Whats Askins talking about here?

[timothy]

I was just flipping through the pistol shooters book by charles askins. In the hunting chapter he mentions shooting game with various calibers and states the 38-40 44-40 and 44special were the best killers while the 45colt was among the worst. How could this be? He specifies factory amunition so the 44special would have been a 246gr lrn at 760fps and the 45colt would have been a 250gr rnfp at 850. Wouldnt the flat point colt fare amongst the best of those calibers mentioned?

[dougader]

His opinion of the 45 Colt is certainly different than that of John Linebaugh.

[Len]

I don't know when that was written but even Keith wasn't a big fan of the 45. But guns have improved as have bullets.

I thought Askin's preferred a rifle over a handgun feeling hand guns were only good for very close unplanned events?

[whitworth]

I would imagine the .45 still had the old balloon head brass and it wasn't loaded to very impressive levels and the specs of the various revolvers varied widely. It took the likes of John Linebaugh many years later to find out just what the modern .45 Colt could do. Also worth mentioning is that Dick Casull began hot rodding the .45 Colt back in the '50s which led to the development of the .454 Casull.

[robl]

Askins was probably talking from his experiences. He may have also inserted that just to be controversial as he and his editors liked to do that. In Elmer wrote about 38-40 failing miserably on elk... my grand dad shot dozens of elk with a marlin 38-40. Experiences very.

Col. Askins hunted almost every continent and went to Africa 86 (or so) times. He lived in Spain where the measure birds killed in the hundreds rather than dozens. I think he knew what worked on what.

[justahunter]

Elmer Keith tell a story of a cowboy who shot 3 grizzlies (Sow with 2 cubs)with three shots from his Colt SA 45. Maybe it was just too big for lesser animals. : )