Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 44 Mag, 310 gr WFN GC

Everything in hunting with a handgun is a variable, rifles too for that matter, thats because you can never dicate the distance, the angle, the nervousness, the animals size & the shot placement. Jacketed bullets have their place for sure, espcially on animals the size of deer or if using one of the premium jacketed slugs then animals up to elk size or perhaps a little bigger.
A good friend of mine from Hickory, N.C. is a very accomplished handgunner & has taken game all over the world using good, heavy jacketed handgun slugs, this includes african & asian game up to water buffalo which are bigger than the cape buffalo of africa.
Its all about selecting the correct bullet for the job & then putting it in the right place, when that happens & you also get penetration then you've done your part.
The tricky part is getting the penetration from that jacketed slug. If they are up to the task of penetrating then you can bet there's little or no expansion on most animals.
With the heavy cast slugs of at least 40 caliber with a wide meplat, the expansion is built in just from bullet diameter & that big wide nose. As Whitworth mentions the big heavy one's never fail, shooters can fail because they don't make shot placement a priority & bad things happen, there's just no guarantee's in hunting, especially with sixguns. That challenge is kind of what makes us hunt with them in the first place.

Dick