2021 Handgun Hunting Thread

[Chief Big Toe]

I am inspired to try it,for sure
Thanks!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Looney Tatonka]

How much is your holdover on a 66 yd shot?

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

This will be my first year pistol hunting and I’ve got a whole mess of contenders to play with hopefully I can knock down a few pigs and deer. Need to find a hog hunting spot where they make day time appearances.

[Randy M]

How much is your holdover on a 66 yd shot?

With this particular gun, zero. In fact this is what I’ll be chasing elk with in Wyoming later this fall. The 300 grain load I’ve worked up leaves the barrel at 1709 FPS. It’s zero’d at 100 and drops 7” at 150. From 0 - 125 I calculate nothing.

Thanks for asking!

[Chief Big Toe]

dang 300 grain. is that a helluva kick?

[Randy M]

dang 300 grain. is that a helluva kick?

It'll wake you up on a cold morning, but honestly so much of handling recoil comes down to grip design and how you, yourself grip the gun. Most people give big bore handguns a death grip which is a perfect recipe for horrible accuracy and painful recoil. It still gets your attention, but with good technique it's not that bad.

[Randy M]

dang 300 grain. is that a helluva kick?

I'm trying to put this into words to help you visualize my approach. And I'm by no means an expert - this just really works well for me.

If grip pressure was on a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being almost nothing and 10 being the death grip, I'd say mine is somewhere around a 5 or 6 at most. Firm, but pretty light when you think about the ballistics of a 454.

Also, a consistent grip is vital. Same exact grip. Every. Single. Time.

Finally...the gun was designed to recoil. I let it do it's thing. The less I try to control or 'ride' the recoil, the less it hurts. The Bisley grip also helps a lot in my opinion, to mitigate recoil on the hard kickers.

Hope this helps.

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

So is it necessary to hot rod pistol rounds? I am having trouble shooting full power 240gr 44 magnum loads out of a very light contender pistol, loads are running 1700+\- fps.

[John316]

I’ve been eye balling those CVA pistols just haven’t jumped on it yet . Are you satisfied with the CVA quality?

Ive had 2 CVA rifles and one pistol. The rifles both shot under an inch at 100 yards. I just got the pistol sighted in and shot a few 3 shot groups. I dont have a lot of experience shooting this type of pistol, but I managed to get a few 3 shot groups that were 1-3/4” @ 100 yards. The trigger pull on my CVAs are Crisp breaking, around 2.5 pounds. The quality has been very good IMO. The first rifle I bought, had some intermittent misfiring issues. I sent it back to CVA and the sent me a new rifle. Evidently they cut the chamber too deep and resulted in light primer strikes.
For the money, I dont think you will find anything in the same ballpark as far as quality goes IMO. I paid $338 for mine, plus tax, scope and rings.

[Randy M]

So is it necessary to hot rod pistol rounds? I am having trouble shooting full power 240gr 44 magnum loads out of a very light contender pistol, loads are running 1700+\- fps.

Great question. The short answer is 'it depends'. Things like bullet choice, desired game (deer vs. elk, etc), shot distance, etc. But...let me make a few assumptions and it'll help explain.

I'm going to assume you want to hunt Texas deer and hogs up to 150 lbs., out to about 150 yards. I'm also going to assume the 240 grain bullet you are referring to is the Hornady XTP. If any of these change, the answer potentially does too.

Ok, the 240 grain .44 mag Hornady XTP starts expanding at about 900 FPS. So based on that, even if you backed your load down to a muzzle velocity of 1500 fps, you are still most likely over 1000 fps as far as 200 yards. So, the answer here is you can absolutely back off and still accomplish your goals. Technically, you could even go slower but depending on what powder you are using, I'd be REAL careful about going too light of a charge.

If this doesn't make sense, or, you want to talk more about it, please send me a PM. I'm happy to help with what I've learned. Far from an expert but have been a 99.9% handgun hunter for the past 20ish years.

Glad to help in any way I can.

[Bily Lovec]

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=789121

[kmon]

Great question. The short answer is 'it depends'. Things like bullet choice, desired game (deer vs. elk, etc), shot distance, etc. But...let me make a few assumptions and it'll help explain.

I'm going to assume you want to hunt Texas deer and hogs up to 150 lbs., out to about 150 yards. I'm also going to assume the 240 grain bullet you are referring to is the Hornady XTP. If any of these change, the answer potentially does too.

Ok, the 240 grain .44 mag Hornady XTP starts expanding at about 900 FPS. So based on that, even if you backed your load down to a muzzle velocity of 1500 fps, you are still most likely over 1000 fps as far as 200 yards. So, the answer here is you can absolutely back off and still accomplish your goals. Technically, you could even go slower but depending on what powder you are using, I'd be REAL careful about going too light of a charge.

If this doesn't make sense, or, you want to talk more about it, please send me a PM. I'm happy to help with what I've learned. Far from an expert but have been a 99.9% handgun hunter for the past 20ish years.

Glad to help in any way I can.

Agree and for deer and hogs you do not need that much IMO. I have killed them just fine with 44 special loads but no shots were over 60 yards. Hard cast 240gr bullet with a large Meplat will do the job and leave an exit hole on deer and hogs almost all the time from what I have seen. A .429 inch bullet bludgeoning its way through does not generally drop them on the spot "Unless CNS is hit" but does penetrate well and does more damage on its way through than many would think.

My favorite .357 bullet is the old discontinues 180gr Nosler Partition, never recovered one from deer or hog and have shot through shoulders and back bone on hogs that were a little over 200lbs with it. When my supply of those runs out I will probably switch to the Swift 180gr A-Frame for the 357 Mag and 357 Max.

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

Great question. The short answer is 'it depends'. Things like bullet choice, desired game (deer vs. elk, etc), shot distance, etc. But...let me make a few assumptions and it'll help explain.

I'm going to assume you want to hunt Texas deer and hogs up to 150 lbs., out to about 150 yards. I'm also going to assume the 240 grain bullet you are referring to is the Hornady XTP. If any of these change, the answer potentially does too.

Ok, the 240 grain .44 mag Hornady XTP starts expanding at about 900 FPS. So based on that, even if you backed your load down to a muzzle velocity of 1500 fps, you are still most likely over 1000 fps as far as 200 yards. So, the answer here is you can absolutely back off and still accomplish your goals. Technically, you could even go slower but depending on what powder you are using, I'd be REAL careful about going too light of a charge.

If this doesn't make sense, or, you want to talk more about it, please send me a PM. I'm happy to help with what I've learned. Far from an expert but have been a 99.9% handgun hunter for the past 20ish years.

Glad to help in any way I can.

For the most part you are spot on.

I do have the 240gr xtps but haven’t loaded them yet I’ve been trying to learn the gun using 240gr berry plated bullets but just can’t seem to get consistent with the gun what so ever.

I’m going to move the targe closer next time to say 25-30 yards. I’ve been shooting at 75 yards. I can very easily group moa or better with my 30-30 contender at that distance using a super 14 barrel. My 44 is a 10-12” barrel, both have a red dot sight.

I think the issue is a two part issue.
1. I’m just not that great of a handgun shot.
2. I’m recoil sensitive with the 44 I think and keep jerking the trigger.

My 30-30 frame has a much better trigger so I may swap frames and try that out.

[Blkarge]

That’s awesome!

[imyomama]

knock knock! who's there ? 300blk pistol braced ar15! .... thread over!
seriously though .. i've taken a doe from 54 yards with a glock 17 long slide 9mm .. a buck from 65 with a ruger gp100 357 and red dot , a pig from 64 with a glock 20 10mm, a turkey from the gp100 , red dot at 60 yards , and another turkey with a tc contender in 223, red dot from 60 ish yards... also used to shoot alligator gars and water moccasins at the river bottoms with 357 ruger open sight 30 years ago ... before people got uptight for shooting at the trinity river bottoms...

back in the day , i used to shoot the nra hunter pistol matches all the time at the club .. 40,50 75 and 100 meters, off hand of course , we are men afterall ... that's the best way in my opinion to get good at it ... practice practice , and more practice.... once you got that and understand ballistics .. you have the perfect recipe for success ... didn't hurt that my TC pistols has a 7 and 8 ounce trigger respectively....