Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Solid or expanding bullet for Mountain Lion

Hey that looks familiar!



Mine is a .45 Colt/ACP though. I just use it as an ACP gun. Heck for Mountain Lions, I would just load some factory 230 grain Gold Dot JHPs in the ACP Cylinder and call it good. I think they would ruin Mr. Big Paw's lunch!

I was thinking along those lines for mine too:



Ruger's been making some really neat stuff lately. Wish I could find one in stainless with the 5 1/2" barrel. Or, better yet, if Ruger would make one with the Bisley grip.

The revolver next to it is a K22 made in 1948. Old enough to be the Ruger's grandpa

250 gr Keith SW

I haven't bought Rem SJHP's for some time... Midway used to sell 'em in bulk boxes, and I have quite a supply on hand in 158 gr and 180 gr. I can't find the box with the 180's in it since I moved, though...

Definitely an expanding bullet like the XTP which is one of the best expanding bullets for pistols made.JJ Hack had his hands in on the making of that bullet..FYI....

Jayco

That's how I used to buy 'em too. I'm now down to less than 100 of the 240gr 44's and probably less than 50 of the 125gr 357's.

Midway's bulk pricing used to be pretty attractive, but not so much anymore.

I never shot one, but what a thrill to keep up with the dogs on a successfully hunt!

I have seen 3 killed, 2 larger cats. One with a .22LR , one a .22 mag and another with .223 ball-ammo.

They all died just as quickly. They don't take much, but shot placement needs consideration.

Personally, For me it would be hard for me to think of anything being better then my 14" scopped Contender in .223 and a plain ol CnC tack-driver. I would slid in a round pf ball-ammo in a second.

I prefer deep penetrations on cougars. Joke aside expanding bullets with sufficient penetration has worked well for me. This is a B&C lion taken with a 10mm Delta Gold Cup. Load is 10.0 gr of 800-X under 165 gr Remington Golden Saber at 1400fps.

Who doesn't?

BTW, nice cat!

Cougars are not hard to kill, I've taken them at close range with .22 mag, and seen them taken at close range with .22 mag, .32 H&R mag and 357 Mag. With a 44 caliber, shoot either special or mag, the load should not matter at tree'd cat distances so long as you make a good shot. Make a bad shot, and it don't really matter what you use, just get ready for some tore up dogs. I personally would use a good hard cast with a 44, just so the holes that the taxidermist has to sew up ain't so big.

+1

Hard cast SWC's or any of the better JHP's in a 41, 44, 357, 45 is more than adequate providing you can hit where you aim.

If you miss a kill shot with most any of the above get ready for a rodeo & prolly some torn up dogs.......my BIL lost a good one last year to a badly shot cat.

MM

Bob Hagel probably hunted and more cougars than anyone will ever do again. In his book "Guns, Loads, & Hunting Tips" he covers most every thing mentioned to do with cougars.

He stated that he tried the 45AR with a keith type bullet, and it had inadequate penetration and shock.(P.376) He said the 357 with hard cast bullets penetrated very well, but "lacked punch."(p.378) He liked the big 44's with the keith type loads best.

He said that the 357 and keith type bullets "because of caliber and bullet weight."(p.378) were the least effective of the big magnums for big game.

I suggest that you check out "Old Bob." I think that he'd say that you folks with little pea shooters didn't like your dogs: or respect your game enough to kill it well.

I have been thinking about this for a couple of years myself. As a bowhunter in Az and Elk Hunter is which ever state I am lucky enough get drawn in for the season, I hunt in their backyard. I have always just carried a glock 19 for this case with the attitude that any noise will scare the cat away. Last year in Wyoming I surprised a black bear at 10 yards. He ran away from me and then stopped and charge back towards me. At that point I realized my little 9 will not help much.

With all that said I started to my research and in my opinion want you might want to look at for the purpose of hunting and how the equipment is treated on the mountain is the Glock 20. This is a 10 mm that should take care of all your needs in the lower 48s. And for the price you cant beat it. The mountain takes it toll on your equipment so I would be cautious about using one of my nice guns.

Now from this forum, I have discovered a great site that has the best carrying device for your guns. When you have a backpack on its hard to access your fire arm and their is multiple articles on how the black hawk sherpa has issues. So check them out. I have the runners kit for my pistols with the ravens holster. PERFECT for what we do.
http://www.hillpeoplegear.com/