In about 40 years of handgun hunting, I have made two bad shots on deer with big-bore revolvers. One of them was with a Ruger 45 Colt, loaded with 255 grain SWC's at around 950 fps. The other one was with a 44 Redhawk 44 using 300 grain XTP's at a known 1310 fps.
In both cases the deer goosed as I was triggering the shot, and it landed about 6" behind the shoulder and 4" under the spine. The 44/300/XTP deer bled like a stuck hog and went damn near 200 yards. The 45/255/SWC deer went maybe 50.
Now a fool would look at this and say the 45 SWC is a four times better deer stopper than the 44 JHP.
A rational man would look at this and say the fool on the trigger should have done a better job.
Both loads have flattened deer for me when slammed into the spine at the shoulder. I hate cloud the issue with logic, but shot placement matters more than paper energy.
Last edited by SargeMO; 10/27/14.
