Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Handgun for hunting whitetail

I have hunted and killed whitetails with almost everything from .357 to .500. Depends on your comfort and skill level, and what game you’re hunting, and how long your shots might be. I’d narrow your choices from there. I will shoot a deer inside of 50 yards with a .357 Magnum(and have) but would not have taken the 82 yard or 105 yard shots that my .500 Mag killed 2 bucks with, had I been carrying a .357 or my beloved 610 Classic 10mm.

Good luck finding the right handgun for you…and a .460 would be a hell of a hammer that would work on nearly every nail! 😎

Doc_Holidude

Thanks everyone for there input. I hunt on my family’s cattle farm lots of grass not as many trees. So shots could be 100 and in. I’m pretty good with my tc contender but feel i would like something different to try. Hunting would be a mix of stand and stalking.
I been on a mission to take a deer with a single shot bolt flintlock etc. a revolver is something I haven’t done yet. Thanks for everyone’s input.

Have you fired a .460?

It’s waaaayyyyy past my fun threshold now. I draw the line at .357 and standard-level .45 Colt these days. Used to shoot .44s, but no longer. I don’t know you, so don’t take offense.

I have fired a 460 in an encore pistol and rifle platform. My buddy has one. No offense taken.

The 460 is an awesome cartridge. Very accurate and kills like a lighting bolt. The X frames are HUGE and I got rid of mine because of it. I would vote for the longest barrel you could get. Have you looked at the magnum research BFR? It is more reasonable in size and they are made GREAT.

This

Man, if you want a 460XVR, get ya' one. Like some other posters have said, X-frames are big, big, guns. Not exactly the perfect packin' pistol.

Magnum Research also offers a Lipsey's BFR .460 S&W Mag 5” with black micarta bisley grips which looks fun.

You mentioned shooting .454 and .45 Colt out of it, which is doable, but Max Prasac wrote in one of his books he's never been able to get acceptable accuracy from .454 and .45 out of a .460 revolver due to the throat jump. Most folks agree it's better to load down .460 than shoot .454 and .45.

For shooting white-tailed deer, may as well stick to the standbys, .357, .44Mag., or .45 Colt. They're easy to shoot with readily available off the shelf ammo. Some posters have recommended .41 Magnum, a cool cartridge, but unless you're a reloader, ammunition is hard to come by.

That's just my opinion, and you know what they're worth.

Some good common sense advise here. I’ve killed deer with .357 mag, 41 mag, 44 special, 44 mag, 45 Colt, and even a couple with 45 acp.
All with heavy hard cast bullets at modest velocities.
Most shots were 50 yards or less. A few in the 75 to 80 yard range. And no telling how many feral hogs here at the ranch with the same calibers and handguns. Mostly with Ruger Blackhawks, RedHawks, and S&W N Frame Revolvers. With barrel lengths ranging from 4” to 7.5” And a few with a 1911 in 45 acp and 10mm. Deer aren’t hard to kill with proper shot placement.
I can only remember one deer in all of them I’ve taken over the years that required more than one shot. And that was with a rifle. In a rifle caliber.

You don’t need a .460 to kill deer. But if you want one, buy one. I’ve never owned one, but shot a friends several times. And I’ve also owned a couple of different Freedom Arms Single Actions in 454 casual. If your going to shoot factory ammo, you will soon grow tired of the muzzle blast and high priced ammo.😬

I have killed deer with a .44 magnum revolver and it worked very well.
A .240 grain Hornady XTP at 1250 fps shot completely through the chest. If I hunt deer with a revolver now, it’s my 5 1/2” Bisley Blackhawk.45 Colt loaded with a 280 grain Keith SWC at 1100 fps.

Ron

I will breakout a handgun for WT every few seasons or so to mix things up. I have used a 6” .357, Glock 40 MOS 10mm, 6” .44mag, and .45 ACP.

The 10mm is fun and with the red dot is effective. The .44 is the overall winner. None have been super impressive as far as performance but I like the larger hole the .44 puts through a deer.

A true big-bore cartridge is on my wishlist but if you want an auto, the 10mm works. If you want a moderate wheel gun, a .44 or .45LC will work fine. I have no experience with the .41 but a friend does and likes it but it has to be similar to the 10mm. The .357 worked for me on a nice FL buck I grunted up to 20 yards but it was a very lackluster experience and worked but I would not intentionally choose to do it again. I have taken a few deer with a .45 ACP but were follow up shots while tracking so they were considered backup kills but none the less took deer.

Tough to beat a 44 magnum with a 5-7" barrel.

Bullets? 240 jacketed, or cast (WFN or Keith) 250-265 grains.

Load to "less than max" at 1000-1100 fps for cast bullets- even for jacketed. Don't need max loads. Easy shooting and effective.

Yep. A 250 gr LBT designed WFN hard cast bullet at 1100 fps works very well on deer and feral hogs.
And a very pleasant load to shoot, too.

.44 mag is nice to have as a ‘companion cartridge’ too - shop for an old marlin or win lever to mate your revolver with. Good times.

There is nothing more satisfying than smashing a swimming beaver with .44 mag. Or yotes, or many things for that matter.

The 41 mag is excellent for deet

The .460 will definitely reach out further if your skills are good enough. I have one and it makes extended ranges more feasible. It will be great for stand hunting. Probably not so fun for carrying. Sometimes you can find .460 ammo for about the same price as .44.

I've only used a TC Contender to handgun hunt deer and I don't think you'll find a better gun than a scoped TC for this purpose, and followup shots are not normally going to be needed. That being said, if you just want to try a revolver for a change go for it! Anything from 44 Special, 44 Mag., 45 Colt would be ideal.

Explain how the "460 reaches out further"?

I killed an article Caribou at about 150 yards and and pig at a layered 218 yards with a 6" barreled Ruger Bisley and 325 grain flat point hard cast at about 1400 FPS.

The flatter trajectory simply makes longer shots a bit easier……it doesn’t kill any better! The longer shots are only possible “if” the shooter is skilled/practiced! memtb

Skilled and practiced evens the playing field.