I grew up on a farm in the country. Our property was at the end of a dead end county road. Townspeople were notorious for dumping dogs off there. We had farm stock, chickens, turkeys, ducks on our pond, cattle, horses and occasionally hogs. Dad and I shot a lot of dumped off stray dogs molesting our stock. Dad was a Korean War vet and loved his Gov't Model 1911 .45. I grew up shooting that Colt and it was always handy. I wasn't too impressed with hardball. It did the job, but not always with a drop em on the spot kill. Sometimes with a hit that scratched the vitals but didn't center, dogs ran quite a way before we could find it. I started handloading and casting bullets and the 200 gr. SWC at about 1,050 fps was noticeably a better killer. The old Speer 200 gr. Flying Ashtray hollowpoint was very very good at knocking big old mutts down. My first centerfire handgun was a Dan Wesson 6" . 357 magnum. A quick stepping 125 gr. hollowpoint was perfect.
