Flyover_Country
Bearcat
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2018
- Messages
- 62
Hello,
Long time lurker, new poster. I recently got a new to me 1999 vintage .44 7 1/2" SRH for target shooting and deer hunting, and also to get experience in shooting a handgun as I enjoy shooting and that's the one smokeless powder weapon I have not shot very much. I grew up shooting a shotgun and only a shotgun as my father was an Iowan, and "that's all they could use up there," despite the fact that we lived in more civilized country since I was five years old. I did eventually get a .30-06 as it kicks a whole lot less than a 12 gauge slug gun (buckshot is illegal here.) It might be a bit too effective as I have only spent about an hour and a half in total for the last three years deer hunting. Being able to shoot 200 yards accurately enough to kill a deer with one shot takes quite a bit of the sport out of it. I have shot a few friends' semi-auto handguns (.380, 9 mm, .40) in the past and enjoyed it, and thought it might be fun to try to hunt deer with a handgun.
I started out shooting the SRH with some factory .44 Special cowboy loads. That was about as much fun shooting as I'd ever had! I shot two boxes' worth and realized that it takes a lot more practice to shoot a handgun well compared to a rifle at typical hunting ranges, and it costs about the same to shoot a .44 per round as it does an '06 but I'd go through 20-30 times as many rounds per year. I reload shotshells since I go through a number of them shooting clay targets, so reloading isn't new, but I've never reloaded metallic cartridges before. I got a Hornady single stage press and dies and got the only brass and primers available locally, Starline brass and CCI 300 primers. I already had a bottle of Unique for shotshells, so I loaded up the oft-recommended 8.0 grain load with 240 grain Berry's plated bullets (which I can get locally inexpensively) at about 1000 fps for a target load and it was as good as recommended. I'll stick with that load for target practice.
My question is what to do for a hunting load. I am anticipating a 50 yard maximum range and typically deer here are about 150 pounds live weight, a little one is 100 and a big one is about 200.
Long time lurker, new poster. I recently got a new to me 1999 vintage .44 7 1/2" SRH for target shooting and deer hunting, and also to get experience in shooting a handgun as I enjoy shooting and that's the one smokeless powder weapon I have not shot very much. I grew up shooting a shotgun and only a shotgun as my father was an Iowan, and "that's all they could use up there," despite the fact that we lived in more civilized country since I was five years old. I did eventually get a .30-06 as it kicks a whole lot less than a 12 gauge slug gun (buckshot is illegal here.) It might be a bit too effective as I have only spent about an hour and a half in total for the last three years deer hunting. Being able to shoot 200 yards accurately enough to kill a deer with one shot takes quite a bit of the sport out of it. I have shot a few friends' semi-auto handguns (.380, 9 mm, .40) in the past and enjoyed it, and thought it might be fun to try to hunt deer with a handgun.
I started out shooting the SRH with some factory .44 Special cowboy loads. That was about as much fun shooting as I'd ever had! I shot two boxes' worth and realized that it takes a lot more practice to shoot a handgun well compared to a rifle at typical hunting ranges, and it costs about the same to shoot a .44 per round as it does an '06 but I'd go through 20-30 times as many rounds per year. I reload shotshells since I go through a number of them shooting clay targets, so reloading isn't new, but I've never reloaded metallic cartridges before. I got a Hornady single stage press and dies and got the only brass and primers available locally, Starline brass and CCI 300 primers. I already had a bottle of Unique for shotshells, so I loaded up the oft-recommended 8.0 grain load with 240 grain Berry's plated bullets (which I can get locally inexpensively) at about 1000 fps for a target load and it was as good as recommended. I'll stick with that load for target practice.
My question is what to do for a hunting load. I am anticipating a 50 yard maximum range and typically deer here are about 150 pounds live weight, a little one is 100 and a big one is about 200.