Handgun deer

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dave338

Bearcat
Joined
Jun 11, 2023
Messages
4
Location
Lincoln nebraska
Here's a couple of the deer I've gotten with my handguns. Is it just me or is the first deer taken with any gun kinda special?
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contender

Ruger Guru
Joined
Sep 18, 2002
Messages
25,456
Location
Lake Lure NC USA
KUDOS!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice bucks!

ANY handgun kill is a good one. And the first one is special. But even after over 100 of them,, I still get excited & pleased about my hunt,, just using a handgun.
 

Hankus

Blackhawk
Joined
Nov 13, 2022
Messages
527
Location
Florida Gulf Coast
Here's a couple of the deer I've gotten with my handguns. Is it just me or is the first deer taken with any gun kinda special?View attachment 23120View attachment 23121
Which scope are you using for your Hunter?
I have a Super Redhawk in .454 Casull that is just begging for a scope.
My first deer with a handgun was with my trusty 1993 Super Blackhawk Bisley taken at 70 yards a couple of years after I bought it.
 

dave338

Bearcat
Joined
Jun 11, 2023
Messages
4
Location
Lincoln nebraska
Which scope are you using for your Hunter?
I have a Super Redhawk in .454 Casull that is just begging for a scope.
My first deer with a handgun was with my trusty 1993 Super Blackhawk Bisley taken at 70 yards a couple of years after I bought it.
Thats a burris 2x, I also use vortex scout scopes, they are pretty good too
 
Joined
Nov 20, 2007
Messages
5,206
Location
Southwest Washington
I took my only handgun buck with an Interarms Virginia Dragoon 44 mag. Had a Leupold 2x scope. Wasn't a big deer, just a forked horn Blacktail. It was a 25yd shot. He dropped in his tracks. Used a handload, but can't recall the recipe…… it's been 45 years. I remember the powder was WW296 and a Speer 240gr JSP bullet.
 
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Paul B

Hunter
Joined
Dec 4, 1999
Messages
2,153
Location
Tucson, AZ
I took a couple of deer with a handgun back in the late 1970s when I lived in Nevada. I was hunting in Lander County as they were one of the only two areas with either sex hunts and I was hunting meat. I got a shot at a nice fat doe at about 45 yards and she took off on a short run before expiring.
Gun was a Ruger Super Blackhawk, 7.5" barrel running Remington factory .44 magnum 240 gr. hollow points. On autopsy, I found the jacket embedded in the shoulder blade and the core carried on and exited. From the size of the exit that core must have been pretty well expanded.

The following year I was sitting in the same spot when another fat eating doe walked by. I used the same gun but had my handloads using the 240 gr. Keith bullet over 22.0 gr. of A2400. Elmer's pet load BTW. Niminally the bullet weighs 240 gr. but run at 250 or slightly heavier in my alloy. The bullet punched though the shoulder blade almost exactly in the same place as the the previous deer the year before. Again, the deer made a short run before expiring and the bullet would was not as damaging to eating meat as was the factory load. Exit would was about 1.5".

Not enough data to form an honest opinion but based on those two shoots, my vote goes to Elmer's bullet over the factory. When it comes to loads in my handguns, the only factory ammo in any one is for self defense. Anything else and I strictly shoot only my personally made home cast bullets. They work just fine.
Paul B.
 

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