First Handgun Kill

[wyomingnimrod]

Howdy Gentlemen,

While out in the mtns here in WY for the archery opener looking fir elk and mule deer, I chased a black bear (unsuccessfully) and finally managed to get my first handgun kill, a grouse, with my Freedom Arms Model 97 .45 Colt 5.5” barrel using our very own SagebrushMackay’s 270gr Keith load. Right through the boiler room at 15yds using an aspen branch for a rest. No meat loss and it really felt good to connect on an animal with the revolver.
It’s probably been asked before, but what are some of your first animals taken with a single action?
And how the hell do you post a picture on here? I am using my iPhone, fwiw…

[45MAN]

GOTTA START SOMEWHERE, CONGRATS

[junebug]

With a revolver probably groundhogs and rabbits squirrel. Then several Chickens, Pigs, Turkeys and Rams of the steel variety then on to deer. Ptarmigan were taken with a slingshot.

[lar4570]

Congrats on the Grouse! They are delicious.
My first handgun kill was a skunk that was in the hen house when I was 16. I went out to gather the eggs, reached down towards the nest and almost grabbed this skunk that was sucking on the neck of a hen!
I ran back to the house and grabbed my cab n ball Navy 44(I kept it loaded in my closet). When I got back to the hen house, I pulled open the door and the skunk was making a run for a hole under the back wall. I just pointed and shot and hit it right through the shoulders. It started to quiver and spray, so I shot it again right where I was looking(right up the spray hole!).
So being a completely stupid teenager, I decided to skin it and see if I could tan the hide.
So Mom made me strip naked in the garage and started scrubbing with tomato juice, then vinegar, then soap and water... Nothing worked. That was 2 weeks before my junior year of high school started lol.

[bigmuddy]

My “first” was a rabbit with a Crossman CO2 revolver that looked like a S&W…. Maybe the greatest Christmas gift I ever got as kid. I was probably 13 years old.

Dan

[brant]

Good job! Now you are “ruint” !
My first was Rabbit with a ruger bearcat as a kid.
First big game many years later was whitetail deer with a new model Blackhawk flattop 44 special. But a 180 grain hollow point through both lungs as she ran across the trail ahead of me at about 20 feet! Like shooting flushing quail! I don’t use the same ammo anymore, nor would I take the shot at a running deer again but I’m still chasing that feeling!

[gunsbam45]

First time I ever fired a revolver at a live animal and not a target that I can remember was this one. I didn't have my first truck yet so think I must've been in 7th grade. Several guys used to haul me coon hunting when I was a kid. One night was hunting with a kid my age's older brother married to one of my teachers on her dad's place. Treed a big coon in an unlikely tree seriously good dog caught it off guard. Coon wasn't more than 35 or 40 feet up at the near top of it, and it was partially moon lit good enough I could see black sights with no flashlight for help that night. I'd be lucky to see new tritium without glasses now. Usually used a little Browning lever .22, but that night he handed me this Smith, back in it's prime before it ended up in a creek for awhile before it was recovered after the next thaw. He said see how you do with this. I lined up on it the same way I did with our rifles, and flop bang it hit the ground. Shot was square in the side of the head. I asked him when he got it, he said had it a long time but never used it much. I told him we needed to just bring that and forget the rifle so we didn't have to haul it and lead dogs at the same time. He went into a laugh and said that was a lucky shot, and I told him I didn't think so, I lined the sights same as the rifle. He started calling me dead eye dick as a joke after that for a LONG time, but the .22 pistol experience changed my life. I got an H&R break top arm wrestling later that same year, and have owned handguns ever since. My step dad threw the H&R in a creek. It was dangerous and we couldn't shoot it without taking some lead in the face. The creek day was coyote round up and it bloodied the corner of his eye around his glasses, and I gave my blessing to sink it, which he did at the speed I'd pitch a black cat after lighting. I then got a 10.5 MKII on trade with a friend and that totally replaced rifle carry for me in the coon woods. They're belt rifles. Anyway, that was my first one remember it like it was yesterday and it was a good 35 years ago.

[sharps4590]

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was...21, I think? Maybe 22?  That would have been '74 or '75.  Anyway, I was squirrel hunting with my 45 cal. repro, (cheapy), Kentucky rifle and carrying my brass framed, 1851 Navy. I shot at and missed a squirrel and I guess the smoke from the rifle made him decided to vacate the premises rather than hide in the foliage. It came running right down the middle of the tree trunk and I pulled the revolver from the holster and snap shot at the squirrel. The .375 round ball took it right behind the ribs and centered on the spine.

Blind a$$ luck is what that was but, it was my first handgun kill. Some years later I had a Ruger single Six and it accounted for several squirrels and rabbits. Time passed, I started making more money and the revolvers improved and got bigger. First deer was 7 point raghorn with a Ruger SBH and shot at about 15 feet as it was running right at the brush pile I was sitting in. The buck never knew I was there as there was a doe right in front of him and I hoped she would get out of the way!!!. Back then it was bucks only where I lived and hunted.

[drycreek]

The first animal I ever killed with a revolver was a cottonmouth moccasin, but I killed it with a Model 53 S&W with the .22 LR inserts in. The only things I ever killed with the .22 Jet cartridge was one skunk and one feral cat. Both were out there, probably 75 yards or more. Wish I had that eyesight now ! Most of my hunting was for armadillos, squirrels, and rabbits, but I killed lots of snakes also. A 16/17 year old boy roaming the fields, woods, and creeks with a fine revolver is gonna kill something ! My first deer came with a Model 29, as I didn’t get the single action bug until much later in life.

[gunsbam45]

OH, and to post the picture...

You've gotta use an image hosting site and link it over here. Photobucket used to be it for most, but they became a for hire setup. I use imgur, but it's a very strange site, lotta really weird stuff on there. I jus avoid looking at anything but my pics. There are likely better places but it's working for me so far. Once you drag and drop your pics to it, this is what you see when you click on one once it's on imgur:



I click on COPY on the bottom one that says linked BBCode and paste it onto here. If you decide to use and other steps are fuzzy can help, but someone may know a better site than the one I use. It's free...

[edk]

Sept 3, 2024 13:33:09 GMT -5 bigmuddy said:

My “first” was a rabbit with a Crossman CO2 revolver that looked like a S&W…. Maybe the greatest Christmas gift I ever got as kid. I was probably 13 years old.

Dan

My “first” was a rabbit with a Crossman rifle CO2 revolver that looked like a S&W…. Maybe the greatest Christmas gift I ever got as kid. I was probably 13 (yep!) years old.

[bigbore5]

A snake with a S&W 15. Same gun also accounted for my fist whitetail with a firearm that fall. I was 11 or 12.

[z1r]

Congrats. My grandfather gifted me my first gun, A High Standard Double Nine as sold by Sears & Roebuck. I hunted a ton of rabbit & squirrel with it.

[domino300]

Groundhog with a 41 Mag Blackhawk in 1972 0r 73.

[callshot]

Several grouse. Ground squirrels and rock chucks, then a badger, then a bull moose.