Handgunning for whitetails

[ljnowell]

ljnowell, I will probably use a combination of both lead and jacketed bullets. Lead is cheaper obviously, so I'll probably do a lot of practicing with them. I was thinking jacketed hollow points for hunting. Is this a good idea? Would regular soft points be better out of a .44 or .45 for hunting purposes?

Nice Blackhawk. That's what I've got in mind. That or a Bisely.

I would say that your best bet would be a solid lead bullet, something with a nice flat nose. Missouri bullet makes a 255gr LSWC(pictured above in the brass cases on my post) that you can get at 12 or 18 BHN. The other round pictured is a 300gr LTC from Missouri Bullet casted at 18bhn. Either of these would probably make a pretty decent hunting bullet, although the 255 may have a better front for that kind of work.

I think that the benefit of lead is great because you can afford to load a large amount of the load you will use for hunting, and shoot it regularly. The above rounds are a 255LSWC loaded over 6gr of IMR 700x and a 300gr LTC loaded over 18gr Alliant 2400. The second one is well above SAAMI specs, but safe in the blackhawks. Its also a real hoot to shoot.

 

[HGUNHNTR]

45 Colt, I use a Hornady 300 Gr Heavy XTP over an undisclosed amount of powder. Its a whitetail getter for sure.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I think you'll find that a cast bullet of that weight will do the job just fine -- on white tails or elephants.

 

[Confederate]

Actually, I wouldn't recommend a revolver at all. I think you should get a good 9mm with a 20-round mag. Wait until the deer comes into range, close your eyes and just empty the clip!

Bullet placement is way overrated, and a good 9mm should do the job. I wouldn't bother with a scope or handloads...factory hollowpoints should do nicely. BUT...if you must have a revolver, (seriously) a good .41 mag, .44 mag or .45 Colt all will work fine. Personally, I can't see an advantage of the .45 Colt over the others, but if you fancy a certain gun, yes, it should be very acceptable.

 

[RippinSVT]

.44 Mag in a Super Blackhawk. Pretty much the standard deer handgun for a lot of folks. Then again, you really can't go wrong with anything listed, they'll all put a deer down at 50 yards. Shot placement is key.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I've got it Confederate. Just spray and pray. lol
I'll be looking in the used market, so I don't have a rock solid choice. I do have the Ruger single action preference, so if I can find one in .44 or .45 in my price range I'll get it. I appreciate the good advice I've gotten so far. I'm glad that lead bullets are good for hunting purposes, because for the price of them, I can just buy them 500 or 1,000 at a time and do a lot of shooting.

 

[sw282]

I have hunted deer more than 30 years with a handgun. Mostly a 44 magnum. Open sites all. Did mount a 2x Leupold on my SBH for a time but changed whole character of gun. No thanks.

A Mod 57 6" 41mag recently came to live with me. I like the ctg. As in the past I plan on limiting my shots to 60 yds

 

[rswartsell]

Well, first of all I don't want to argue with anyone here and you certainly seem to be on the right track.

Just want to make the point that many of us have been successful with long barrel (6" or more) .357 magnum. Whew, I feel better now, please continue.

 

[Mr. Whimsy]

Nobody's brought this up, so...

...beware of Ruger's tendency to size .45 Colt cylinder throats too small. It's an accuracy-ruiner. If the utmost accuracy is important to you, get either their .44 or .357 offerings, which for some reason don't seem to suffer from this.

Apparently these guys all have good .45 cylinders. I had a good one and sent it back to Ruger for another reason and they replaced my good cylinder with a brand new inaccurately-sized one. The other 5 .45 Rugers I subsequently purchased had the undersized cylinder throats too. Spend the extra $ and just get a Super Blackhawk in .44.

Also, why would a non-handloader want to handicap himself with mail-order-only hunting loads like Double Tap and whatnot when .44 Mag. is ubiquitous and probably less expensive?

 

[billybob44]

But can I buy that load at Walmart?

No-That's the deal..The loads at WallyWorld are down loaded, as to not blow up GrandDaddys old 1890"s Colt. Only a few gun shops will have "Full House" .45 Colt loads in stock. To get the most out a .45 Colt, you must hand load..

 

[Vern Humphrey]

beware of Ruger's tendency to size .45 Colt cylinder throats too small. It's an accuracy-ruiner

I have two Ruger Blackhawks in .45 Colt. One, a "200th year of American independence" model with a 7 1/2" barrel, shot with gilt-edge accuracy from the git-go. But I bought it used, so it may have been re-worked by a previous owner.

The other, a 5 1/2" barrel gun, I bought new. That one shot poorly, and I sent the cylinder off to have the throats uniformly reamed to .45125" and it shoots very well now.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Okay, this is probably a stupid question, but remember, I'm somewhat of a newbie when it comes to revolvers. What exactly is the throat? Since we're only talking about thousanths of inches, I assume there would be no way to tell by looking at the gun if it was sized too small.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

The throat is the constricted area immediately forward of the chamber in the cylinder. Take a loaded .357 cartridge and try to insert it into a .38 Special chamber. It will be stopped from fully entering the chamber when the bullet contacts the throat.

The purpose of the throat is to center the bullet for its jump from the cylinder to the barrel. The general rule is, "Revolvers should get smaller as they go forward." The bullet should be slightly larger than the throat, and the bore should be slightly smaller than the throat. If the throat is too small, the bullet will be a poor fit in the bore.

In general, proper throating is more critical with lead bullets than with jacketed bullets.

 

[ljnowell]

Its semi-common, but if you read on the ruger forums more come out right than wrong lately. Mine were all perfect. If yours isnt you can have it corrected for 30 dollars i believe a company that for the life of me I cant remember. I will log into the ruger forum and check there. Maybe cylindersmith?

 

[harmonic]

Deer are thin skinned animals. Their anatomy in terms of resistance is closer to man. I popped a 125 pound (dressed) whitetail w/a carefully loaded 180 grain 44 mag jsp ahead of 2400 powder. It passed through the animal without opening up.

Unless you're talking about monster bucks I'd look into 357 mag loads. (Anybody remember the Colt Whitetailer?)

But either the 45 colt or the 44 mag will suffice.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Another question. I've heard that if you shoot a lot of lead bullets, you need to put a cylinder or two of jacketed bullets through it to clean out the lead residue. Have you guys heard this and is there any merit to it?

 

[harmonic]

I've heard that if you shoot a lot of lead bullets, you need to put a cylinder or two of jacketed bullets through it to clean out the lead residue. Have you guys heard this and is there any merit to it?

You'll get a whole range of answers from, "It's fine" to "You'll destroy your gun and go blind in the process." I've been doing it for over 30 years and have yet to see any adverse effects. Quite the contrary. It makes my guns much easier to clean.

Here's a thread discussing the subject. Note the remarks by 1911Tuner, a pistolsmith with a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience as well as a mod here.

http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=302172

 

[S&Wfan]

The .44 Magnum puts 'em down best with flat nose, hard cast heavy bullets, as others have mentioned.

I DID lose a big doe years ago with the vaunted Hornady 240gn. XTP bullet, fired from a TC . . . and TEN FEET! The $@$% XTP not only did not expand, it didn't even penetrate bone. I searched for three hours with nary a drop of blood. Another hunter on our club took the deer two weeks later as she contentedly fed in a food plot. When the deer was skinned . . . out popped the XTP bullet, just below the hide. "Here's your .44 bullet," the other hunter said.

A .429 diameter bullet of a .44 Magnum is large enough unexpanded anyway. I want a bullet that will penetrate and plant a deer, with minimal meat loss. That means a 300gn. lead, flatnose hardcast bullet. Overkill? No, for kill means kill . . . and humanely too.

From this past season, a 175lb. eight point taken with my trusty Model 29 . . .

 

[Hunt480]

Nice buck with the 44.

 

[Daizee]

I've heard that if you shoot a lot of lead bullets, you need to put a cylinder or two of jacketed bullets through it to clean out the lead residue.

The worry w/ the jacketed bullets following the lead is that excessive lead plating the bore will spike pressures when you try to shove a harder jacketed bullet through the constriction. Polygonal rifling seems to be the worst for this (glock/kahr mainly, I think).

If you properly match your:
1) bullet diameter to throat diameter
2) throat diameter to barrel diameter (w/ Ruger .45 Colts you may send just the cylinder to cylindersmith to be touched up if the chambers are narrow)
3) hardness of bullet to cartridge pressure <------

then you will have minimal or no leading.

But look at #3. If your bullet hardness matches your chamber pressures then you'll be in good shape. There's a simple formula for it, which I don't have handy, but my limited experience seems to conform well to it.

-Daizee

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Nice buck. That's the idea. And thanks for the link harmonic. That's what I was wanting to know. Any more pics of handgun kills would be welcomed.

If anyone is wanting a formula, 1911Tuner gives one in the link posted above.

 

[cz85cmbt]

S&W fan I don't mean to be contrary but you are telling me a 240 grain xtp out of a 10" contender at what I assume was about 1400 fps did not only not expand but only penetrated just underneath the hide. A 9mm would have parked the doe easily with a decent shot. There has got to be more there.

The thing is a lot of these .45 fans always speak too positively of their pet round. In manuals writers claim that rims can be easily ripped off if things get a little sticky with the reloading process. I guess I'm a little skeptical that everything is peaches when loading a .45 colt to near .44 mag velocities. Obviously your selection of guns drops off when looking at the .45 vs the .44 but not a huge deal, the smith mountain gun, redhawk, and blackhawk should all take .45 hot loads. Bullet selection isn't that big of a deal either, you only need so many bullets to do the job. I guess I'd find things more believable if there were some negatives presented to the .45 colt case.

 

[S&Wfan]

Actually, the Contender was a first year, octagonal barreled gun, and IIRC, it only had about a six inch barrel, along with a screw on choke to fire .410 shot shells.

It was truly a gun that killed at both ends . . . it would dang near rip your thumb off in recoil!

I'd just put up a new stand and, as seems to usually happen, the first time in the stand proved "interesting." It was at the edge of where a deer trail went into VERY thick trees.

The doe came out of those trees walking fast, and I could have jumped on her back . . . I shot the doe as she passed beneath my 10' ladder stand. She almost brushed the LEGS of the stand!

The longer I hunt, the more strange things encounter, and I'm sure you know what I mean! It really happened!

 

[S&Wfan]

Ok, since you asked for handgun deer photos, here's another one of those "strange" things that happens very rarely.

I was hunting in a very thick bottom when a buck tried to negotiate the thick stuff nearby. I had but a very narrow "window" to put my bullet into as he came by at a mere 35 yards.

It was on a Halloween day, so I call it my Halloween Piebald Buck! Piebalds are quite a rare mutation. Most hunters never see one in the wild if they hunt all their life. I saved the hide . . . but wish I'd had it mounted now. The markings on the head are especially unique!

I had to tow it back to camp, as I was the only one hunting that day . . . and I'd had an accident on my 3-wheeler two days before and still couldn't even lift the guy.

The first photo I put in this thread had my Model 29 on top of the Piebald's hide. Well . . . here's the deer itself . . .

 

[S&Wfan]

Another .44 Mag. buck. Distance . . . 47 yards . . .