I was playing around with my .45 caliber Green Mountain barreled Renegade today.

My regular hunting load for this gun is 85 grains GOEX FFFg under a Hornady .40 caliber XTP bullet. That load generally shoots five-shot groups into 1.5 to 2.5 inches at 100 yards and blows through a deer on a broadside shot.

So I got to wondering what a lighter charge of 65 grains would do, and shot three five-shot groups at 100 yards with that load.

Here are the targets.







First off, recoil with this load in the heavy 28-inch/1" across the flats GM barrel was almost nonexistent (the gun weighs in a 9.5 lbs.). But would this be an acceptable hunting load? I'd say yes.

The second target was shot over the chronograph. I used the ballistic calculator at Handloads.com to see what kind of energy that 200 grain bullet was producing at 1500 fps. Here's what I got.



Well, at 150 yards it's moving faster and with more energy than Hornady's 180 grain 10mm handgun load has at the muzzle. So If you would be comfortable shooting a deer at five feet with a 180 grain XTP in a 10mm handgun, the 65 grain load of GOEX will certainly do the job out to 150 yards.