Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire pistol for whitetail hunting?

S&W 629 Classic 5" barrel. You can load a .44 mag down some and they will still work great. Revolvers would probably easier to mount optics for longer ranges. If he decides to get rid of the .44 it may be easier than a 6" barreled semi auto.

I've taken a lot of deer with my 2 "go-too" larger game deer pistols.

I have a Ruger Super Redhawk wearing a 2x Leupold, and the other is a 1st Series Ruger Super Blackhawk Hunter with a B&L 2-7x scope. Both are .44mag caliber.

dave

With handguns, bullet placement is more important than caliber/power. In general, a revolver is more accurate than a typical Glock. A tight 1911 is more accurate than a typical Glock.

The maximum distance your grandson can ALWAYS put his shots on a cheap paper plate is the MAXIMUM distance he should shoot at a deer.

Using that standard, I have dropped deer with +P .38 Special cast bullet handloads and one with a 135 gr. Hornaday 135 gr. 9 mm from a Browning High Power, but prefer the .44 Special, .45 Colt and a below max .44 Magnum all using heavy cast bullets.

A Contender chambered in .35 Remington would be my choice, lots of bullet choices and you can tailor the load to his shooting ability/recoil tolerance. A Hornady .357 XTP bullet might make a good reduced load to start out with.

Taurus Raging Bee , aka "kitchen window sniper".

Ohio regs:

Handgun: With 5-inch minimum length barrel, using straight-walled cartridges .357 caliber or larger.

I'm carrying a Glock 20 with a 6" Storm Lake barrel and 180 XTP's from Underwood.


The Glock 40 is a very nice platform to hunt with.

That would be hard to beat. I've killed a bunch of deer & hogs over the years with handguns in calibers .357 Sig, 45 acp, 10mm, 41 mag, .44 spec., .44 mag, 45 Colt, 454 Casull, and .480 Ruger. It's not hard to do if you pick your shots, and is also easier with a good pistol scope.

I've hunted a lot with a scoped Ruger Bisley Super BlackHawk Hunter in .44 mag with a 2X Leupold. Revolvers work better as they usually have a much better trigger pull than most autoloaders.

That being said, no flies on the Glock Model 40 long slide 10mm. The slide is already set up for a red dot or heads up optic sight. Mine is extremely accurate, and with a 180 gr Hornady XTP HP bullet at 1300 fps, it's a deer and hog killing machine.

If it was me, I'd take the Grandson to a local range that rents handguns and try several before he makes a decision. As long as you stay with the major manufactures like S&W, Ruger, Glock, Colt, ect, you should easily be able to recover your investment should he not like it.

I have taken several whitetails with my Colt Python. I got this nice buck this year, the shot was around 70 yards. The deer went about 45-50 yards before dropping. The .357 is plenty of gun for whitetails, as a 35 caliber hole through the vitals = dead deer.

.357 maximum then...

I use a Ruger blackhawk in 41 mag.

Can't say about an auto but they should work,with a lot of practice.

Excuse me while I whip this thing out!!!

A standard Redhawk ain't a bad choice either. I always used 44 magnum, but 41 Mag or 45 Colt would also work well.

I have and use a Glock 40 in 10mm, a Ruger 6” gp100 in 357, S&W 686 in 357, Ruger Blackhawk hunter in 44mag, all revolvers with leupold 4x scopes. Have taken deer with all of them. Started carrying a Ruger alaskan in 454 this year also just in case I get a deer up close I can use it on.

Using a handgun for hunting is first and foremost, primarily about hitting.

Id be using a gun and ammo promoting that as well as the amount of practice that goes with it and a Glock wouldnt be my first choice, nor one I would advise to start hunting with.

A Smith 357 or a Ruger SA in 357 would be a good baseline to start with. If you reload, the bigger guns would work well too if the guns fit the lad.

I've got a 7.5" barrel Ruger Blackhawk with open sights. Any deer that I would taken with a bow from my stand, I'd have felt comfortable using the pistol. The only real problem was how loud it was going off. I was using H110 under a 240 grain XTP, and the report was something that plugs and muffs barely covered. I had a RSO at a local range in a pink-misted Tiz-fit. He came running over, because he was sure I'd blown up the gun. I told him I was just working up starter loads.

The idea of hunting with plugs and muffs was enough to have me shelve the project.

If I was going to start over, I think I'd just use Unique and cast lead.

The OP said his son was looking at a G40, not a G22. The G40 is a long barreled 10mm pistol set up for target shooting or hunting. My G20 in 10mm shoots DoubleTap 200 gr bullets at 1300 fps and that will match anything you can do with 357 magnum. And is pretty close to 41 magnum if fired from 4" barrels. The longer barreled G40 is probably a bit faster and that is plenty of punch for most anything short of the big bears. And 10mm, even 9mm has been used to stop grizzly charges in Alaska.

And you can buy the same load in 40 S&W at 1100 fps. That ain't bad.

A long barreled 357, 41 or 44 magnums advantage is the longer sight radius and a better trigger. The 10mm round has enough power, if someone can hit vitals.

Hunted in Ohio with a handgun at the end of the last century. Buy 2 handguns, one rimfire, and then your primary hunting handgun. Both should be similar action types, SA,DA or auto. Practice one handed with both left and right hands using the rimfire at clay pigeons on a 100 yard dirt bank to learn breathing and trigger technique then finish using both hands on the same target. Practice 3 times a week with the rimfire and once a week with the primary hunting handgun. Shoot paper at random distances at each outing and compare your ability to hit with both to get an idea of how far you should be shooting at a live animal. My combination back then was a Single Six and a 7.5" .45 LC Blackhawk and this system worked pretty well for me.

I used a Smith 629 44 mag on a small mule deer buck. After the 240 grain XTP went through him, he was done in a few seconds.
And I took an antelope doe and mule deer doe with a contender in 357 maximum. That worked well also.
If I were to get serious about deer hunting with a handgun, I would use a contender, probably in 357 maximum.

Why would an auto take a lot of practice? Most of my autos have better triggers than my revolvers. Except my 329PD which has a really nice SA pull. Although most of my autos have had a bit of work or were bought with good triggers.

Bartman- EXCELLENT plan and practice schedule.