longbowman

I'm considering buying my first handgun for hunting and have a question for you short gun shooters. I'm leaning towards a .44 Mag. but have had others tell me that I wouldn't go wrong with a .45 Colt. While I've shot .454 Casuls and the .45-70 hand guns I don't really thing I need all of that for deer hunting. Any suggestions?

akbound

Hi longbowman,

Either the .44 Magnum or the .45 Colt would be perfectly acceptable for whitetail hunting. But if you don't handload....the .44 Magnum has more hunting loads available than the .45 Colt does factory loaded. (You can always shoot .44 Specials for reduced practice loads in the .44 Magnum.)

Good luck with your decision!

Nomercy

Yeah, the .45-70 BFR is pretty much way too much for deer hunting, the accuracy isn't nearly what it would need to be to need that much energy improvement over say a .44mag. That said, if you're hunting bears, the BFR is hard to beat, I loved mine, and I'm quite fond of my Ruger super-redhawk in .454cass....but for deer, my Ruger Superblackhawk .44mag gets the nod...I'm probably one of the biggest .44mag fans you'll find...put a glass on a single action 7" .44mag, do a lot of practicing, and you've got yourself a 125-150yrd thumper.

A single action is the way to go, unless you're afraid you'll be defending yourself afield with it...double actions are fun, great to have, but for hunting, you're going to be shooting it as a single action anyway (DA trigger pull is massive and the travel is worse, hell on accuracy). Ruger is the gun for me, I'll never own another non-collectible revolver than rugers...they're BOMBPROOF, very accurate, have great asthetics, and Ruger has better customer service than you'd imagine (I needed sights on a vaquero re-regulated, the manual says it'd cost me shipping both ways plus a minimum $20 labor, I only paid to get it to them).

The Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter .44mag with a good glass and full house half-jacketed bullets is the best deer medicine around as far as handgunning goes.

rcw280

think about the 480 ruger in super redhawk in between the 44 and 454 for energy and recoil but maybe alittle harder to find ammo for, but also have a 44 that i love just remember practice with whatever you chose

swampdog_

Don't forget about the .41 mag.

T/C fan!

If your shots are going to 100-150yds or less, the 44mag gets my vote too. Like momercy said, the Ruger is bullet-proof, especially for the money. Remember, don't skimp on the scope, its not worth it. Nikon and Leupold both make great pistol scopes.

eldeguello

Either a .44 Mag. , or a .45 Colt (with adequate ammo), is a good choice for deer shooting. You could also get a .454 and use hot .45 Colt ammo in it. I recommend the Taurus Raging Bull. It is lighter and easier to handle than the Ruger, and handles recoil better also. I don't feel any more recoil from mine shooting .454 ammo than from my S&W M 29 in .44 Mag.!! If you had a .454, you could use it for bigger stuff should the opportunity arise (but you can also shoot bigger stuff with a .44 Mag., too!)

akbound

Hey longbowman,

If you can't make up your mind.....do like most of us....get one of each! (It makes me feel better knowing I'm not the only one that has trouble with my compulsions!)

Seriously though...good luck with your decision!

rcw280

thats the best suggetion i've heard yet should have thougt of it myself

Stephen Grace

This was my first year pistol hunting. I was in your predicament trying to choose a gun. I narrowed it down to the gp100's and the taurus tracker.In my area both were about same price. I ended up trying the taurus because of little things.You can leave the sights all in place with their mount for a scope. You already get nice rubber grips. All in satin stainless with 6'' ported barrel with vent rib. I shot two deer with it and was happy with it. I think the 357 works well if your responsible.I made a fifty 50 yard limit.But I'm used to it from bowhunting.If you want more reach you can go more caliber and if your in the right state you could use rifle calibers in a xp or contender type pistol.It's a wonderful problem;you gotta love this country.