stalkingbear

[quote]ORIGINAL: 1SHOT_1KILL

What they said about the 45ACP. It is a great man stopper, but not nearly enough for deer. There are some great deer hunting HG's out there, in both double and single action revolvers. I would suggest the minimum round be .41 Rem Mag and from there the choices are almost mind boogling, like 44 Rem Mag,45 Long Colt, 480 Ruger, 460 S&W, 500S&W, and my personal favorite the 445Super Mag.




I'm shocked,hurt,and neglected that you forgot MY personal favorite-.454 casull.

eldeguello

If you intend to actually hunt deer with it, then the .44 Maggie is what you need!

If you intend to just use it as a 'coup-de-grace' gun for deer that you've shot with a rifle, then the .45 ACP will work. But if you are sold on a revolver, the .44 is a revolver cartridge, and the .45 ACP is NOT. Yes, the .45 ACP can be used in a revolver, AND there are MANY .45 ACP revolvers, but you have to use some supplemental clips or the .45 AUTO RIM case, because the .45 ACP case is rimless. If you use a strong enough revolver, the .45 COLT (NOT ACP!!) cartridge can be loaded to some pretty impressive performance levels also.

eldeguello

Well, there have been just SCADS of revolvers chambered for the .45 ACP cartridge, starting with the Model 1917 S&W's and Colts made during WWI to use the .45 ACP with a half-moon clip - the clips are needed to permit ejection of the empty cases, since the .45 ACP is a rimless round (not enough M1911's available in 1917!!). Otherwise, you'd have to eject the empties with a pencil or other "stick" There are a number of S&W Model 25 variants that are chambered for the .45 ACP, and you can even get Rugersingle actions that come with .45 ACP cylinders and.45 COLT cylinders which can be used intrechangeably. In addition, a great number of .455 Webley revolvers were made into .45 ACP guns by milling off a slice of the rear end of the cylinder so the .45 ACP could be used in them with the half-moon clips.

I believe that some ammo maker maystill making the .45 Auto-Rim case, which is the .45 ACP with a rim for use in .45 ACP revolvers instead of using the full-moon or half-moon clips.......

CZ2506

So they use those full moon clips to keep the cartridge from falling out? What will they think of next!

eldeguello

I suppose if the chambers were straight-sided and bored all the way through at the same dimension, the round could conceivably fall out! But the main function of the half-(or full) moon clip is to hold the round in correct headspace, and to allow the fired cases to be ejected using the ejector star instead of a stick!

1SHOT_1KILL

Sorry about the 454 Casull. I simply overlooked that great round. The great things about a handgun in .454 Casull is that you can also shoot 45 Long Colts in it as well.

stalkingbear

I was just giving you a hard time 1shot. I really do consider .454casull to be best allround cartridge however because of the fact that you can use different power levels in both .45lc and .454 casull.
All the way from hunting small game with cast bullet .45lc reduced loads to large big game with "fullhouse" loads in .454.

Briman

The .45ACP in a revolver has its place- using 1/2 moon clips isn't all that hard with practice and is pretty fast for reloads. The main reason why they are still made is for concealed revolvers- you get big bore performance out of a small easy to conceal revolver.

Like otehrs said, 44magnum, 45 Colt, or 454 Casull would be much better choices for deer hunting. There are others that have come out lately, but the ammo is tougher to find and they don't really offer any greater performance.

BarePaw

What would be better between the .44mag and the .45 long colt? I'm looking to bring down deer with it, not just for a finisher. I want to be able to hike light when I hunt and cover lots of ground. Leaving the rifle at home would help with that.

1SHOT_1KILL

When the 45 Long Colt is loaded to it's, or close to it's, full potential for a modern revolver like a Ruger Blackhawk (singel action), aSuper Redhawk double action 454 Casull/45LC), or a FreedomArms there really isn't very much differenceat all between a .44 Rem mag and a .45 LC. Whenthe .45 LC is loaded to it's full potential, a 250gr bullet at 1,300-1,400 FPS, itisalmost a ballistic twin to the .44 Rem Mag with a 240gr at the same 1,300-1,400 FPS. The FPEare also going to be almost indentical as well as the trajecory.

The biggest, and maybe the most important, advantage the .44 Mag has over the .45LC is the wider selection of of makes and models available.