Just for the sake of discussion, what would you consider the ideal all-around hunting handgun for the Lower 48.
We are talking blacktail, whitetail and mule deer, black bear, cougar, Rocky Mountain and Roosevelt elk, antelope, feral hogs, javelina and Shiras moose on the menu.
This gun must be capable of useful performance in the dense coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, the open sage and juniper country of the Intermountain West, the Rockies, the Plains, the Texas brushfields, the hardwood forests of the upper Midwest, Appalachia and the East Coast, and the palmetto country of Florida and Gulf -- everything. One gun.
Would would you choose -- and what sight sytem?
I don't think I would be too far off the mark with my current open-sighted Ruger Bisley five-shot in .454. Lots of flexilibity from a handloading standpoint, but honestly after re-reading John Linebaugh on what a properly loaded .45 Colt can do, the Casull loadings are likely overkill.
I need to re-sharpen my open sight skills however!

Special thanks to Bill G. in Oregon.

I think my choice would be a Ruger Blackhawk 10.5/in chambered in .44 magnum. I might even go for a .357 mag Blackhawk. More than enough caliber for most things and an awfully accurate and easy package to shoot. There are a lot more powerful and sexier pistols out there but a Blackhawk is a fine hunting revolver.

Super Blackhawk or Super Redhawk in .480 Ruger. You can load it light for small-game and load it heavy for big-game.

Whitworth, I am not surprised by your choice -- a fine one for Alaska and Africa as well.
Macs. I actually carried a stainless SBH in .44 Magnum with 10.5-inch barrel one season hunting mule deer in eastern Oregon. I used a handload of a max charge of 296 under the Hornady 300 JHP. I mounted a Leupold M8-2X scope in Leupold mounts, and had a smith drill and tap the butt for a sling swivel. Carried the rig with a sling attached to butt and barrel (with split ring) over one shoulder and boy, it was nice to have both hands free to pick through the aspen and wild plum patches. I felt confident in the rig unless called upon to shoot quickly offhand, in which case it was a bit unwieldy. Still a darned good rig capable of 4-5 inches at 100 from a field rest in my fairly unskilled hands.

I will say a 5.5" Ruger Bisley in .45 Colt.

Contender with a 10 inch 44 cal barrel for me. Super accurate with enough power for most things around these parts.

Regards, Keith

I like the 454, but I don't like the Bisley frame for recoil. I pushes the palm of my hand to the point it is difficult to hold. I like the plowhandle grip much better. Although I have Blackhawk's, vaquero's and Bisley vaquero's in 44 mag. My idea handgun will always be a SW 29 6.5 inch that I bought when I graduated school in the 70's. If I need bigger than 44 mag. I have a 6.5 inch SW 500 that I am equally comfortable with.

If I could only have one, it would be a stainless 6½" BFR in 44 mag, with an UltraDot 30 on top.

I recently purchased a gun built by Alan Harton that I felt would be the one gun I would keep for handgun hunting here in the wet Northwest if I had to go with just one gun. It is a 5 shot 5 1/2" banded barrel 45 Colt with minimum spec chambers, bisley grip frame and hammer and soon to wear Dall sheep grips. As Hamilton Bowen says in his book "The Custom Revolver" it may well be the most adaptable big bore set up. From black powder style Colt loads to 335 hard cast bullets at as many fps as I want to hang on to, realistically, it will handle anything I need here in the lower 48 and probably Alaska as well. JMHO of course.

Finally took a picture of the 5 shot 45 Colt mentioned above.

quote:

Originally posted by Keith1:
Contender with a 10 inch 44 cal barrel for me. Super accurate with enough power for most things around these parts.

Regards, Keith

My choice also. 10" non-vented barrel gets good velocity. Excellent accuracy on the Contender.

quote:

Originally posted by Keith1:
Contender with a 10 inch 44 cal barrel for me. Super accurate with enough power for most things around these parts.

Regards, Keith

Same for me. I wanted to say a Revolver (probaby a Super Blackhawk in .44 mag), but when I'm serious about killing something, I use the Contender. Mine has a 1x28 Sightron scope on it. On a good day, I've put 3 shots touching at 100 yards with it.

sw 625-9, mt gun, 4" 45 colt, mild loads with 250s .. easy to shoot, kills any game within 100 yards, and light to carry.. say, that;s exactly what i use ... rabbits to deer to feral hogs, and has finished more than its share of wounded game

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
sw 625-9, mt gun, 4" 45 colt, mild loads with 250s .. easy to shoot, kills any game within 100 yards, and light to carry.. say, that;s exactly what i use ... rabbits to deer to feral hogs, and has finished more than its share of wounded game

What do you consider "mild"

quote:

Originally posted by kjjm4:

quote:

Originally posted by Keith1:
Contender with a 10 inch 44 cal barrel for me. Super accurate with enough power for most things around these parts.

Regards, Keith

Same for me. I wanted to say a Revolver (probaby a Super Blackhawk in .44 mag), but when I'm serious about killing something, I use the Contender. Mine has a 1x28 Sightron scope on it. On a good day, I've put 3 shots touching at 100 yards with it.

I have a 2X Leupold on mine. On a good day (normally) I'll put 5-shots cutting at 100 yds. Remington 240 gr. Hollow Point (bulk purchase) with max load of 296. My 100 yd. groups average right at 2 1/2" (5-shots). Correction; My .44 barrel is a Super 14.

Auto Mag

Mine is a 454 Casull with 4 3/4" Barrel, field grade with the old style grip handle, with the laminate wood and modified express sights. Carried in a FA cross draw holster, It is my go to side arm, be it wile rifle hunting (as a side firearm) or hand gun hunting. I have killed all sorts of things with it, deer, wild bore,turkey etc.

I own all 3 lengths of the Casull 2 premiums and one field grade, also a 5.5" Ruger basely grip SS in 45 LC but prefer to use the 4 3/4" Casull.

I shoot in it the 45 LC reduced loads (1100 f/s)with the 250 lead bullets for practice and the 454 big stuff for hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by Zephyr:
What do you consider "mild"

250 XTP at about 1000fps, more or less

quote:

Originally posted by rbrbrb6:
I recently purchased a gun built by Alan Harton that I felt would be the one gun I would keep for handgun hunting here in the wet Northwest if I had to go with just one gun. It is a 5 shot 5 1/2" banded barrel 45 Colt with minimum spec chambers, bisley grip frame and hammer and soon to wear Dall sheep grips. As Hamilton Bowen says in his book "The Custom Revolver" it may well be the most adaptable big bore set up. From black powder style Colt loads to 335 hard cast bullets at as many fps as I want to hang on to, realistically, it will handle anything I need here in the lower 48 and probably Alaska as well. JMHO of course.

+1

Hard to beat the SS Ruger Bisley in 45colt/acp convertible w/ a 5.5" barrel. Load it mild to wild....and you can purchase mild to wild as well. The 45 Colt survived this long for a very good reason.

Monson, MA made Dan Wesson 745 .45 Colt pistol pack. The 6" and 8" barrels get a lot of use.

Close second is a SRH in .454 with a 6" barrel.

Jeremy

Any accurate 44 mag or 45 Colt. No need to go any bigger or more powerful.
45 Colt is the current "flavor of the month" and I also own one, but don't discount the 44. It is splitting hairs to pick one over the other.

I'm surprised a little by only one other self-loader. If limited to only one I'd go with my Glock 40 MOS. 220 grain hard lead at 1200 fps gets it done and is easy to shoot well. Probably because I like my Ruger 41 Magnum so much and the Glock is new and interesting. Ten years and good eyes ago I would have said iron sights but now it's micro red-dots for me .

Monson, MA made Dan Wesson 740 357 Max with an 8" barrel or a Encore in 357 Max 16 1/4" barrel.

Rad

I am from Europe, so I can't say, but I have .460 Rowland in STI 2011 based pistol and 7.5" performance center .500 S&W revolver.

Both are very fine guns.

Rowland is capable of 1350 fps with 230gr Hornady XTP (900+ ft-lb) and 1250 fps with 250gr HC bullet from my setup. It can do 1000 ft-lb with lighter bullets (good for fun or varmints maybe). 12+1 capacity with double springs in magazine. Great for defense too.


As I said, I am not expert to north american game, but from my point of view, any semi-auto you like, single or double stack (1911, 2011, Glock ...) in .460 Rowland is way to go.

Jiri

quote:

Originally posted by 376steyr:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Woodrow S:
Hard to beat the SS Ruger Bisley in 45colt/acp convertible w/ a 5.5" barrel. Load it mild to wild....and you can purchase mild to wild as well. The 45 Colt survived this long for a very good reason.

I would add a 5.5" Redhawk in 45 Colt to the Bisley SS as my go to revolvers. The S&W 625 4" mountain gun carries well but is a bit short and light for general hunting. Either gets the best from 45 Super pressure loads, the Redhawk nibbles on the 454 Casull's heels.

376 -- i can keep all of then in the green at 100 yards, most of the time, with the 625-9, 45lc mtn gun, .. admittedly from a bench, but NOT a pistol rest, and the green is 12" .. but with anything to lean against, i can, at 50yards, cover the entire group with the palm of my (very large) hands ...

light? that's perfect for stalking, short? it's not material, to me at least, as it's more than accurate enough, and I am no pistolero, for general hunting ... though that means a rabbit for dinner, or a hog/deer on a stalk, or helping a rattler move along the karmic wheel, i find them more handy than handicapped by the same

i've had any number of ruger blackhawk variants for hunting pistols, btw .. and was never pleased with them - though i am covetous of the ruger hunter in 45LC

then again, i do use a rather mild hunting load for 45lc .. i don't like big recoil in handguns - odd that, i know, given my passion for big bore rifles, but true - if it makes my vel, and is reasonably accurate, then it comes down to taste.. and I seem to like the taste of the 625-9 mtn

If I had to pick just one out of the stable It would be a 5.5 inch Ruger Red hawk in 44mag.

S&W M629 8" barrel with Leupold 2X or TC Contender 10" in 357 Max.

To each his own. My .44 Magnum SBH will kill anything that needs killed.

quote:

Originally posted by Slenk:
To each his own. My .44 Magnum SBH will kill anything that needs killed.

Of course it will. But when game gets really big, in my experience there are some other choices that work a bit better, that still don't punish the shooter a whole lot more than the .44 Mag. JMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by Slenk:
To each his own. My .44 Magnum SBH will kill anything that needs killed.

A 45 Colt properly loaded, and not firewalled, is much further up the food chain than a .44 Mag. Not downing the .44, just stating the truth.

Yup!

That's OK fellas . But if you can't put your bullets where they need to be , your going the be Bear poop. With my handgun (44 magnum RBH)I can put my shots in one ragged hole at 25-30 yards. I started shooting a 44-40, 50 years ago when we could still hound hunt in Washington . I am not apt to run in to any thing bigger than a Black Bear around here anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by MS Hitman:
I will say a 5.5" Ruger Bisley in .45 Colt.

That's what does it for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Slenk:
That's OK fellas . But if you can't put your bullets where they need to be , your going the be Bear poop. With my handgun (44 magnum RBH)I can put my shots in one ragged hole at 25-30 yards. I started shooting a 44-40, 50 years ago when we could still hound hunt in Washington . I am not apt to run in to any thing bigger than a Black Bear around here anyway.

Of course, but this applies to whatever you choose to carry, be it a rifle, shotgun or handgun.

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:

quote:

Originally posted by Slenk:
That's OK fellas . But if you can't put your bullets where they need to be , your going the be Bear poop. With my handgun (44 magnum RBH)I can put my shots in one ragged hole at 25-30 yards. I started shooting a 44-40, 50 years ago when we could still hound hunt in Washington . I am not apt to run in to any thing bigger than a Black Bear around here anyway.

Of course, but this applies to whatever you choose to carry, be it a rifle, shotgun or handgun.

And you won't be shooting one ragged hole with something after you, unless it is only one shot you get off.

Well guys at76 and been there more than once. I can tell you from experience, you had better have a lot o f nerve when it comes to shooting a charging Bear. I hunted Bear with hounds until the people in this state voted it out.

quote:

Originally posted by Slenk:
Well guys at76 and been there more than once. I can tell you from experience, you had better have a lot o f nerve when it comes to shooting a charging Bear. I hunted Bear with hounds until the people in this state voted it out.

And this applies to whatever you are shooting. I hunt black bear with hounds in North Carolina just about every year and it's hard to imagine a more fun hunt in my humble opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Slenk:
Well guys at76 and been there more than once. I can tell you from experience, you had better have a lot o f nerve when it comes to shooting a charging Bear. I hunted Bear with hounds until the people in this state voted it out.

I've hunted them in WV before. Was told more than once to get my horse pistol (500 Linebaugh) out just in case the treed bear wasn't dead when it hit the ground.

Hunted in Africa with handguns as well. Took my Freedom Arms .454 Casull only because they didn't have my .475 Linebaugh ready at the time I left.

I have used mostly S&W revolvers and pistols and my Glock 17 when hunting people, but that's a whole other topic.

quote:

I hunt black bear with hounds in North Carolina just about every year and it's hard to imagine a more fun hunt in my humble opinion.

+about 50 was out with the hounds last week carried my Taurus ti 41mag loaded with 210gr hard cast.

I can tell you they have no trouble punching through bears sculls.

A 315gr hard cast at around 1300fpsout of my 44mag well shoot through about 4 feet of bear.

When the hounds have them bayed in the thick stuff and your shooting them a feet instead of yards a good hand gun is nice to have.