Thread: Hunting Rifles / Handguns - New, Old, Restored

Update on my 35 Whelen and my 338 Win Mag

I replaced stocks on both

The Whelen got a Boyds Thumhole added to it in Orange and Black Laminate

The Winchester got a Houge Overmoulded with the full bedding plate in Ghile Camo

I always liked the notion of a thumb hole sporter stock. Never got around to putting one on a rifle.

The one advantage not really "Felt" until you pull the trigger is the decrease in felt recoil to the shoulder

We'll get the hunting handguns out of the way in one fell swoop.

I've hunted deer here in Texas since I was a kid, having had deer leases and our own place to hunt them. I've taken a lot of deer and enjoyed grand days afield. Still do, but don't find myself wanting to use every tag available to me on the Texas hunting license like I was wont to do in the past. We did raise our family on venison and Mrs. noelekal still loves it.

I love rifles best of all, piddling with rifles, handloading for them, wringing them out at the range, then toting them afield for deer hunting. I don't have a lot handgun deer hunting experience. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, gun writers such as John Lachuk, Bob Milek, and some others promoted big game handgun hunting so I made a perfunctory attempt, just to say I had taken deer with handguns.

Smith & Wesson Model 14 .38 Special - First deer taken with a handgun in 1980 saw this one employed on a small Texas whitetail buck from 17 steps. Used a 200 grain lead bullet with a heavy charge weight of 2400 found in the Lyman 45th manual and sufficient to generate 935 fps from the revolver's long snout. Cut the aorta and damaged the top of the heart. He collapsed in a few steps.


Smith & Wesson Model 29 - Two deer taken on the same day with this revolver back in the early 1980s. A broad side lung shot doe lead me on a merry chase for over a hundred and fifty yards down a hill and into a ravine before she was found expired. Load used was a 240 grain Sierra jacketed hollow point over a heavy charge of H110 which clocked 1478 fps over the chronograph screens. A buck taken that afternoon at about 25 yards was hit full in the chest as he was facing me, using the same load. He simply sat down on his haunches and then fell over.



Smith & Wesson Model 10 Heavy Barrel .38 Special - A field expedient shot, this one was taken from a tree stand on a whim, using my ol' favorite and first handgun sometime in the late 1990s. Load was a factory Winchester Western +P 158 grain lead semi-wadcutter that clocked right at 900 fps from the 4-inch barrel. Shot was made from about 30 yards, resting the revolver on a window frame. Deer broke into a curious loping gait, running about 40 yards then collapsed with a hole through the heart. Bullet didn't open much and was discovered in the off shoulder. When the going gets tough this Model 10 gets going and has for me since December of 1975.



Smith & Wesson Model 57 .41 Magnum - A doe was taken facing me with the revolver at around 20 yards back in 2008. A brief mad scramble twenty yards or so belied the fact that the deer was dead on its feet. Shot through the heart from a rested position in a deer stand. Load used was the Speer 220 grain half jacketed soft point (now discontinued) over a heavy charge of H110 giving it 1365 fps.


Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 Magnum - Longest shot made on a deer with a handgun, this one was taken in 2016 from 39 steps from a ground blind, using a 158 grain lead semi-wadcutter over a suitable charge weight of 2400 that gives 1402 fps. Deer was angled facing me. The bullet struck the front of the right shoulder, holed the heart, and exited through the back rib. At the shot the revolver recoiled from an improvised rest using a toboggan on a window frame and when it settled back the deer was lying still on the ground where she stood. Might have been the most effective handgun taken deer I've observed.


Of this admittedly limited experience shooting deer with handguns it could be said that my observations should have led me to think that .38 Special was more effective than .44 Magnum for dropping deer. I know that's not so. The doe that ran so far when shot through both lungs with the .44 Magnum was a fluke which skewed the appearance of relative effectiveness in the .38 Special's favor. In reality, using the .38 Special on whitetail deer borders on being a stunt.

These days I mostly take along the Model 57 .41 Magnum or a Colt Delta Elite 10mm if I think I might bag a deer with a handgun. Would like the opportunity to bag a deer or a feral hog with the 10mm.

Anytime we have Grizzlies around the 10mm becomes the carry gun of choice
This year has been bad up here, the attacks started in April with a Griz killing a Llama and two Hogs about 5 miles north of us
At the beginning of June we had another attack about 2 miles north of us where a Grizzly killed 3 hogs
I have never hunted with my S&W 1006

I gotta say it is nice to see a M57, I have one, a snub nose 657 tucked away that I have rarely shot, but they are a fav of mine


I only have one dedicated Hunting Handgun
I bought it years ago and set it up for a TX Feral hog Hunt that I never got to go on

S&W 629 Classic Hunter, it actually has the best factory trigger I have ever stroked


File Pic

Grizzly's got to eat too!

Never hunted with a pistol, but this might be the one.
Old Combat Magnum from '71. Had in the early ninties for a few hun.
Old cop carry. Lots of holster wear and little range time.

Always wanted a Victory revolver. That is unlikely to happen.
So a repop holster stretched over time with sockets strategically placed and crammed from the tool box and lots of Hair drier and wipe-downs with Mink oil without silicones. A couple of ebay lanyard ring setups combined and a NOS Makarov lanyard.
Gerber MK I on the belt with 2 HKS loaders. Everybody is topped with Hornaday Critical Defense.
Messing with the old farts is not advisable. Squirrels beware!

Outstanding!

Not even the same Grizzly

This is crazy this spring, might be time to carry the 44

https://idfg.idaho.gov/blog/2022/06/...creek-drainage

You know, I do understand about Grizzly Bears. They are apex predators and beautiful animals. Sometimes it becomes necessary to stop them in a self-defense situation. I get that! What I really don't understand is why some people just hunt them for sport. And what I understand even less is when the bear wins and eats the idiot hunting him, we destroy the bear because he is a menace. I'll always take the side of the bear over a human in this circumstance!