Hand gun hunting

[Pudelguy]

I’ve done a little hunting with a handgun. Killed a nice blacktail buck with a Contender in 35 Rem and a filled a few doe tags with a S&W 657 Classic Hunter (41Mag). Love taking the handgun out, I probably enjoy it as much as bow hunting.

[hal]

my son shot a 170" mulie 210#'s at 100 yards with a 454 casull  325 gr. w/ 2to7 burris. dropped in its tracks. never quivered.

[metlhead]

My gun years back for Colorado mulies was a Super Blackhawk .44mag, 7 1/2"bl topped with a Leupold EER 4x. 240gr Black Talons in the pipes. Solid 100yd gun. Came home one afternoon to an empty holster on the floor. That was one sweet looking gun.

[CastleRocker]

I hunted exclusively with handguns for about 10 years.  Used the same calibers I shot metallic silhouette with.  The 6.5 TCU, 357 Herret,  44 mag, and 375 JDJ.  Only shot one deer with the 6.5 tcu...had to take a second shot, as it didn't even react to the first one.  It became my coyote calling caliber after that.  Most times I used the 44.  I used a pretty "warm" load, and was never ever impressed on how it performed on elk.  Never had to shoot any more than once,  but probably would have if I'd had the chance.  Always wanted to get an elk with the SSK barrel in 375, but never had an opportunity.  Also had a Contender barrel in 45/70, but never drew the besr tag I bought that one for.

[boneaddict]

A bear that attacked you, and then you shot it?  please tell us the story, I think it would be fair to say that you have likely top 3 amount of hours in the field on this forum of everyone, likely have stories for days, but id love to hear about the bear attack if you have time to write it up.

I have a Thompson Contender in 30-30, 2x Burris scope.   I've killed Bear, elk, deer and cougar with it, including a bear that attacked me.

I think its on here outdooraddict.   I'll try to find the link.

[boneaddict]

I was out chasing elk and trying to get some pictures.  It was starting on into late morning and I was driving down the road and I spotted an elk rub that was FRESH.  The bark hadn’t even began to color yet.  I parked the truck and grabbed my camera and went and checked it out.  The sign was very fresh and it reeked of elk.  As I was walking to the rub I noticed a huge pile of fresh bear crap as well.  I decided to go back and get my pack.  I had no idea how long I might be out, and I didn’t want to get caught out there without a light.  That has happened before and its no fun. Also in the pack was my Thompson Contender 30-30.   I only went about 150 yards or so and I heard and then spotted a bear feeding my way in some leftover hucks.  I was on his direct route, so I got down on my knees and positioned myself to take his picture.  He was right behind a big downed log and was walking.  I was close enough that I figured I would get one shot and he would probably bolt.  I was shooting a Canon A2E with a 400 mm Sigma lens.  It was going to be a Full framed shot.   As the bear approached the end of the log, I watched his hackles go up and he rounded the log and squared off.  I never snapped a picture.  Something fired in my synapses or intuition or whatever you want to call it, I knew *censored* was about to hit the fan. I put down the camera and pulled out the contender and bullets.   I waved and started talking to him.  He would grab dirt with his paw and throw it at me, making little false charges.  He kept grunting and snapping his jaws.  I can remember 30 being the number, whether that was 30 feet or 30 yards I don’t remember.  I just know that the camera was down and the contender was out and cocked and raised.  I kept talking and so did he.  Finally he charged.  I don’t know if you know how fast a bear can move.  Target acquired with my Burris 3x scope on the pistol, and I want you to know that cooler heads prevail, I took him in the chest.  I suppose he was at about 15 feet or so.  My mind was really on other things.  He had so much momentum that he hit me like a truck.  When he hit me, he knocked my hat off and I went down the mountain.  He then must have smelled my hat or what I don’t know, but he pounced on it and got a hold of it.  I can picture it well as I was rolling down the mountain.  All I had in my mind was getting another round into the pistol.  When I stopped rolling, I came up with the gun and on one knee put one into his shoulder.  He ran about 20 feet and died.   That’s when I lost it.  The adrenaline took over and the shakes began.  I swear, fifteen minutes went by before I could stand up.   I finally went up to my bear and then snapped a couple pics of him and myself from the small tripod I had.  I went back to the truck to get something to drink and to gather some more gear to take care of the bear and holy hell….there was a cinnamon bear standing on his hind legs with his paws on the hood of my truck.  I yelled at the *censored* and he took off.  I got to my truck and the *censored* had clawed two big rips into the hood of my truck.  No *censored*, I had one heck of a segway into a bear story everytime a hunter looked at my truck.  If I would have know he scratched my truck, I’d shot him too. J/K.    Anyway, the bear that had attacked, had a big rip in his nose.  I assume he had anger in his eyes, and he probably smelled that cinnamon standing behind me, and that’s what caused the whole thing.  I absolutely don’t have a fear of bears, but boy do I have respect.   My “lucky” hunting hat now has several bear toothmarks in it.

https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,6522.msg72335.html#msg72335

[Bearhunter308]

That's a great story! Glad he chewed on your hat and not you

[okie john]

i am really interested in trying hand gun hunting, get to use your stalking and hunting skills like archery, but during rifle season.  what are the recommended calibers for eastern Washington terrain, whitetails, anyone used it for rattling time.  the close quarters, fast aim and shoot that people say you need in rattling im thinking the handgun may be beneficial.

I killed several whitetails with revolvers in Oklahoma and a few blacktails in Washington.

The S&W Model 29 and 629 are ready to go out of the box. Just zero and go hunting. I've used 4" and full-underlug 5" versions. I used 10 grains of Unique under a 240-grain machine-cast SWC like the ones that Aardvaark Bullets (Poulsbo) makes. This load is very accurate. It gets 950 fps in a 4" barrel and will shoot end-to-end through a deer.

I also used David Clements custom five-shot 5 1/2" and 7 1/2" Rugers in 45 Colt and 454 Casull. These guns were built on the old large-frame Blackhawk Bisleys. In those days, all Ruger revolvers needed trigger work. Their 45s needed to have the cylinder throats opened and there was usually a choke in the bore where the barrel screwed into the frame. I understand that cylinders and barrels in the current small-frame Flat Top guns are properly built and fitted. Not sure about the current large-frame guns. They all still need trigger work.

In the five-shot guns, I used a 325-grain LBT LFN with enough H-110 to get up to 1,400 fps. You get that load data from the guy who built the gun, but it probably would have dropped an elephant cleanly. NO need for that much power on deer. I'd look for something about like my S&W load, or 45 ACP +P ballistics. That's plenty for the ranges in question and it's a lot more fun to shoot.

Not sure that I'd pick a revolver if I were starting over. The Glock 21 is known for superb accuracy and has plenty of power for my needs. I'd get one with a red-dot sight and I'd spend a lot of time on the range the summer before Opening Day. Might even shoot some IDPA with it once I had a good load worked up...


Okie John

[Goshawk]

Very doable, if you do your part in advance; PRACTICE! It takes me a lot more to hit a pie plate at 100 yards than any rifle, so I had to practice a LOT before I felt like going into the woods with a superblackhawk was not a stunt.  If you treat it like an archery hunt and keep your shot distance accordingly you'll be fine.  I can't hit a pie plate at 200 yards with a pistol. Inside of 100 yards, I can, so that's my self imposed limit. 50 and under becomes ideal for me.

[passman65]

Still looking to take a bear with it