Handgun Bullets For Hunting NA

[gbflyer]

Having established that N American game animals are not armor plated, could we have a discussion about handgun bullet choices? I am specifically interested in the use of hard cast and deep penetrating projectiles that seems to be a prerequisite. Cartridge choice may not be as important. As an example I am aware of cases where the big “Bear stopper” 10mm loads are penciling through deer or elk or black bear with undue suffering and loss of animal. What is the better way?

 

[hereinaz]

Curious for the responses.

 

[Slickhill]

Handgun bullets wound differently than rifle bullets due to their low, by comparison, velocity. They do not give the big cone shaped grape jelly wound channels.

I shoot almost exclusively cast bullets through my handguns. Not the super hard commercial cast stuff that is prone to leading and marginal accuracy. Bullets cast and sized to fit the gun by me, generally about half as hard as the commercial stuff. They will rivet on heavy bone but rarely give any magazine add type expansion.

Some things to keep in mind for hunting with this type of bullet. The wider the meplat or flat on the nose the better for the most part, full wadcutters do not remain stable at longer distances so there has to be a give and take between the widest meplat and having enough ogive to remain stable at distance. The edge or transition between the meplat and the ogive should be sharp for best performance, a relatively hard bullet with a sharp cornered meplat will produce better wounding than a jacketed bullet of the same general shape because the jacketed bullet has a rounded edge. Velocity doesn’t need to be super high, 1100-1200fps is plenty and is more shootable than atomic 1500fps loads. The lower speeds will produce incredible penetration and the flat nosed bullets will most often do so in a long straight line.

I think of handgun hunting as similar to bow hunting as far as the wounding mechanics go. Wounds will be long and narrow without the extra caused by high speed bullet fragments. The main difference being that a proper handgun bullet doesn’t care if there’s bones in the way. In fact intentionally shooting for large bones is a good way to get some bullet upset and or some bone fragments as secondary projectiles.

Find a copy of Veral Smith’s book, “jacketed performance with cast bullets”. There’s a lot of minutiae that won’t interest the non bullet caster, but there’s also much good info on wounding mechanics and some easy to run experiments to better understand for yourself.

 

[Wrench]

1 bear via 10mm 200gr xtp.

1 car hit bull elk via 10mm 200gr hardcast.

1 bear and 1 buck via .429 240gr xtp.

1 buck via .429 300gr xtp


1deer via .452 360gr wide meplat.

All died very quickly and were easy to find. I wouldn't change a thing with any of them.

 

[gbflyer]

I guess that’s it then. Haha.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Missed this one on the first go-round.

I have killed more animals with Hornady XTP bullets than any other handgun bullet, hands down.

Well over 150 whitetails and hogs to the 240 grain .44 cal XTP. These were shot saboted out of a muzzleloader, from a .44 Mag Contender, a .44 Mag Redhawk, or a S&W 696 .44 Special.

 

[Wapiti1]

I've shot a several dozen deer, hogs and a few antelope with .357, .44 mag, .460 Roland, .45 LC and .454 Casull. I also have a .500 S&W, but have not shot a critter with it.

Jacketed soft points or XTP work great on deer and hogs from any bullet maker. In .357, I like a 180gr and limit shots to 50 yards. 158's lacked penetration, IMO. In .44 and .45, any jacketed bullet 240gr or heavier have worked well at velocities from 1250fps up. 45LC with a 250gr bullet at 1250 is my go to for deer, or a 240gr bullet at 1325 in my .44 Mag. 300gr in either are potent as well. In the 454 both my revolvers shoot best with 300gr jacketed bullets at 1550-1600fps.

I've not really seen much difference in performance from any soft point (not hollow point) bullet or the XTP's. Speer Deep Curl were very good as well, but hard to find or no longer made. Same with the Nosler Partition handgun. No longer made, but really good bullets. The 454 velocities are hard on bullets and the XTP Mag or Sierra Sportsmaster are my preference. Hollow points are too soft, IMO, and I've had a few occasions where they didn't penetrate far enough so I moved to soft point or XTPs.

Cast lead work fine, but you need to tailor them to the application, IMO. 16-18 Brinell hardness in the .44 and .45 in a wide flat nose design are great. They will deform enough to give good wound channels, and stay together if bone is hit. Over 20 Brinell and they don't deform at all, and really hard ones may break up if bone is hit (alloy dependant). In the 454, 18 Brinell is the sweet spot at moderate velocity. Softer work better with a gas check, and harder are finicky to get to shoot accurately.

In all cases, cast bullets have to be fit to the revolver in both diameter and hardness to get the best accuracy. Jacketed bullets are much easier to find good loads for at the highest velocities in the magnum cartridges.

Jeremy