Revolver Hunters: What do you use?

From southern Wisconsin... +1 for the .44 Magnum.

You don't need full power loads, just a sturdy dose of powder behind a 240g XTP to get it up to 1200 fps. It wallops even big buck whitetails.

The reason I mention the load is you don't need to punish yourself and you'll enjoy time at the range a lot more than a big beefy punishing load.

.357 will do the job, but I learned the hard way that in the field I was hitting twigs, tree branches, saplings, all sorts of things not found at the shooting range. Even though I KNEW I had an excellent shot, I was missing by more than I could believe... until I started finding the things inbetween that were bullet-nicked. The bigger slug is more forgiving of shots that go astray- and shots will go astray no matter how "sure" I was.

We have big deer up here, too. Do them the honor of hitting them as hard as is reasonable.
 
I've been eyeing the SW 460XVR. I think it provides good flexibility in that you can shoot light .45LC or .45 Schoufield or step it up to heavier .454 Casull or .460SW loads.
 
Most all of my hunting was with a handgun until I was about fifty and my eyesight did not lend well to handgun hunting. I never liked a scope on a handgun (though I tried a few), mainly because it was just to bulky to carry and to nose heavy to sight without a support every time. Some folks do well with scoped handguns, but they are not for me. I have since turned more to rifles, but I learned a few things during those years of handgun hunting.

One of the things I learned was that, although a .357 could take down a deer, it was not the best handgun cartridge for the job. .41 mag is an improvement, but I settled on .44 Mag, .45 Colt and .454. A .429 to .451 diameter bullet is good medicine for most any critter in North America. I never used expanding bullets, but stuck with cast for .44 Mag and .45 Colt or jacketed for the .454, but never used hollow points for hunting; they are not necessary, the bullet diameter is sufficient.

I have handgun hunted Mule deer, Whitetail, Puma, Javelina, Black bear and elk with handguns, and I think the only critter out of those listed that might have been reasonable for a .357 would be Javelina. All the rest I would recommend a big bore.

Your 7.5” 44Mag should do just fine; practice with it until you get good. I would urge you to get good with what you have instead of buying another .357...of course you could buy it anyway, because, well because we always need another gun.
 
AgedWarrior said:
Most all of my hunting was with a handgun until I was about fifty and my eyesight did not lend well to handgun hunting. I never liked a scope on a handgun (though I tried a few), mainly because it was just to bulky to carry and to nose heavy to sight without a support every time. Some folks do well with scoped handguns, but they are not for me. I have since turned more to rifles, but I learned a few things during those years of handgun hunting.

One of the things I learned was that, although a .357 could take down a deer, it was not the best handgun cartridge for the job. .41 mag is an improvement, but I settled on .44 Mag, .45 Colt and .454. A .429 to .451 diameter bullet is good medicine for most any critter in North America. I never used expanding bullets, but stuck with cast for .44 Mag and .45 Colt or jacketed for the .454, but never used hollow points for hunting; they are not necessary, the bullet diameter is sufficient.

I have handgun hunted Mule deer, Whitetail, Puma, Javelina, Black bear and elk with handguns, and I think the only critter out of those listed that might have been reasonable for a .357 would be Javelina. All the rest I would recommend a big bore.

Your 7.5” 44Mag should do just fine; practice with it until you get good. I would urge you to get good with what you have instead of buying another .357...of course you could buy it anyway, because, well because we always need another gun.
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Have you considered a red dot sight? My go-to favorite, the Ultradot 30 weighs only 4-ounces.
 
While a 7.5" .44 Magnum is obviously considered to be an excellent hunting revolver, it does you no good if you can't shoot it well. However, before you go out and buy another gun, I'd ask why you can't shoot your .44 Magnum well. Too much recoil? Sight difficult for you to see? Grip doesn't fit your hand? Trigger doesn't agree with you? Have you had another shooter try the gun to verify that the problem is with the shooter and not an issue like oversized chamber throats or some kind of barrel damage?

The reason I ask these things is because all of them can potentially be addressed with the gun you have at much less expense than buying another gun. If you can sort out your accuracy issues with your .44 Magnum, then I don't think many would argue that you'll have a more appropriate hunting revolver than a .357 Magnum would be.

If, however, you can't sort out the problem with your .44 then you're obviously better off with a less powerful gun that you can shoot well. While some will recommend a .41 Magnum, that has issues of its own not the least of which is ammunition cost and availability (you didn't mention whether you handload or not). Also, having previously owned a S&W Model 57 with an 8 3/8" barrel, I found the difference in recoil between most commonly available .41 Magnum and .44 Magnum loading to be negligible (Winchester's 175 gr Silvertip .41 Mag was the exception with notably lighter recoil but it's really a rather light .41 Magnum load and would not be my first choice to hunt with).

If you do decide to go with a .357 Magnum, I would recommend full power loadings with heavy, controlled-expansion bullets (158 gr minimum and 180 gr would be better). Buffalo Bore's 180 gr JHP (which looks to be loaded with Hornady XTP bullets), Hornady's 158 gr XTP, Federal's 180 gr Swift A-Frame, the 180 gr semi-jacketed hollowpoint loadings from Federal and Remington, or any of the commonly available 158 gr JSP loadings. If you're a handloader, something like a 180 gr Hornady XTP over a heavy charge of H110/Winchester 296 would seem ideal.
 
Ruger Blackhawk SS 6.5in 357.

180grn XTP 14.3grn VV N110.
Close to 1400fps with that load, and that Blackhawk can hold up to them, longer than I'll be around to shoot them.
 
I've used two different revolvers with equal success. Both are equipped with UltraDot 30 red dot sights, and both are extremely accurate with my handloads.

S&W model 629 Classic 6½" 44 Magnum
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Magnum Research BFR 5" 454 Casull
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Killed several deer with the .357 Magnum, and not impressed. Now the .45 Colt on the other hand, puts them down with authority!
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Definitely agree. My 45 Colt with a 280gr RCBS SAA at 1050 blows through deer and hogs from any angle - with AUTHORITY! With 10gr of Unique, no blast and very comfortable to shoot.
 
I no longer hunt deer with revolvers due to eye problems. But when I did ai used the following with great success. A 4" S&W M19 from 1972, a S&W 686 no dash 6", a three screw .44 mag Ruger Super BlackHawk and a 6.5" Ruger .41 mag three screw BlackHawk. I killed more with the .357s but prefer the .41 mag for the job.
 
Ruger SRH. Home cast 240 SWC. Lots of 2400 behind it. The deer I shot with it did not take a step and the bullet went through quartering away from me. I had a 2-6x scope in ruger mounts.
 
Have used followingfor deer and hiking.

Ruger SS6 4" .357Mag using 140gr XTP, alsoforWA Cascades hiking for BlackBear using the Fedral 180 Hotcast lead .

1911 with 230gr FMJ and XTP

RFugar Blackhawk 7.5" .45 LC using Sierra 240gr HC over blue dot

Range fired all loads to best groupings on a paper plate.

Have a T/C Contender but haven't use it for hunting YET!
 
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