturer is going to recommend that you horror their firearms. Rugers are perfectly safe loaded to much higher than even load manuals list in 45 colt. If one sticks to the 30k loads in the manual you will never have a problem and they have a real benefit over 454 guns. Weight, in some cases. Price in all cases. Not to mention that 45 colt cases are cheaper. Yes you can download the 454, but if doing that why not just use the 45 colt?

The other question that begs to be asked is that if 45 colt Ruger only loads are overkill for game such as whitetail what would you consider 454 Casull?

I made up my mind.

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But look at that crappy test target, that's just terrible.

Seriously though, you made a fine choice and I bet you'll be well-pleased with it.

Rugers are perfectly safe loaded to much higher than even load manuals list in 45 colt.

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True, Ruger's statement is purely from a liability standpoint. The loads are well proven over many years and have a 100% safety margin.