9mm for deer?

[Michael Courtney]

Okay, I'm guessing you're not much of an archer?

I bring home venison over 50% of the time I bring my bow out hunting, and I've limited out consistently for many years. The limit where I hunt is 5 deer per season, and it takes me less than 4-6 hunting outings to kill 2-3 deer with a bow. (I kill the balance of my limit with a gun). With a gun, my success rate is very nearly 100%.

Michael Courtney

 

[Michael Courtney]

I think a better comparison would be to compare a gun hunter using a 9mm instead of a .30-30 to a bow hunter using a target tip instead of a broadhead.

You might be right to compare a FMJ 9mm bullet with a target tip on a bow, but most 9mm bullets would be more comparable to a 3/4" broadhead.

Michael Courtney

 

[snookdock]

Jordan buck

The massive Jordan buck was taken with a .25-20

The 9mm can be better than that.
I used to shoot deer at 7 feet with a weak bow. It can be done.

 

[BluesBear]

You might be right to compare a FMJ 9mm bullet with a target tip on a bow, but most 9mm bullets would be more comparable to a 3/4" broadhead.

Dr C., My point was NOT to compare an arrow to a bullet.
What I was attempting was a general comparison of bullets to bullets and arrowheads to arrowheads that could be easily understood by the greatest number of people.

 

[mindpilot]

9mm in MN

My disability (heart disease) allows to to hunt the Federal Ntl Grd land up here with a pistol and I use a 10mm and have brought down 2 deer nicely with it. a 9mm is illegal to use in Minnesota

 

[DELUX6969]

Sad to say!!!!

I have seen a lot of things take place in this world. Right or wrong, this is one of them. The 9MM HiPoint Carbine rifle shooting FMJ's placed through the Heart/Lungs area does the job. The distances were from 40 yards out to 85 yards give or take, put through and through both sides of the deers with a very clean and humane kills. Within 20 yards of were shot, they were down!!!

Now, for my disclaimer: I use my favorite and most dependable- "NEF" 45-70(I handload "HOT" for this gun--2100+ FPS..with less than 3/8ths of an inch center to center, 3-shot groups@100yds!..."I FEEL THE LOVE"), & a few others such as--- .223,.280,30-06,&.303 Brit. which all have staked claim on deer.

I, like most others in here, somewhere/somehow has known of a "person" or two in there life/family who has taken deer in a "not so conventional" ways..such as spotlighting or flashlighting and using questionable calibers.

My point to the "non conventional" people.....WHATEVER YOU DO-DO IT CLEANLY AND HUMAINLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Byron Quick]

If I were going to limit myself to 9mm and a carbine there really wouldn't be a problem as long as I also limited the shots I would take with it. Same as any weapon. If I use a bow, I must limit the shots to the ones that I can make with that bow.

As long as I do so, then I am hunting ethically. Shotgun, pistol, rifle, bow, no difference. The principle is the same. Different weapon, different skill levels, different parameters. But all ethical as long as you limit yourself to shots that you can make and that will kill cleanly with that weapon.

Based on experience, I don't shoot deer that are closer than 50 yards with a .300 WinMag. Why? Two reasons. In my experience they run further than deer shot at longer ranges with a .300 WinMag. Two of the deer that I have shot and lost were shot at about twenty yards with a .300 WinMag.

 

[dfaugh]

I wish

I could legally hunt here with a 9mm Carbine...Lighter and handier than a shotgun, and a bit more accurate to boot...

Note, however, that I would be using +P+ hollow point ammo...And, I've just finished setting up my tree stand (alongside the "deer super-highway", that runs through my property), and my maximum shot would be less than 35 yards, and will probably be more like 20 yards...Given those constraints, I would think it's OK...A man's just gotta know his limitations!

 

[Michael Courtney]

I could legally hunt here with a 9mm Carbine...Lighter and handier than a shotgun, and a bit more accurate to boot...

Note, however, that I would be using +P+ hollow point ammo..

Good point. A 9mm carbine is not only lighter and handier than a shotgun shooting slugs, it is more accurate, has much less recoil, and the less expensive ammo is much more conducive to lots of practice time.

To avoid exposing youngsters to the recoil of a 20 gauge, I've developed light .45 caliber muzzle loader loads that shoot .355 and .357 bullets which are comparable to 9mm carbine loads. Terminal ballistics are more than adaquate.

Michael Courtney

 

[Starter52]

Well, guys, hunting season came and went and our older gentleman took his 9mm carbine out into the woods and never saw a deer. Nonetheless, thanks for all the useful comments. S-52.