putting down an animal - choice of weapon

[DownInTheDark]

If I am in handgun range, ill use a handgun.

 

[alsaqr]

Yeah, i have a concealed carry permit too. Just can't see packing a handgun when i hunt with a rifle. Furthermore, much of the property i hunt belongs to the US military. Get caught with a hand gun there and it's a trip to the federal magistrate.

i've never had a problem dispatching wounded hogs and deer even when hunting with a muzzleloader. For the deer that's been hit by a car, there's an SKS in my pickup 24/7.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

It depends on the animal for me. For dove I just pick them up and pop their head off, no need to get fancy.

Doesn't sound as cool as drawing a sidearm for a coup de grâce but the meat tastes the same.

I can't do that with hogs. Heck, sometimes I can't even pick them up.

 

[jmorris]

I can't do that with hogs. Heck, sometimes I can't even pick them up.

You just need two ropes, a tree and a tractor....

No, me either, thats why it depends on the animal. You don't have to worry about turning a hogs head into a bean bag full of shot either. I guess you'll loose out on making head cheese though.

If I am hog hunting I generally stay put and let them circle so I can get another. I also don't run right out on shot deer either, so they are generally expired by the time I get to them.

I do remember one time with one of my wife's friends, husband, where we were both in the same blind. He shot a doe and it dropped in its tracks, I mean instantly, not a single step. About 30 min later they came back and I got one that ran a 20 ft circle back to where it was before it dropped. 15 min or so after that, I could have sworn that I noticed his doe lift its head. I didn't say anything because it was as DRT of a shot as I had seen and it had already been the better part of an hour since the shot. Another 15 min or so and I know I saw it move and told him. He thought I was still liquored up from the evening before I guess and dismissed the assertion. Another 15-20 min passed and we figured we were done for the morning, get out of the blind and he makes it about 50 yards from and she halfway gets up but the back end doesn't work, 2nd shot was with the same rifle as the first that was too high and had only severed the spine.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

I've used both. This year in fact.

I made 2 poor shots this season and spined a couple of does.
One I walked up to and gave her a coup de grace with my .45 Colt.
The other kept raising her head so while still in the stand, I put one in her ear with a .30-06. Made quite a mess.

They would have likely died pretty soon, but I don't like to see an animal suffer unnecessarily, especially if it is due to poor shot placement on my part.

 

[MCgunner]

I've rarely had to use a second shot, but I always have at least two handguns on me, my concealed carries. One's usually my .38 and or my .22 caliber NAA mini revolver which I used last 5 years ago to finish off a 9 pointer whose spine had been broken from a shot from my SKS. He wasn't going anywhere, paralyzed hind quarters.

 

[Varminterror]

try some minimalist back country hunting trips and evaluate how much gear you really want to burden yourself with.

You assume you're the only one who has done back country trips.

 

[horsey300]

I've rarely had to use a second shot, but I always have at least two handguns on me, my concealed carries. One's usually my .38 and or my .22 caliber NAA mini revolver which I used last 5 years ago to finish off a 9 pointer whose spine had been broken from a shot from my SKS. He wasn't going anywhere, paralyzed hind quarters.

It's been pointed out before but I'll be Capt. Obvious just in case some folks aren't paying attention as they skim read, check local regs with such small calibers, I do NOT condemn a finisher from either of those, but around here either of them will fine you to the short hairs during season in the field. To stay legal we carry a .357 just in case. And no firearms allowed outside of a smokeless firearm season.

 

[X-Rap]

You assume you're the only one who has done back country trips.

No I'm basing my view on my own and every other hunter I've known or read about with regards to packing an inferior redundant weapon on what by most accounts is a difficult endeavor where I consider the cumulative effect of ounces.
I must say you are the first I can recall who is impervious to additional weight while doing back country activity.
Good on you but I'll go back to my earlier position of packing more useful things than an extra gun I don't need.

 

[Don McDowell]

I have carried a handgun while hunting the back country for decades now. Matter of fact the survival part of the original hunter safety classes encouraged you to carry a handgun, it is less likely to get lost in a fall.
They come in handy for potting a blugrouse and snoshoe hares. There's not much more of a sickening feeling than to have a wall hanger bull or buck on the ground needing a finisher and you pop him with the trusty rifle and watch as the horns spread and drop from a split skull, also gets a bit exciting when you splat one in the head, and the shrapnel from that rock you didn't see goes flying.
But to each their own...

 

[MCgunner]

This is Texas. I carry a .22 to the blind sometimes in addition to my rifle, to shoot squirrels. I step out my back door and walk 200 yards, sit down in my box blind, and I'm hunting. The weight of a second rifle is not a problem when you set it against the wall of the box blind as you ease back in your high back office chair to get a little nap before sun up. Not everyone roams Alaska for whitetail deer. I'm too old for that sort of thing anymore, anyway. I'll likely be dead in a decade or two, so I hunt how I can.

Yes, follow the laws of your state or move to a state with better laws. I only carry that little NAA for self defense back up. I always have my .38 with me and when I go to town, I'll hang a .357 or a .45ACP off my belt. It ain't for hunting, but I've put down a lot of hogs in the trap with my various carries and the .22 does just as good a job putting an animal down with a shot to the head as a .38 or a .357 or a 7mm Remington Magnum.

I think I can count on less than one hand the number of deer I've had to waste a second shot on over the last 53 years, though.

 

[MCgunner]

I have carried a handgun while hunting the back country for decades now. Matter of fact the survival part of the original hunter safety classes encouraged you to carry a handgun, it is less likely to get lost in a fall.
They come in handy for potting a blugrouse and snoshoe hares. There's not much more of a sickening feeling than to have a wall hanger bull or buck on the ground needing a finisher and you pop him with the trusty rifle and watch as the horns spread and drop from a split skull, also gets a bit exciting when you splat one in the head, and the shrapnel from that rock you didn't see goes flying.
But to each their own...

I had a duck hunting/shooting buddy I worked the same shift with at the plant for years who used to go to the Durango area every year to hunt elk. He never shot squat, just enjoyed the trip and the horseback riding I think. LOL He bought a little .32 H&R magnum, a Ruger SSM on the single six frame, was light on his belt, accurate, flat shooting, and he potted blue grouse for camp meat with it. He loved that little revolver. I've wanted something like that ever since, but I'm a little old to hunt the mountains anymore. No blue grouse in SE New Mexico anyway, but there's plenty of jack rabbits there.

 

[Don McDowell]

MC blugrouse are IMHO the finest eating game birds around. That little 32 makes an excellent carry gun for that sort of target of opportunity. Years ago I carried either a 22 or a 32-20, but then they started getting persnickety about using a legal cartridge to finish off an animal, because some bored office person determined the gun used to administer the killing shot was actually the gun used to "take" the animal... 4 5/8 41 mag blackhawk fits that definition
Besides when slow hunting the thick timber I've many times been to close to get a shot with a scoped rifle, how cool it is to smack an elk in the back of the head at about 10 yds, with your handgun, and then listen to all the experts claim you can't hunt with a handgun, it ain't big enough, to much weight to carry..........

 

[MCgunner]

MC blugrouse are IMHO the finest eating game birds around. That little 32 makes an excellent carry gun for that sort of target of opportunity. Years ago I carried either a 22 or a 32-20, but then they started getting persnickety about using a legal cartridge to finish off an animal, because some bored office person determined the gun used to administer the killing shot was actually the gun used to "take" the animal... 4 5/8 41 mag blackhawk fits that definition
Besides when slow hunting the thick timber I've many times been to close to get a shot with a scoped rifle, how cool it is to smack an elk in the back of the head at about 10 yds, with your handgun, and then listen to all the experts claim you can't hunt with a handgun, it ain't big enough, to much weight to carry..........

Yeah, I've carried my .357 Blackhawk and my .45 Colt Blackhawk in the mountains before. I just did that because....no real need for the handguns I suppose. I hunted the Guadalupe mountains NW of Carlsbad in the Queens, NM area, was within a long day's drive for me. Haven't been out there in over 20 years, though. I also had leases in a hunting club for a while west of the Pecos in west Texas, BIG leases out in the desert where I'd spot and stalk. BOY, I miss THAT!!

My favorite hiking guns, though, have always been medium frame .357s like the M19 Smith, 4", accurate, powerful enough for black bear. Last time I hiked, about 5 years ago in the Big Bend, I carried such a weapon in a fanny pack for self defense. There are signs in that park warning of the illegal traffic, drug smugglers and such. You can never be too careful. Even in my bad shape now, a 4 or 5 mile hike in rough country ain't too much for a 35 ounce revolver.

I carry my .38 ultralite in my right pocket and my NAA in my left daily, every hour of every day, Total combined weight is 22 ounces. Add a 19 ounce polymer .357 on my belt and I can STILL walk. LOL

Tolerable weight is subjective. I do know that lighter is better for the back packer, but I've never really hiked 14 miles in the back country in one day while hunting. I've done it just back packing, but a 5 mile round trip hunting is about as much as I've done. I never wanted to get too far in. If you shoot something, you're going to have to drag the thing out. Mule deer are a might heavier than the whitetails around here. I've pulled mulies over 200 lbs dressed out while wearing a sidearm and carrying a Savage 110 in 7 mag. Ain't the lightest of rifles. I since acquired (won at a gun show raffle) an nice, light little .308 Remington M7 Stainless. That thing would be perfect for rough country if I could still handle it physically. But, it's short and also makes a great compact rifle for the box blind.

I some times get the big head and think I could handle another trip out there. Then, I go duck hunting in the public marsh and realize I'm not up to it. LOL I used to duck hunt that marsh 2-3 times a week. Now days, one hunt and it takes me a week to recover. Aging sux.

 

[entropy]

Handgun. I shot a buck in the back of the head from about 3" away with a .30-06, got a shower of brains. I was 16 and couldn't legally carry a handgun hunting. I do now.

 

[Don McDowell]

Yup getting older ain't for sissy's. I haven't been to the high country for 2-3 years elk hunting. To many of my bunch are dead, or crippled up, or so full of stints they should of just replumbed with hydraulic hoses.. Besides all that the wife and I have a hard time eating an elk in a year.
I have to chuckle a little bit when folks whine about weight, the original model 70 featherweights weighed about 8 lbs before we stuck a steel tubed scope on em, and oh lord how heavy those rebuilt mauser's and 03's were.. I like my BLR , or the #1A about as good as any for a hunting rifle, unless I got to feeling real froggy and drug the sharps along.
These days I find myself carrying a commander sized 1911 more often than not. I've also got a little Ruger SR22 that would make a great little packing gun for back country excursions. I've popped prairie dogs out to about 50 yds with it, and I know it'll shoot well enough to take the head off a grouse .

 

[MCgunner]

Yup, love my SR22. It's taken a couple of rabbits. I carry it when I'm running trot lines on the river. Never know when you'll get a shot at a nutria. So far, though, I've just put down alligator gar with it. It is a DANDY kit gun.

 

[BP Hunter]

I had to put a deer out of the misery with a .40 in its head. Both eyes popped out...

 

[Armored farmer]

My situation with my Hawken was a big trophy buck that I didn't want to shoot in the head. My reluctance almost cost me the trophy.
Forty minutes after shooting this buck with my .54 I climbed from my stand to tag him. As I approached him I discovered that he was still breathing. As I maneuvered to shoot him in the heart he tried to get up. I didnt think he could... but when he got his front legs under him I fired. He managed to shuffle to the bank of the flooded river that disects our property. I was reloaded and fired again only to watch him plunge off into the river and disappear below the surface.

A few days later, I finally found him hung up on a log jam downstream from where he went in. I took a couple of my buddies and my tractor to recover him. The meat of course was spoiled. He reaked of rotten flesh. I washed sand from his cape. My taxidermist friend was able to save him for me, but he said he would have rather dealt with another bullet hole than the smelly hide.
I got lucky

....

 

[MCgunner]

I had to put a deer out of the misery with a .40 in its head. Both eyes popped out...

That happened to a pig I shot with my 3" .357/140JHP magnum loads. I chalked it up to the ballistic pressure in the brain cavity. Kinda gory.

 

[der Teufel]

I don't hunt deer, just hogs in Texas. Because they're a non-native species, I can kill them however I wish. I used to carry a 9mm pistol as a 'finishing' weapon, but switched a few years ago to a .22 because it's quieter.

 

[Nature Boy]

A guy I hunt with had a funny story about his first deer that wasn't quite DRT. Tried to use his belt as a garrote. Didn't work very well