IIs there anyone here hunting big game with a handgun this season? I won no tags this year so I'll be helping two others fill mule deer tags and otherwise arm-chairing it as far as big game. I will hunt birds in November. I'm in the Great Basin area and if fortunate with tags can hunt deer, antelope, sheep or goats. There's elk here too but I'll forgo that until I have someone that can help me pack it out. I'm accumulating experience slowly. Friends have resolved if they want to hunt every year they need to go out of state. That costs a lot more.
Left to only my thoughts from the sidelines this season, I've been thinking about using a handgun for hunting light game like mule deer, pronghorn, bighorn, and mountain goats. I have not done this before. What's a good handgun setup for hunting game like that? What I have now is a full-size 357 with a red dot sight. I didn't originally acquire it for hunting. A lot of handgun hunters that I've read don't seem to think much of 357. On the other hand, some of them seem to have "little gun syndrome" or something that compels them to shoot the most massive game possible. I wonder if they do it just to prove they can do it with a handgun. For sure, I don't need a 500 S&W to shoot an antelope.
Based on experience that doesn't include shooting any game, I am still convinced the 357 will fully penetrate deer, antelope, sheep and goats with a bullet that keeps its integrity like an A-frame or XPB. It also has the same trajectory as bullets from 41, 44, 45 "Ruger-only", and 480 with similar sectional density. The difference is of course the larger calibers have more mass and therefore more momentum. They will penetrate even larger game. I don't see that as an advantage since I won't be hunting Elk, Moose, Bison, Brown Bear or African game. Theoretically, the larger caliber also produces a larger wound cavity, but the wounding mechanism of low-velocity handgun projectiles is controversial.
It seems I would probably be safe choosing any magnum bigger than 357 Magnum and after that there is probably more to be gained from the kind of gun, barrel length, optic, mount, rest and so on. I have both S&W double-actions and and Ruger single-actions. Mine are not particularly well-suited to hunting (besides being 357 or smaller, I have guns like the New Vaquero). I can group on an index card at 100 yards with my S&W with the red dot. If it was a 44, I'd be ready to go. I wonder if for longer shots, a Leupold FXII 4x28mm wouldn't be a little better. I'm not sure I'd put that on the 357 though because the barrel is only 5". I'd be afraid the objective would get fouled from the muzzle blast.
So I'm wondering if anyone is handgun hunting and what they're using. When I talked to a state fish and game field agent last year, they said they'd never encountered anyone handgun hunting. They'd no doubt met hundreds of hunters over the years and seen rifle, muzzleloader and plenty of archery, but said nobody seems to handgun hunt here.
