Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Any of you guys use a handgun on plainsgame?

I'm just curious. I'm thinking about going with the old classic - .44 mag - on my next safari. Specifically, I'm considering shooting a waterbuck with Barnes Buster (300 gr). Anyone with experience using a scoped handgun in Africa have advice they can share?

I didnt do it on mine, but there are a couple of guys here who did use handguns with the same outfitter I used right before I got there.

Thanks, I hope they chime in. I want to get a sense of how practical it is when the nerves hit and you have to keep the crosshairs trained on the animal. I have to imagine that it's extremely satisfying if you can pull it off.

I tried it, and even took a cape buffalo with a 9.3 JDJ in an SSK Handcannon. Didn't like it. (See the photo in the Barnes Reloading Manual #1. I was younger then.)

There are some gung ho handgun hunters that have had impressive success. J. D. Jones and Mark Hampton can shoot their SSK's as accurately at 200 yards as most rifle shooters. I was not one that ever gained enough confidence with my ability to place shots with a handgun. I sold mine and have stuck to rifles since.

Gary Phillips and Carl van Zijl of John X Safaris have guided many handgunners in RSA to some fine trophies. Boots is one famous hunter that comes to mind. Yep, that's his full name. SCI regulars probably know him.

The .44 mag will work, but you need to treat it like bow hunting.

Look for some old articles about handgun hunting from Bob Milek. He was the real deal. Not sure if he ever went to Africa, but I recall a G & A article years ago about a pronghorn hunt trying out some Nosler BT's. They seemed to work wonderfully for him, as I recall.

Git er dun! Nobody says you have to follow the crowd! If that's what you want to do, then..........make sure you post the pics, and the story!


maddog

I used to say before I died, I wanted to shoot a grizzly bear with my 45/70 JDJones barreled Contender. If it is doable perhaps I may change that to cape buffalo. It also may be just immediately before I die.

That contender has printed some pretty impressive groups at 200 yards. 2" any time with the smallest 3/4". That man' shop made some impressive barrels.

Randy formerly posting as medicman

Ingwe

mrguns, that's brilliant. I'm wanting to do the handgun thing, but I think I would poop myself if I tried it with a grizzly.

maddog - I really do want to do this, I'm just concerned about porking the shot on a $2400 animal and watching the trophy fee run off into the great wilderness. I feel confident that I can make the shot out to 50 yards...just gotta pray that I can make the shot out to 50 yards when it counts and that a 300 gr non-expanding bullet will get it done.

Pistol hunting is similar to flintlock hunting. getting close is necessary, and unles central nervous hits are made they bleed to death versus shock wavee organ destruction.

A 300 grain non expanding should kill well enough, but shot placement with a 44 mag would be critical. As I was told by one of the elder statesmen of the fire, "One of the greatest requirements to hunt in Africa is a waist high pile of fired brass from field position practicing."

Randy formerly posting as medicman

I hear you there. There is simply no substitute for ample practice and any flaws you still possess after a ton of practice will be magnified immensely when the pressure of the real thing is in front of you. Nobody is ever going to be perfect in every situation, but it's imperative to shake off the rust as much as possible, so that when you do screw up, it's still within the limits of bagging the animal cleanly.

At this point, most of my African game has been taken with a handgun. The "Klippie" was taken off a mountain top at a range of about 180 yards with a scoped Thompson/Center Encore handgun chambered in 460 S&W Magnum.

With that handgun, I also took Zebra, Red Hartebeest, a couple of Cape Grysbok, a Steenbok, a Porcupine (big deal), a Vaal Rhebok, a Duiker, an Impala, and a European Fallow Deer. On another trip I took a Mountain Reedbuck, a Black Wildebeest and a Sprinbok with a scoped Thompson/Center Contender handgun chambered in 357 Herrett.

The 44 Magnum on plains game? Yea, it will work just fine. If you want anything near rifle like accuracy though, you will probably not go with a revolver. Also, due to the shorter barrel, handgun velocity is going to be lower than in a rifle chambered for the same cartridge so practical hunting ranges are going to be closer. As long as you stay within the limitations of your handgun, they work just fine and at ranges quite a bit longer than bow ranges.

I also shoot a scoped Thompson/Center Contender in 44 Magnum that's good for 1 to 1.5 inch 3 shot groups at 100 yards.

A 200 yard target from one of my newer toys.

Grumulkin -

Simply amazing work on all fronts! I may have to do a monthly "Featured Hunter" profile of you on my site. We have some excellent hunters on there with great trophies but we have yet to profile a handgun hunter, let alone one as prolific as you have been. Bravo!

Ads for the .44 mag I would be using, it's a Colt Anaconda that actually has the longest factory barrel available when I bought it new back in 2003 (8" ported). It's fitted with a fixed 2x Burris handgun scope on a Weigand combat 3-ring base for extra recoil insurance:



With the right load, can be surprisingly accurate for a revolver. Not centerfire/single-shot accurate, but good enough for 75 yards. Here's a couple of group it printed off the bench at 25 yards. I want to say that the best group of 5 or so 3-shot groups was .325", so at 75 yards, it would be right around 1":

One thing I've learned about handguns is that while they can be very accurate at say 25 yards, groups at 50 or 100 yards open way up; a lot more than you would expect them to from shooting at closer ranges. I've also found straight walled handgun cartridges to be the most finicky when it comes to getting good accuracy at long range.

Here is a target shot at 200 yards with the same gun and load I used on my last RSA hunt. The group measured about 1.5 inches center to center. It's a pretty hot load but safe in the gun I'm shooting; muzzle velocity is about 2,350 fps. I worked harder to get that gun to shoot well than with any other I've worked with.

Thanks for the heads up on the dynamic regarding longer distance accuracy. I never did get take this load longer save for some fun shot attempts at 2-liter bottles out to 200 yards with open sights. I would've test this thing out at further range had Sierra not stopped making the bullet I was using at the time (or, as they say, not been able to keep up with the recent demand).

Now, I've got Barnes as a sponsor for the DVD in which I may use this handgun. That means I can actually get the bullet I need, provided I can work up an adequate load. I don't want to toy with them since the original plan was to use a .375 H&H with the 300gr. TSX and my 7mm-08 with the 140gr. TTSX bullets. I would have to be able to produce relatively gnats-*** accuracy with the 300 gr. Buster bullet to merit the change to a handgun load, especially with the quality of the hunt and a clean kill at stake (not to mention you will all laugh at me if I blow the shot on film).

I'll talk with the reps over there and see if it's something they even want me messing with. It sure it tempting, but I also have to keep their interests in mind.

Grumulkin

I did not mean to imply that distances for accuracy were similar to bow distances, but that at 75-100 yards with a 44 mag revolver, the animal expires similar to an archery kill. The rifle calibre loads are scary accurate in my contender, and the encore allows a much more aggresive round to be chambered. That 375H&H must be a handful, as the 375 JDJ is stout round. My varment round is a 7mmTC/U which prints 300 yd groups of 1.5 to 2 inches when the wind is quiet. I have never been able to dope the wind.

mrguns -

Truth be told, I'm not looking forward to the recoil of the .375, but using a classic African cartridge is part of what this new endeavor will entail. I LOVED shooting the 7mm-08 over there last time. That puppy kills em dead without beating the shooter to death, BUT the big scare is how little blood there was, even on complete pass-through shots. That hole is just not terribly big and I nearly lost a blesbuck that was hit right through the heart (and out the opposite side) as a result. That's really the only practical reason I wanted to go to a large bore, .375/.44 cal round for the more expensive hunts: the greater probability of a solid blood trail.

I've seen several interesting things on blood trails:

1. A Blue Wildebeest I shot on an angling shot with a 270 gr. bullet from a 375 H&H Magnum, passing through the lungs came to rest under the skin on the far side perfectly mushroomed. There was a single pinhead or smaller drop of blood on the ground the PH found. We set out after the departed beast and found it dead not too far away behind some brush. We weren't hampered by no blood trail.

2. A Zebra I shot with a 375 H&H Magnum from about 200 yards away was apparently hit by a bullet fragment after the bullet hit some brush. Anyway, there was an oblong hole in the Zebra's shoulder with no exit wound and a blood trail that made the area look like that of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The PH remarked that he had never seen one bleed like that before; maybe he was just trying to make me feel good. The Zebra didn't go far and would have been found with or without the blood trail.

3. There was a Springbok shot by a friend with a 500 S&W Magnum. It took off with no significant blood trail. Later in the day, the PH came across it and dispatched it with his 416 Rigby. The postmortum showed the bullet had entered the skin of the abdominal wall and exited without entering the peritoneal cavity. The peritoneum was bruised but I'll bet that if left alone, it would have survived. Moral; a big bore doesn't guarantee death or a big blood trail.

4. I've shot 4 deer this year all with no blood trail. Why? Because with neck shots they didn't go far enough to leave a trail.

5. I took 3 deer with a 308 Winchester and a particular load of Argentine surplus 150 gr. soft nosed Berden primed ammo I got, if I remember correctly, at a very good price from Cheaper-Than-Dirt. Every last one was a one shot, bang flop chest shot with no exit wound. I still have a couple boxes of that ammo left and wish I knew where to get more since its performance was exceptional.

We get so picky. Some want two holes while others want all the energy expended in the animal. In my opinion, it doesn't matter if the animal gets a quick humane death.

It would seem to me that this would suffice for just about anything the Dark Continent offered up . . . Pfeifer-Zeliska Revolver

Grumulkin -

I can definitely see where the anomalies of blood trails can show that anything is possible and nothing is for sure when it comes to blood trails. However, the one things I've noticed is that my business partner, using nothing but the old, slow blackpowder rifles - 45-70, 45-110, 45-90, etc. - seems to always get them and get them good. Every animal he took in his previous DVD bled like a stuck pig. He is a big advocate of using large, slow bullets to both penetrate fully and ensure a strong bloodtrail.

I can't speak to why it works as I have no clue, but it really is something I want to examine on the smokeless side going with a .375 H&H. I'll be sure to post a hunt report when I get back. The trip is scheduled for this coming Spring.

Luisl
i have hunted with the Smith & Wesson group,paul pluff, they used the 460 and the 500,they performed very well and impressed all of us.
I also had 2 hunters come in with Remington 100 in a 338,they where unbelievable in ability and took all there species ,we had 1 runner because we got too close,the handgun hunting,walk and stalk the way we did it was awesome,i could get the hunters to pm you and you can chat about it .