I would use a 230 grain hollow point. Winchester ranger SXT, Hornady XTP , rem golden saber, speer gold dot,Federal hydra shok maybe. What I have been saving myself is a box of winchester black talons. You could probably find these at a gun show. Just don't pay more than $25 a box for them.



I havent used a .45 auto on deer. But in 9mm I have used the black talon and rem golden saber. Both were broadside double lung hits and both deer went about 50 feet after the shot. Both bullets exited.



Out to 30 yards on broadside deer the .45 auto will put a nice hole through both lungs.

No Way! 45ACP is great man stopper but leave it at that!

For Deer the 357 Mag with good heavy bullets at 50 yards on perfect shots is the least to carry.

Here in Alaska last year a Fisherman shot a Brown Grizzly Bear dead with a 9mm Hardball in the heart after it chased his buddy in the water....that was big exception...and a lucky shot.....I would draw the line at 357 Mag and above for deer.

A friend of mine was on the toilet in his nashville home when a nice 9 point strolled past the window. with his pants at his ankles he rushed to the back door grabing his 1911 on the way and was able to bag the buck with one shot at 20 yards. dont know where the bullet impacted or which bullet he used cause it has been some time but i thought everyone would get a kick out of the story.

Savage308,

I have alot of guys ask me what the various semi-auto rounds will do on game.

My first comment is there are much better handgun rounds on the market today for deer then any semi-auto can offer, save the big 50 A.E. and perhaps the 45 Win Mag.

That said, I am a great fan of pistol rounds, my favorite being the 45 ACP with the 40 S&W coming in at a very distant second.

The 45 ACP will easily and cleanly harvest a whitetail or mulie if range is kept relatively short. I would say under 30 yards.

The most limiting factor is not the round per say, but the pilot behind the handgun. This is the largest factor in all shooting.

Here is an example, I'm getting ready to go on a boar/exotic hunt along with a few customers that come in the gun shop. One fella likes the idea of hunting with handguns but has never done so.

He recently obtained a S&W 4006 and wanted me to develop a load that "would be enough for pigs at resonable ranges."

Having some experience with handgun hunting I figured this to mean 25 yards or less. I loaded up some rounds using a good 180 gr hard cast and took him out to the range to see how he could shoot the loads.

I shot the first clip through to check function and reliability of the loads and offhand at 15 yards, shot a three inch, 11 shot group.

I handed him the pistol and he started walking away from the target. When I asked where he was going he stated that he would not shoot any farther then 70 yards at a pig so he wanted to check the zero at that range! Offhand no less!

I quickly stated that he would probably be better to start off at seven to ten yards as he had shot handguns very little.

He finally agreed to start there and after five rounds fired, he finally scored a hit on the 12"x12" target.

His comment was that something must have worked loose because there is no way he could shoot that bad.

I walked up to him at the 7 yard line and fired the rest of the magazine into a jagged one hole group.

My point here is not to belittle my friend and I made a point to tell him that I shot the same way the first time I shot a handgun.

But it proves my point that in handgun hunting, actually being able to hit your target in a vital area is vastly more important then fps, muzzle energy or bullet diameter and weight.

So back to your question, will the 45 ACP handle whitetails, very nicely under 30 yards. In fact, My wifes S&W 4526 loves the 255 gr SWC designed for the 45 Colt. With top handloads using Blue Dot, they average right at 850 fps and are great penetraters.

I agreed that I would practice with my friend using that 45 ACP and he using his 40 S&W and we could go after pigs together using our pistols.

The 45 ACP will easily handle pigs, the hard thing is finding a hunter that is up to the task of placing that bullet accurately with open sights in hunting conditions.

Good Shooting!!!

50

George Nonte and Lee Jurras both shot pigs and deer with stock 45 auto's using their SuperVel ammo back in the day. Elmer Keith admitted he shot deer with hardball but preferred someting like 7.8 gr Unique with a hardcast 200 gr semiwadcutter. That was a hot load back then and way hotter today.

A buddy of mine took a smallish Mulie with a 230 Star Fire, he went about 10-15'!

At close pistol range (bowhunting distances) I have no doubt the 45 ACP would do just fine on the average whitetail. I had planned to try it myself but didn't get around to it before the rules changed (so many guns, so few hunts). I was going to hedge my bets by using a Buffalo Bore 230 grain +P hollowpoint @ 950 fps. I figured it ought to have worked nearly as well as a broadhead on a broadside double lung hit and better if the bones of the leg, shoulder, or spine were encountered. Denied the chance to test old slab sides last year I intend to try the next best thing this year. I am planning to hunt the woods with my S&W 44 magnum Mtn. Gun using my practice load, a 240 lead SWC @ 900 fps...not a perfect ballistic match but close enough to prove the concept. Good hunting!

Thank you all for the very informative replies. The Springfield Mil-spec that I have is a very fine gun for the money and with the fixed sites a very satisfactory shooter. It will shoot inside a saucer size plate at 25 yards shooting freehand, much tighter from a rest which will be good for up to 30 yards. I was concerned about the ability of the bullet to perform well enough (complete pass-through,double lung, etc.)to put a whitetail down effectively. Thanks to these great replies I believe it is as long as I do my part. Some great stories too!

Dittos on the thanks for what folks have done. FWIW, we have an old family friend that used to collect meat with his old Smith .38 Special, so I'd guess a .45 ACP could do the same, used correctly.

3 yrs ago during my 1911 mania, I built up a 5" gun with a bushing comp, stuck in a 22 lb spring and a Comminoli Frame Saver guide rod, put a Tasco Optima 2000 red dot on top and went pig hunting. Loaded a 200 gr hardcast lead swc hot load(1300fps) in Starline 45 Super brass. This is a close in setup---used it at 20 yd ---worked great! Also loaded 200 gr hdy xtp's at 1250fps----want to get a deer with this load,---with careful placement might work out to 50 yd--- but just can't seem to put my Encore down during deer season! pg

The whole purpose I see of using a pistol like this is when you fall asleep (to lure deer in of course!) and wake up with a deer under your stand. It is much easier to use a pistol at that point then a rifle!
Jason