22-rimfire
New member
I have been doing some reading (never stop actually)... read an article by Dick Metcalf on whitetail hunting with handguns (Fall 1987 Shooting Times Handgun Quarterly). I don't have a great deal of experience with this topic, but am trying to learn.
Metcalf takes a look at using the three magnums of the time; 357, 41 and 44 Mags for deer. He mentioned that the 44 magnum (240 gr JHP) was too "heavy bulleted". His experience was that the larger weight 41 and 44 bullets simply passed straight through whitetail deer (chest shots) out to about 100 yards. He recommended using the 180gr JHP in 41 Mag and 175 gr JHP in 44 mag for deer hunting as the bullet expands and does more tissue damage. Hence, the hunter is more likely to have the deer go down immediately rather than run for 100 yards until it bleeds out a bit. Any thought on this?
Certainly, shooting the lower weight bullets would be more comfortable that the heavier rounds.
This whole topic makes sense to me as the same argument would or could apply to self defense with bad guys with the 41 and 44 mag rounds. Again, any thoughts?
Metcalf takes a look at using the three magnums of the time; 357, 41 and 44 Mags for deer. He mentioned that the 44 magnum (240 gr JHP) was too "heavy bulleted". His experience was that the larger weight 41 and 44 bullets simply passed straight through whitetail deer (chest shots) out to about 100 yards. He recommended using the 180gr JHP in 41 Mag and 175 gr JHP in 44 mag for deer hunting as the bullet expands and does more tissue damage. Hence, the hunter is more likely to have the deer go down immediately rather than run for 100 yards until it bleeds out a bit. Any thought on this?
Certainly, shooting the lower weight bullets would be more comfortable that the heavier rounds.
This whole topic makes sense to me as the same argument would or could apply to self defense with bad guys with the 41 and 44 mag rounds. Again, any thoughts?