Best bullet type for woodland carry - is it cheap, old school JHP?

[Anchorite]

I’ve had good luck with a 110gr half-jacket in 357. I think it’s a Sierra bullet, but I’m not sure. Loaded within textbook data (current), it opens up to like quarter-size. I don’t feel the least bit undergunned with that load when out in the bush.

 

[WrongHanded]

If I'm likely to be around people, it's a .357 Sig these days. I have a FMJ Flat Nose load for that @1425fps or so.

If I'm trying to stay away from people (like wandering off trail in NF or Wilderness), it's at least a. 41 mag with a 220gr LFN or 220gr WFN hardcast bullets. They run around 1235-1245fps.

In Moose country, It's a .44 mag with 300gr hardcast or 300gr A-frame. 1200-1270fps.

Or I'll take a .357 Sig and also a rifle.

Given the damage a large meplat does at say 1200fps, and the disproportionately large hole such a bullet is supposed to make at that velocity (and above), I think it'd prove effective on 2 legged predators.

 

[bassjam]

Where I live in SW Ohio the most dangerous animal in the woods is a human. No bears here, the largest cats are bobcats and I've never seen one for all the time I've spent hunting, hiking, camping and fishing. Coyote's aren't going to approach me. I've been told countless times the area is full of water moccasins, but I've never seen one and neither has any of the people who I trust to know the difference between a water moccasin and a common water snake. Same with copperheads. You run across dogs in the woods from time to time but they've never been aggressive, and if they were I'd feel fine with a normal self defense load. Once I came across a groundhog with distemper while hiking to a fishing hole, my generally harmless golden retriever dispatched it with a swift neck shake. I have run across some very aggressive nesting geese, but only in more urban areas. Out here they leave you alone as long as you leave them alone.

So I don't change a thing when I head into the woods.

 

[Rexster]

Not all “old school” JHPs held together, and penetrated deeply. Some fragmented violently, such as the Federal Hi-Shok 125-grain .357 Magnum, as manufactured in the early Nineties. I know, because I read the autopsy report. Being a police officer, I had an opportunity to see all of the relevant paperwork, when my supervisor showed it to me. “Hi-Shok” was not a typographical error. This worked very well, for a frontal shot, into a slender human.

Today’s .357 125-grain JHP bullets, intended for .357 Mag velocity, should be constructed to hold together, much better, but even so, I would probably want something more substantial for defense against a feral hog, which would be the largest likely four-legged threat, in SE Texas woodland environments. Hogs usually run, but a home health care nurse was killed by one or more feral hogs, in her clients’ driveway, one county to our east, in Chambers County, Texas, not long ago. A feral hog being pursued by dogs BROKE INTO my mother’s garage, within this county, Harris County, in a semi-rural, suburban environment, a few years ago, ripping a hole in the siding. (It was inexpensive, relatively thin ply-board siding, and there was no inner wall or insulation, so this was not equivalent to a “home invasion,” but shows the strength of a cornered feral hog.)

Cougars and coyotes are local, but ammo for human adversaries is adequate for such thin-skinned animals.

 

[tactikel]

Hard cast Keith SWC. 168 grain .357 for .38 spl or .357 magnum are crazy accurate, penetrate, and if you cast are free!

 

[roscoe]

Heavy, flat-nosed hardcast, in whatever caliber.

 

[Legionnaire]

I shoot heavy Keith-style hard cast SWCs almost exclusively in my .357s and .44s.

 

[Peakbagger46]

Seems a lot of folks think there more apt to run into dangerous people than animals out in the woods. Where I go hiking, my chances of a bad bear encounter are ten to one over a deadly person run in. A couple of years ago I got charged and had slack out of the trigger when the bear stopped about ten yards from me.

I carry 180g hardcast flatnose buffalo bore in my .357. Driving to and from the woods, the gun is loaded with 158g LSWCHP.

 

[.38 Special]

I don't know where or why the standard advice would be FMJ or the need for it to be the "hottest and heaviest" available. I would opine that the folks recommending that have never shot anything living with their chosen load.

My "standard advice" for the lower 48 is any decent hardcast SWC, WFN or LFN. Anywhere from 240-300gr for .44's and .45's, driven 800-1000fps. It's simple, easy and it gets the job done without fanfare.

I agree with this almost perfectly. My only quibble may be "hardcast". After decades of playing at the casting game, I have decided that Elmer was right: 1-16 tin/lead makes for a great bullet, if it fits the gun and is held under 1250 FPS or so. Otherwise, yeah: SWC, SWC-HP, WFN, LFN... I'm happy with any of them for general woods carry.

 

[CraigC]

That mostly depends on the critters you're planning for. For deer sized or really most thin skinned game, a softer bullet like those Keith (~12 BHN) used is perfect. Most commercial bullets are hard and they work just as well, only with less deformation.

 

[SGW Gunsmith]

We're surrounded by 360 acres of hardwoods, and I'm pretty adamant about looking for some invasive "jack-wagon" who thinks he can erect a permanent tree stand on property he doesn't pay 10-cents toward the property taxes involved.
It's pretty dang hard to anticipate which, or what invasive species might be encountered on any of my forays out and about our empire and at which time of year it might be. This time of year black bear mommas are very endearing to the little black fur balls that follow her around, and are very protective if any two-legged critters get between her and the "cute ones".
We do have timber wolves in these parts, thanks to the Wisconsin DNR and their remarkable planning ideas. These wolves think nothing about making someones pet dog, cat, or baby goat into a "Happy Meal".
I've had customers who run 'coons with dogs in the fall that have lost their $3,000.00 dogs to a wolf pack that ripped its head off. Sure, the DNR said they'd reimburse dog owners for dogs murdered by wolves, but they only pay a pittance of what the owner shelled out for those pure-bred dogs. Some around these parts feel that's it's best to practice the three "S's", "shoot, shovel and shut up" when they encounter threats from wolves and that does require a handgun having a "4" somewhere in its caliber designation, along with as heavy a bullet that the owner can control.

 

[Pat Riot]

Martin248, your profile says “Seattle” so I am assuming Washington state. If I were traipsing around the Seattle area woods and forests I would be concerned about two-legged varmints and cougars...the 4 legged kind.
Bears, not so much. You have black bears there more than any others and if there are Brownies or Grizzlies (same) they aren’t near the Seattle area. I would carry a good SD round and feel safe with it in any of those calibers.
Further away from Seattle I would carry a revolver in .45 Colt loaded to about 900-1000 FPS with hard cast lead for bigger medicine.