hunting hand gun

Russ P · #1 12-20-2005, 11:10 AM

My son and I have gret success with our Redhawks but for best results use a 300gr. cast bullet for white tails,they do much better than the lighter expan. bullets,the fps is not realy fast enough to take advantage of the design of the expan. ones but that 300gr. works great.
Can give you the receipt for load if interested.
Russ

Adam Helmer · #2 12-20-2005, 06:18 PM

Russ P,

I see this is your first post; welcome to the Forum. I have a Ruger .44 Super Blackhawk, but have yet to deer hunt with it. I am glad you had success with your equippage.

Adam

Hawkeye6 · #3 12-21-2005, 05:41 AM

Russ:

Go ahead and post it. I'm sure some folks will be interested in it.

H.

Lone Star · #4 12-21-2005, 10:11 AM

Welcome aboard. I find just the opposite with bullets - that good jacketed bullets are superior to cast for deer. I now prefer the Hornady XTP designs, they expand very well at low velocities.

It is true that some jacketed bullets do not expand well - this was particularly true in past years before the current crop of excellent handgun bullets. This is one of the reasons that cast bullets with wide meplats got such a good reputation versus jacketed bullets in the past - old jacketed bullets didn't expand and with small meplats didn't kill well. That is not the story today. I used LBT designs in my .44 and .45s, but the best cast design performance-wise was the Lee 45-250 FN. This short bullet had a very wide meplat and killed small deer well, although I still prefer good, proven jacketed designs. But if you prefer cast bullets and they work for you, by all means keep using them!