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In-depth articles on various shooting and handloading topics, technical data, photos, charts loading data and topical information found nowhere else on the web. Required reading for serious handloaders and shooters.

>> Handgun Hunting Loads-A Critical View :: By J. Marshall Stanton on 2005-09-10
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Handgun Hunting Loads-A Critical View

By J. Marshall Stanton

Elmer Keith launched the notion of a heavy sixgun as not only a viable tool of opportunity in the field, but as a primary tool of harvest for the accomplished hunter.  His viewpoints on the subject of heavy revolver loads and handgun hunting forever changed perceptions of the handgun as a legitimate hunting weapon.  Too, the development of the .44 Remington Magnum launched a race for higher velocities and heavier loads for those handguns taken afield hunting.

 Now fifty years down the road of handgun hunting and development of specialized guns and loads for what is now a very popular and lucrative pursuit;  the vast arrays of handguns specifically designed for this distinctive niche, and the ammunition to feed them are available from the mass producers of firearms to the vogue boutique revolversmiths of the present day and many semi-custom suppliers in-between.

 Fueling an exponentially expanding handgun-hunting market in the firearms industry has been a virtual who’s-who parade of noted gun-scribes promoting bigger, better, faster, heavier-hitting cartridges, all imminently superior to their has-been predecessors, thereby attempting to relegate reliable field-proven standbys to obsolescence with the stroke of a pen. 

 No doubt that this fervor to create the “perfect hunting revolver” has spawned not only some useful, but highly efficient handgun cartridges.  From these developments come such cartridges as the .454 Casull, the .480 Ruger, .475 Linebaugh, .500 Linebaugh and the burly .500 Smith & Wesson.  These relative newcomers are indeed awe-inspiring, accurate when properly loaded, and pack fearsome terminal potential when loaded to extremes of their potential.

 In addition to the many cartridge developments in the hunting handgun race are multiple monuments to mechanical engineering genius in the form of brute-strong pieces of precision workmanship and design represented in the new breed of heavy revolver design excellence we now enjoy.  Accompanying these feats of mechanical design are incorporation of the highest technology in modern metallurgy, creating revolvers of incredible strength while exhibiting superb durability, resistance to the elements and wear, and possessing incredible reductions in overall weight, feats that two decades ago were only fanciful daydreams.  Today products incorporating all these design benefits not only are available in relative abundance in sporting goods stores and gunshops throughout the country; they are generally affordable for the average hunter.

 While cartridge and firearms design engineers have artfully and successfully delivered a multitude of firearms and cartridges imminently suited to harvesting any game animal on planet earth,  yes, there are times that nothing less than a fire-breathing revolver throwing bowling-ball dimensioned projectiles is not only comforting in hand, but imminently necessary.  However, for the North American hunter confining his pursuits to the lower 48 states, this type of raw handgun horsepower simply isn’t necessary.

 The purpose of this article is not to minimize the recent development of increasingly more powerful handguns and cartridges, but to take an honest and critical assessment of practical handgun hunting needs, and the attributes necessary for reliable, decisive and humane big game harvests.

 Interestingly during the true settling and taming of our American West, the two principle revolver cartridges carried and used were the .45 Colt and the .44-40 WCF.  In capable hands these fine old cartridges dispatched crippled and diseased stock, harvested wild game, defended the homestead, and warded off predators, both two and four legged.  By today’s standards, neither of these cartridges in their original factory-loadings would raise even an interested eyebrow, but non-the-less, the day-to-day chores of frontier life requiring the sixgun as tool of daily survival were well served by these old blackpowder cartridges and their revolvers.

 Today the shooting public as a whole, and handgun hunters specifically, are bombarded with a marketing blitz attempting to convince them that today game is tougher, the hunting conditions more severe, and that bigger, faster handgun cartridges and revolvers will somehow insure more filled game tags and fuller freezers.  This of course is the rhetoric that leads to increased firearms and ammunition sales for those companies dependent upon the fickle nature of the shooting public who hangs on the latest word dripping from the gun-scribe’s pen. 

 Reality in the game field however, is an entirely different story.  It is not complicated, complex or otherwise unintelligible.  The truth is, that other than those of us who are blessed to live either in the Pacific Northwest, or the Rocky Mountain States, the most pursued, hunted, sought-after and harvested big game animal in the United States, is the whitetail deer.  In fact, many places in the country have much more liberal bag limits on deer than we do in Idaho on forest grouse!  Putting handgun hunting into this context, the requirements of the guns and loads taken afield acquire an entirely different list of requirements than if grizzly, leopard, lion or cape buffalo are on the agenda.  The simple truth is that neither whitetail nor mule deer require all that much killing!  After all, there’s only so much penetration can take place on a deer or pronghorn.  Even throwing black bear into the mixed bag doesn’t materially change the physical requirements necessary for reliable, humane, and consistent terminal performance from a revolver and load.

 Too, when examining the physical wound channel necessary to efficiently, and cleanly harvest a deer, the requirements aren’t too demanding.  In truth, deer and pronghorns are relatively fragile critters, and knocking a permanent wound channel ranging from a half an inch, to an inch and a quarter in diameter, all the way through the body results in near instant incapacitation so long as that wound channel passes through the heart and lung cavity, regardless of the angle of the shot.  A permanent wound channel as described above nearly instantaneously drops the cardiovascular blood pressure to zero when a wound is pumping a thumb-sized or larger stream of blood from the chest cavity.  This of course equates to no oxygen delivered to the brain, and immediate incapacitation.

 Please keep in mind that the preceding paragraph relates primarily to the permanent wound channels created by non-expanding bullets.  The dynamics become somewhat more complex when an expanding bullet enters the equation, and often times the terminal performance of an expanding projectile on game isn’t as predictable as that of a wide-meplat non expanding bullet.  I don’t pretend to understand all the dynamics that occur when a game animal is impacted with any projectile, but am simply relaying real-life field experience and the reports of hundreds and hundreds of our customers over the years.

 In examining the worth of a cartridge for hunting purposes in the revolver, the first consideration, other than basic accuracy of the gun and ammo in concert with one another, is the design of the bullet in question, the frontal area, or meplat of that bullet, and the striking velocity of the bullet when it arrives on-target.  Regardless of popular opinion, urban legend, or mythology of ballistics, the actual permanent wound channel created in a game animal is entirely generated as a function of the diameter of the frontal area of the bullet, and the velocity of that projectile upon penetration.

 To some extent, increased velocity in handgun cartridges does enhance penetration potential of the bullet, but this benefit is not linear in its gains, nor is it entirely necessary in many applications.  The greatest gains in penetration capacity or potential are contributed by an increase in projectile weight.  Interestingly, this increased penetration is nearly a linear function of the increase in bullet weight, provided that velocity remains constant in comparing one load to another.  However, bear in mind, that there is only so much terminal performance that can actually be utilized on deer-sized game!  Increases in either velocity or bullet weight while enhancing potential penetration, also generate more recoil, muzzle blast, and muzzle flash as a general rule.

 Now, taking a look at some numbers generated by the Ballistician’s Corner Calculators found at www.BeartooothBullets.com it is time to compare some practical hunting numbers.  In the chart below are listed the nominal bullet caliber designations as well as the nose design configurations as offered by Beartooth Bullets, and the meplat diameters of each of those designs.  Also in the chart notice a listing for wound channel diameter as calculated at the listed impact velocities for the given meplat diameters.  From studying the data presented in the chart below, it immediately becomes apparent that impact velocities of what seemingly might be considered very conservative, mild loads can and do deliver devastating game harvesting potential to deer-sized game.

 

Predicted Wound Channel Diameter

At Given Impact Velocities

Bullet Caliber &

Nose Design

Meplat

Diameter

1100 fps

1000 fps

900 fps

800 fps

700 fps

600 fps

.38/.357 Caliber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keith

.250”

.688”

.625”

.563”

.500”

.483”

.375”

FN

.280”

.770”

.700”

.630”

.560”

.490”

.420”

.41 Caliber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LFN

.280”

.770”

.700”

.630”

.560”

.490”

.420”

WLN

.320”

.880”

.800”

.720”

.640”

.560”

.480”

.44 Caliber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keith

.300”

.825”

.750”

.675”

.600”

.525”

.450”

LFN

.300”

.825”

.750”

.675”

.600”

.525”

.450”

LMN

.320”

.880”

.800”

.720”

.640”

.560”

.480”

WFN

.340”

.935”

.850”

.765”

.680”

.595”

.510”

WLN

.340”

.935”

.850”

.765”

.680”

.595”

.510”

.45 Colt Caliber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LFN

.320”

.880”

.800”

.720”

.640”

.560”

.480”

LMN

.340”

.935”

.850”

.765”

.680”

.595”

.510”

Keith

.350”

.963”

.875”

.788”

.700”

.613”

.525”

WFN

.360”

.990”

.900”

.810”

.720”

.630”

.540”

WLN

.360”

.990”

.900”

.810”

.720”

.630”

.540”

Sledgehammer

.370”

1.018”

.925”

.833”

.740”

.648”

.555”

.475/.480 Caliber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LFN

.350”

.963”

.875”

.788”

.700”

.613”

.525”

WFN

.390”

1.073”

.975”

.878”

.780”

.683”

.585”

.500 Caliber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LFN

.370”

1.018”

.925”

.833”

.740”

.648”

.555”

 Note that by carefully selecting the bullet nose configuration, the actual permanent wound channel may be specifically tailored to a desired on-game outcome based upon anticipated striking velocities.   Too, when the necessary permanent wound channel on game for consistent clean, humane harvests with well placed shots is ideally somewhere between ½” and 1 ¼”, high muzzle velocity from handgun ammunition assembled with wide-meplat hard-cast bullets is not necessary.  Take note that all of the given wound-channel diameters listed are for impact velocities of 1100 fps and less, yet many loads deliver potentially very effective harvest performance down to a lowly 600 fps.

 Taking into consideration the data provided thus far, I’d like to make some pertinent observations in regard to selection of a load for practical handgun hunting applications.  Putting aside game outside the lower 48 states, and looking at strictly deer, pronghorn and average black bear sized critters, an effective hunting load need not be over 1100-1200 fps with careful bullet selection.  In fact, both my experience, those of hunting partners, and countless customers attests to the fact that cast bullet loads with muzzle velocities in the 1000 to 1100 fps category are truly amazing in their terminal performance!

 While wound channels are what causes hemorrhage and quick kills, this is only one facet of the terminal equation.  Penetration potential must also be balanced into the mix in order to insure that the wounding capacity of the projectile of interest possesses sufficient penetration qualities to reach vital organs even with deep penetration from hard angle shots. 

 Interestingly, simply selecting the heaviest bullet from within those available within a given caliber designation is often not the correct solution to this issue.  Too, arbitrarily choosing the widest possible meplat and not considering the penetrating qualities of the bullet can lead to just as dismal an outcome simply due to compromised depth of penetration.  By comparing the wounding capacity of various nose configurations in the table above, and then studying the relative penetration index of the same bullets from the chart below, a much clearer picture of the overall bullet performance emerges. 

 The relative penetration index (RPI) as listed below is just that:  it is simply a relative figure for the comparison of the potential penetrating qualities of different bullets based on a function of the meplat diameter of non-expanding bullets, and bullet weight.  The resultant number is not indicative of inches of penetration or any other quantifiable unit of measure, but rather simply a basis for comparison of potential bullet penetrating qualities. 

 Also included in the accompanying table is the foot pounds ft/lbs of free-recoil generated by an 1100 fps load using the corresponding bullet found in the chart.  This recoil is calculated of course using the bullet weight, the 1100 fps velocity and factoring in a 44 ounce handgun.  The weight of the handgun is designed to represent an average weight of a practical hunting revolver.  Yes, there are many heavier models in use, and lighter ones as well, but for a meaningful comparison to be made in regard to potential recoil generated, an average weight had to be established.  This handgun weight, for the purposes of calculations for this study is 2.75 lbs. or 44 ounces.

Relative Penetration Index (RPI) values do not represent quantifiable

units of measure, but are presented as a viable tool for comparing

actual the actual penetration potential for non-expanding bullets, and

are calculated as a function of meplat diameter and bullet weight.

 

Recoil values in ft/lbs were calculated using all bullets at 1100 fps

muzzle velocity fired from a 2.75 lb. (44 oz) handgun.

Bullet

Meplat

RPI

Recoil ft/lbs

.38/.357 Caliber

 

 

 

160g FNBB

.280”

29.15

5

165g FNBB

.260”