10mm for deer hunting

[tipoc]

Ky Sparky

Tipoc, upon what do you base this information? While I do not doubt that a good full-power .357 load will effectively kill a deer at handgun ranges with a well placed shot, I hardly consider it equal to a 30-30 at any range, much less 100 yd. The Hornady LeverEvolution round is devastating on deer at handgun ranges, I have taken several inside 30 yds. None have made it out of sight, if they moved. Don't mean to get off topic of the OP, but if by "do as well" you mean dead is dead then I agree. But ballistically, they are not on the same planet.

When I wrote that I didn't mention that I was thinking of the 357 out of a levergun being comparable in effect at 100 yards to a 30-30 from a lever gun at the same distance. It will also overlap it at the lower end. My bad for being unclear.

There is no comparison between a .357 mag handgun and the 30/30 from a carbine beyond handgun distance.

But even with a scoped handgun with a 7-8" barrel (Thompson Center or other) a deer can be cleanly taken with a 158-180 gr. bullet. The hunter would have to know what he was doing though.

If you go over here and look at the figures for both velocity and energy (you have to toggle to the energy figures) from the few carbines they have listed you can see it is useful for deer from a carbine at that distance.

http://ballisticsbytheinch.com/357mag.html

I'll also link to a good article on the .357 from Paco Kelly's site...

I have no idea how many deer I have taken with 357s, but we lived in the wilderness of the southeast for over five years. I harvested from 20 to 25 deer a year and kept the Kelly family and many neighbors in game meat.. including hogs and a few black bear. Never had I had a 158 grain thru a 190 grain jacketed bullet by any manufacturer come apart loaded to the gills, give shallow surface wounds, or not penetrate deep enough! Now if they ever did fail it was because of my shooting not the bullet. The only truth I can see in this is the shedding of some of the jackets of the early 158 grain JHPs. But it is a half truth, because the lead core always went on deeply, and expanded well to put the game animals down.

I shot a black bear one time with a reversed 147 grain hollow base wadcutter, so the hollow base was now the hollow nose, and it was loaded over 6 or so grains of Bullseye for over 1500 fps. Killed that bear so fast I thought a tree fell on him... Of course it fouls at that velocity also very quickly... but even that soft wadcutter went thru the lungs of the bear and expanded well... Jacketed bullets fail but only when they don’t have enough velocity and don’t expand...

I have shot coyotes here in the southwest west with all kinds and makes of 125 grain JHPs and JSPs at over 2000 fps, from every angle... many into the Texas road map... I seem to get a lot of them running away... Every brand I’ve tried usually punch all the way thru and create two inch radial wound channels... most of the way. Today’s jacketed bullets are the best that have been offered by the industry... including the handgun bullets of every caliber. They will perform very well from leveraction velocities...

http://leverguns.com/articles/paco/357_magnum_and_the_literature.htm

I'll add this also...

357 Magnum

I have close friends who have Rossi's in .44 Magnum and .45 Colt and I have used the guns in those calibers. They are well-made, accurate and powerful. However when friend Mike Harmon bought one in .357 Magnum I was impressed with the gun/caliber combination. A few factory loads as well as some handloads are at the lower end of the .30-30 realm of power! (The first factory .30-30 loads were a 165 gr. softpoint at an advertised 1960 fps)

Easy to shoot without a lot of noise, fire, and recoil, sporting a flat trajectory to 150 yards, this is an ideal deer gun for the woods of Missouri. I watched Mike shoot a good-sized (for our area) buck with his one deer season. Mike shot the deer at about 30 yards. It ran for maybe 30 feet and piled up. A Black Hills factory 158 gr. JHP did the job.

http://leverguns.com/articles/taylor/rossi.htm

tipoc

 

[trigga]

there are vids by a guy on youtube who hunts with 10mm and 45 acp. interesting but i would still prefer something with a little more power behind it. unless it was all you had

 

[Grunt96]

Those numbers you posted for the 30-30 and the 357 are not on the same planet either.

YOU post 30-30 numbers from a rifle and compare the to a 357 out of a pistol.

Out of a carbine (18 in) I can get 1800fps with a 180grn 357, that is in the same ballpark as a 30-30.

I usually load my 180grn XTP's to under 1700fps so the bullet stays together, but that is still devastating on whitetail.


As for the 10mm, the idea of some guy in a deerstand with his Glock makes me cringe.

I've used the 10mm with a 6" LWD barrel in a G20SF. As you know, the longer barrel boost velocity. It does so by abput 100fps. With handloaded 180 xtp in the LWD barrel I'm easily getting around 1350fps without pushing max. did a bang flop on a doe, and used a follow up shot to finish the job as fast as possible. the bullet was never recovered and passed through broad side.

While it will certainly gets the job done I advocate either a shotgun with slugs or a rifle 243 and up. The time I used mine I had a chance opportunity being the deer came close (50yards) and my shotgun was in the Jeep. I was opening a gate and just so happens the deer came up not noticing I was there. Glock 20sf 10mm put meat in the freezer, but there are more ideal options.

 

[Mainsail]

I would be interested to see how these new rounds from Underwood perform.


Muzzle Velocity: 1500 fps
Muzzle Energy: 700 ft. lbs.

 

[Harry1969]

The top one would probably perform about as good as a fmj and the bottom one is tough to say. It looks like it might come apart and penetration would suffer but still cause massive damage in thin skinned game.

 

[george burns]

Having little experience ever hunting with a handgun, I see it more for Boar, Pig, "close range thick skinned Animals. I remember hunting Boar, 30 yrs ago with my 3 uncles who used a 45 pistol and backup with a 30-06 rifle.
Personally I would stick with a rifle, only because of the 2-300 yard shot, that has got to be almost impossible with a pistol, as far as I know.
I am sure that there are men who are more than capable of shooting over 100 yards and taking an animal, I just have no experience with such a thing, nor find a reason to do so. Each to their own.

 

[Ed Ames]

The rifle v. handgun v. bow v. whatever is a different conversation.

Personally, I think it is unlikely I will do much rifle hunting in the near future, so any hunting talk that isn't about handguns or archery doesn't mean much to me. Different strokes and all that.

 

[Jason_W]

I'm of the opinion that if a round causes the same or more amount of bleeding and ruined vital tissue as a broadhead propelled from a modern compound bow, it's good for deer hunting. The distance at which the projectile stops ruining as much tissue as a broadhead is the range at which said round is no longer a viable deer round.

It's up to the hunter to decide where the above line is, as well as to determine how far away he or she can reliably place bullets in the vitals of a deer with a given firearm.

 

[tactikel]

Countless thousands of deer have been killed with: .38-40, .44-40, and 45 Long Colt, all far less powerful than the 10MM. You are good to go at whatever range you can put a quality hunting bullet 9 times out of 10 in a 6" paper plate.

 

[Caliche Kid]

I have no experience with the 10mm. I have taken many deer with the .357 mag in a rifle. Ballistically the 10 mm should be just as capable. The key to success is putting the bullet where you want it.