observations this deer season

[Deleted]

so far this deer season i have gotten four deer. one was shot through the heart with my bow and went about twenty yards and fell over dead. the next was a button shot with my 41 mag bisley and it was shot through the heart as well. the deer went about twenty yards or so and fell over dead. i shot a two and a half year old buck 320 yards away and hit him in the spine with my 264 win mag and he naturally dropped in his tracks. last week i shot a yearling doe with my 44 special flattop back of the lungs. blood sprayed a foot away from her as she sauntered off before collapsing and dying. the 41 mag is loaded with lil gun and a 210 xtp. hearing all the stories about lil gun burning barrels made me hesitant to try the powder, but looking at pressure data in the hodgen manual, i noticed that it took around 10000 less psi to equal h110 speeds. i dont wear earplugs when hunting and have had 110 ring my ears a time or two when hunting. thinking this over, i decided that lil gun might be worth a try as a hunting powder. when sighting the gun in for the load which is not max but not minimum either the first thing i noticed when i pulled the trigger was the heat wave that went with the pressure wave. i dont think lilgun is the kind of powder that should be shot all day like 110, but i think that as a hunting powder to keep from ringing my ears it has a place in my hunting pistols. the deer that i shot with my 44 special went to the ground as fast as any deer i have shot excluding spine shots. the load was a brian pearce load so was not a mid 44 special load but the gun likes the load and the impact difference is noticeable. long story short, a deer hit in the vital organ area wont go far. blood pressure and oxygen levels need to drop to a level incompatible with life and a deer can go quite a few steps before that happens. monday i will be hunting with my seville 44 magnum and then will try to get one with a .357 of some sort. with our 4 deer a day bag limits here in tennessee, we get the chance to experiment at will and answer questions like is a 416 rigby adequate for deer or only sort of adequate and will nosler partitions stop in the off side of whitetails? btw, the 264 clocks 3100 fps and i have no idea what the pistols are doing. the loads aren't near max and the deer didn't know how fast the bullet was going either.

[mnimrod45]

I can only shoot one deer a year here in WA. One of my hardest decisions every year is what to hunt with. I would love to be able to experiment with some of the poor guns in my safe that have yet to be bloodied. Great post and good luck.

mnimrod45

[oldschool]

Dec 24, 2011 10:46:43 GMT -5 @flexjr said:

the deer that i shot with my 44 special went to the ground as fast as any deer i have shot excluding spine shots. the load was a brian pearce load so was not a mid 44 special load but the gun likes the load and the impact difference is noticeable.

Which load did you use? I loaded up a box of 255 gr LSWC for my Lipsey Special using 8 gr of Unique. Seem to shoot good, but haven't yet got to try them on deer.

[Deleted]

it was a load from handloader when the lipsey guns were anounced. 19 grains H110 and a 240 xtp. one thing i also learned is why the larger framed old model blackhawks had recessed chambers. in my old model 44 special, this load will make the loading gate jump unless a case is under it. i put an empty case in the sixth chamber when shooting this load. in the bigger guns, a recessed chamber will support the gate without having a case in the sixth chamber. tommorrow i am going to try and get a whitetail with a 240 xtp out of the 44 magnum and then get another one with one of Randy Garrett's 310 hammerhead full power loads for comparrison's sake.
my dad who is part of the reason for my fondness for the 44 special uses a load in his taurus 441t that is 8.5 grains universal clays and the 250 cast performance plain base wfn. the load is an easy shooting load that he shot a doe a few years back at 112 yards. that was one of the worst torn up deer we have seen in a long time. we figure that the bullet had decelerated enough that when it hit the deer, it started tearing instead of cutting and pulled the tissue instead of cutting a nice round hole. i also used this load on a 300 pound wild pig last year and got full penetration on a broadside shot and finished it up with a head shot around 30 yards that went feet into the pig.

[reflex264]

Remember uncle Darrell's words: "To kill something you destroy what makes it live". We are in the last week of season and I can't believe that I haven't killed a deer with a handgun yet. Maybe Thursday evening. I might add that the doe shot at 112 yards with my Taurus model 441T had the meat removed from a 6" circle on both the entry and exit. It was nasty. reflex264

[jwp475]

Dec 25, 2011 8:43:20 GMT -5 @flexjr said:

my dad who is part of the reason for my fondness for the 44 special uses a load in his taurus 441t that is 8.5 grains universal clays and the 250 cast performance plain base wfn. the load is an easy shooting load that he shot a doe a few years back at 112 yards. that was one of the worst torn up deer we have seen in a long time. we figure that the bullet had decelerated enough that when it hit the deer, it started tearing instead of cutting and pulled the tissue instead of cutting a nice round hole. i also used this load on a 300 pound wild pig last year and got full penetration on a broadside shot and finished it up with a head shot around 30 yards that went feet into the pig.

The WFN's do a lot of damage and always leave large wound channels IME

[2 Dogs]

I wouldnt worry about shooting out a barrel with Lil Gun. It just means youre shooting as much as you need to. Besides, a good smith can put a match barrel on for you anytime.

[dmize]

I second 2 Dogs. Even less to worry about than people complaining/warning about certain cartridges shooting out rifle barrels and not realising just how many rounds 1,000 really is to the average shooter.

[Markbo]

About 1 trip to the Prairie dog patch!

[stefani88]

Dec 24, 2011 10:46:43 GMT -5 @flexjr said:

so far this deer season i have gotten four deer. one was shot through the heart with my bow and went about twenty yards and fell over dead. the next was a button shot with my 41 mag bisley and it was shot through the heart as well. the deer went about twenty yards or so and fell over dead. i shot a two and a half year old buck 320 yards away and hit him in the spine with my 264 win mag and he naturally dropped in his tracks. last week i shot a yearling doe with my 44 special flattop back of the lungs. blood sprayed a foot away from her as she sauntered off before collapsing and dying. the 41 mag is loaded with lil gun and a 210 xtp. hearing all the stories about lil gun burning barrels made me hesitant to try the powder, but looking at pressure data in the hodgen manual, i noticed that it took around 10000 less psi to equal h110 speeds. i dont wear earplugs when hunting and have had 110 ring my ears a time or two when hunting. thinking this over, i decided that lil gun might be worth a try as a hunting powder. when sighting the gun in for the load which is not max but not minimum either the first thing i noticed when i pulled the trigger was the heat wave that went with the pressure wave. i dont think lilgun is the kind of powder that should be shot all day like 110, but i think that as a hunting powder to keep from ringing my ears it has a place in my hunting pistols. the deer that i shot with my 44 special went to the ground as fast as any deer i have shot excluding spine shots. the load was a brian pearce load so was not a mid 44 special load but the gun likes the load and the impact difference is noticeable. long story short, a deer hit in the vital organ area wont go far. blood pressure and oxygen levels need to drop to a level incompatible with life and a deer can go quite a few steps before that happens. monday i will be hunting with my seville 44 magnum and then will try to get one with a .357 of some sort. with our 4 deer a day bag limits here in tennessee, we get the chance to experiment at will and answer questions like is a 416 rigby adequate for deer or only sort of adequate and will nosler partitions stop in the off side of whitetails? btw, the 264 clocks 3100 fps and i have no idea what the pistols are doing. the loads aren't near max and the deer didn't know how fast the bullet was going either.

Thank you so much for your post.

__________________
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[Deleted]

Jan 29, 2012 19:59:02 GMT -5 2 Dogs said:

I wouldnt worry about shooting out a barrel with Lil Gun. It just means youre shooting as much as you need to. Besides, a good smith can put a match barrel on for you anytime.

didnt notice this until today. that is true. my favorite deer rifle cartridge is the .264 win mag at the moment and it is suposedly a barrel burner they make barrels for rifles everyday guess they do the same for pistols as well. if i burn the 41 barrel out, it will just be something else to send to Gallagher.