OT - Why Not Hunt With Your .45acp??

[Blaine]

A .357 handgun is certainly proper for deer at a reduced range, say 50-60 yards (or more if you're a real good shot). I don't hear many talk about their .45acp hunting adventures. I'd think it would work just fine. A pig hunt with a 1911 would be a thrill and something I want to do someday.

[buckeyeshooter]

Have used a S & W 25-2 with 6 inch barrel for varmint control. It works fine -- in an autoloader might be a bit more dififcult for longer shots because of the short sight radius.

[Jeff Pitts]

I made my first 1911A1 kill this year! Used a 260gr cast with 6 grs Unique. I was on a hike and lopped the head clean off a ruffed grouse at a paced off 37 yards!

Jeff

[J Miller]

I too have used a S&W 25-2 with warmish .45 ACP loads to hunt with.

The reason I never hunted with my 1911 is that at the time AZ did not allow the use of semi auto handguns.

At least that is the way I remember it. Weather or not it's the same now, or if I was wrong, well that was 27 years ago.

Most .45 ACP rounds are not built for hunting animals, they are built for self defence use against humans. To get the tougher bullets made for hunting moving fast enough usually requires loads that are too hot.

Although 7.2grs of Hercules Unique with a H&G #68 was a screaming load from a 5" Govt Mdl. If you can get close enough that load should do it.

I'd be afraid to shoot that load now. It was known as a frame cracking load 30 years ago, so I don't think I'd try it with the new Alliant powder.


Joe

[Ridgerunner]

Many years ago, I remember an article with accompanying photo showing a treed black bear shot with Super Vel .45 from a 1911a1. A gust of steam about 4' long was shooting out of the bear's chest as the air was quite cold. As I recall, they had no problems collecting that bruin.....

[TedH]

I've often considered it. A stout load with a 230 gr. Gold Dot certainly would do the trick with a lung shot at short range. I would limit myself to 25-30 yards.

[Charles]

I have shot 3 Texas Whitetail deer, fifteen or twenty Javalina, four porcupine, a few coyotes, one lion in a tree, more jackrabbits than I can count and a washtub of rattle snakes all with a 1911 pistol. The load most often was the Elmer Keith 452423 and a dose of Bullseye.

The vast majority of these critters were killed with a stock Remington Rand 1911A1 or a 1965 vintage (bought new) Colt Gold Cup. When I got that Gold Cup with the good sights and trigger, I thought I had died and gone to heaven after about five years with the 1911A1 as my only centerfire pistol.

For about ten years I carried the Colt Gold Cup in a shoulder rig with me when deer hunting. If a shot less than about 35 or 40 yards came my way, I took it with the 45. That accounts for the 3 deer.

I have three 1911 pistols, A Smith and Wesson 25-2, a 625, two 1938 Brazilian and one Colt 1917 in 45 ACP. I also have 45 ACP cylinders for my Ruger BH and USFA single acton.

It has never occured to me that the 45 ACP/AR round is NOT a good hunting round within it's range limits.

[lever-4-life]

I have seen Two deer killed with .45s one was a 1911 the other a g21, The both looked prety dead to me I have also seen one deer killed with a 9mm browning with 115 win silvertips. I am going to try for a close shot with my glock 23 .40 this year. most likely 155 grain gold dots or silvertips. Just be shure to get lots of range time and keep it in bow range and you schould do fine.

[Rusty]

Ridgerunner I must have seen that same article. In fact one of the first gun magazines I remember buying when I was a kid had an article about bear hunting with a . 45.
Even today, with a good hard cast SWC I'd say it would be good pig medicine.

Rusty <><

[Hobie]

Major George Nonte killed a black bear with a .45 ACP 1911 using Super-Vel ammo and wrote it up for Shooting Times (that's the article with the steaming chest wound). A suitable bullet properly placed is the key. Do that and eat dinner. Should be just fine for those blacktails out your way.

[arjunky]

I would love to use one of mine, but North Dakota has a case length minimum and the 45 ACP doesn't make it.

Byron

[Hobie]

It is funny here in VA. There is a minimum energy for handguns but just a min caliber for rifles. Presumably you could put a .25 ACP in a rifle and be legal but some .45 ACP loads aren't legal from a pistol.

[slabsides]

I remember the Shooting Times article that wrote up Major George Nonte's bear hunt with the 1911. At the time, Lee Jurras (?) was pushing his SuperVel high velocity ammo for defense and LE, and even at the time, the idea of taking Boar or Bear with the .45 was viewed as pretty much a promotional stunt. I wouldn't deliberately go after such game with a .45 auto (or the equivalent chambering in a 25-2 or Blackhawk. Not when the .41 and .44 magnums are sitting in my safe. As a matter of opportunity (say to give a mercy shot to a car-struck deer) the .45 would probably do the job at least as well as most carry guns, if that was the gun you had. Under such circumstances, though, almost any pistol would do.
Nonte wasn't the first nor by any means the last to shoot a bear with a handgun, though: I have good friends that hunt and guide for bears every year, and they've done in treed bears with everything from snubby .44 specials to the three Magnums, to good effect.

[FWiedner]

You can't hunt with a .45ACP.

They aren't popular, nobody writes about them, and they haven't been proven on DG in Africa...

[donw]

why not?

i've hunted the coyote and small game with the 1911 colt .45 ACP. i would not hesitate to use it or the .357, even 9mm on deer and smaller at proper range, bullet and proper bullet placment. ever see what a 230gr RN does to a cottontail?...a friend of mine took a mule deer buck with his .38 special in his campsite one year...

there are .45 ACP & 9mm carbines that have a substantial bit more MV/KE/momentum than their handgun counterparts, too.

most state game and fish depts have established criteria for handgun hunting big and small game.

as someone said above: "are they just as dead?"

[kirkwood]

I just bought a stainless steel Para LDA SSP (full size 1911) just last week. Very happy with it and it is still getting broken in. It is a true double action, and the trigger feels exactly like a revolver action. I never thought about hunting with it and doubt that I will. Interesting idea though.

[.45colt]

I have two .45autos and they just don't fit My description of a hunting handgun. Put the Ruger Bisley in their place and Everything is Well again. .Jim.

[Chuck 100 yd]

I once lost a bet with my Army platoon Sargent . He said the .45 ACP wouldn’t shoot through a ladies handkerchief.
He stapled a silk hankie by the top edge to a target frame leaving the rest hang free, fired his 1911 and got a center hit. There was no hole in the hankie, that round nose bullet just pushed it out of the way.
Now how could a bullet kill a deer if it wont shoot through a hankie?

[slabsides]

Chuck, should have offered double or nothing if he would stand holding the hanky over his sternum!

[Ray]

When I was a wee lad I was blessed to be able to participated in many a bunny drive. The huntmaster used a self-loading fowling piece that was equipped with a magazine disconnect. This feature allowed him to shuck fine shot out of the chamber and put buckshot or slug in its place if and when the beagles jumped a deer. After doing this often, he finally wore a hole in the shell containing birdshot, spilling the load and jamming his gun.

He started carrying his old 1911 that he brought back from WWII. On one hunt a fine buck stood up from his bed and the huntmaster cooly leaned the fowling piece against a tree, pulled the 1911 from a pocket and put a hardball into the bucks neck at a distance of 15 paces.

Some twenty five years later I accomplished the same feat using a Blackhawk and a Hornady 230 xtp +p factory load. Somewhere I have a photo of the buck with the Ruger hanging by the triggerguard on an antler tine. If I can manage to find the photo and figure out how to scan it I will try to post it here.

[Blaine]

You can't hunt with a .45ACP.

They aren't popular, nobody writes about them, and they haven't been proven on DG in Africa...

Dang! I knew it

[Lastmohecken]

I wouldn't hesitate to take a shot with a handloaded keith semi-wadcutter in a 45ACP.

I have only killed one deer with a 45ACP, and that was with a lightweight Commander so velocity was a bit lower then a 5 inch gun. It was a lung shot, and I believe if I remember right it was loaded with a jacketed hollowpoint but I don't remember the weight or brand, but it was factory load. Range was about 30 yards. It did the job, but I wasn't very impressed, however I did get the deer after a short trail up.

I have dispatched several cows over the years with a 45ACP, but that would hardly count as they were nearly dead anyway.

Someone metioned the 9MM and I must admit, that I have taken several ferel dogs with the 9mm hollowpoints in a Browning High Power. Frankly, I was pretty impressed with the efectiveness of a light 9mm hollowpoint on dogs.

[txpete]

this is going on my pig hunt tubby but not as a main hunting gun but for back-up .

[Blaine]

this is going on my pig hunt tubby but not as a main hunting gun but for back-up .

Pete, some very un-scientific testing with 230 hardball and 230 JHP shows me that the hardball is one penetrating son of a gun. A JHP will stop in a Seattle phone book and hardball blasts thru leaving a fairly impressive exit hole. If ya get a chance, blast a piggy with one and report back to us. Dang, I wish WA had pigs in numbers worth persuing

[Comal Forge]

I've killed many rabbits and a couple wild dogs with a Series 70. I can't recall that anything took more than one shot. I would not hesitate to hunt hogs with a .45 ACP - even with hardball as that would be sure to penetrate the hide shield. A .452 hole lets out a lot of juice...