My First handgun kill

[Justin10mm]

I know some would disagree with my caliber choice but it worked for me this time so we will see what happens in the future. :roll: This afternoon I shot my first animal with a handgun. :grin:  The animal, just happend to be my largest hog to date,a big coal black boar that weighed 259lbs. The gun, my first centerfire pistol, a Smith & Wesson 686 .357 mag. with a 6 inch barrel and toped with a Leupold 2x scope. I decided to shoot the best bullets I could find, that just happened to be winchester supreme 180gr. partition gold. I have been trying to make a kill with it sence CHRISTmas, when I got the scope on it. I had a few close encounters with some coyotes but they outsmarted me. But it all came togeather today. That big pig decided to get a mouth full of corn at the rong time. I had a little (Hog Feaver) but made a good shot, the bullet struck a little high in the neck spineing the beast. He droped in his tracks at a measured 57 yards.    

What was your first kill with a handgun? I'd like to see some of your posts on the subject as well as your opinion on the .357 mag. for hunting. I plan to get a .44 mag. (Someday). :roll:

[Dusty Miller]

Justin, was the POI your POA or do you think you just got lucky? :grin:

[Redhawk1]

Justin, my first handgun kill on big game was about 26 years ago with a 357 Mag in a Ruger blackhawk. I got a spike buck in North Dakota at 35 yards with one shot. I am not much on the 357 Mag although it will work at the proper range of it's effectiveness. I think the 357 Mag is good for deer and hogs within 40 yards. JMHO.  

[Mikey]

The one I remember most was a feral sow with piglets that was chewing up an old farmers vegetable garden and he asked me to 'shoot that sob', which I did with a 4" 38 Special.  It was a handload and it went dead on behind her head at about 25' and broke the spine.  

The farmer invited me back for dinner that night and it was good.  I wish I had owned and used a 357 at that time as I would have felt a lot more comfortable.  

Justin - if you get into reloading you may wish to try a 200 gn swc bullet from that 357 next time but as it was ya done good.  Mikey.

[crawfish]

Mine was an 8pt whitetail at 18 yards with my very first hunting handgun a S&W 657 back on Jan 1st 1991. Had seen what I think was the same deer the day before but couldn't see the head so I passed that day.
Been a .41 caliber handgun only hunter ever since.

[Larry Gibson]

Mikey

That reminds me of the first deer I killed with a handgun, it too was with a .38 Special.  We had a 20 acre orchard that was out in the "back forty" on our place in the foothills outside of Dallas, Oregon.  My Uncle loaned us a M94 and a S&W M&P with 6" barrel when we moved out onto the small spread. My uncle would slip me some Peters .38 158 gr RNs and some 30-30 shells on the QT to shoot. I was 13 at the time and he had on numerous occasions since I was 10 taught me how to shoot (sort of, well safely anyways but that's another story).  I was going out to check on the cattle and was out of extra 30-30s so I took the M&P. As I approched the orchard I saw several deer (blacktails) walking through it toward a trail they generally used into the timber. I slid off my horse and parked her, took antother trail through the timber and got into a sitting positition on the backside of a large clump of Scotch Broom just in time to ambush them. When the deer came by me they would already be past and would have to look back to see me. A couple fawns and does came by with out seeing me then one very large older doe came by bring up the rear. I wouldn't shoot a doe that time of year (mid summer) unless I was sure they were dry.  I was a little excited as always but I'd been told to take a few deep breaths and to focus on the task at hand to help with "buck fever" and it did help.  I already had the M&P cocked so I let her take a step forward with the close front leg and shot her behind the leg sort of in the "arm pit". The bullet went forward through the heart and lodged in the brisket. The doe flinched at the shot and went maybe 20 yards farther and dropped dead.  I gutted the deer out, got my horse and hauled it over the back hill to a neighbors place and gave it to them (I did that with quite a few deer - gave them to the poorer families in the area). I finished checking on the cattle, went back to the house and cleaned the M&P and put it back where we kept it.

Subsequent to that I've shot numerous other deer with .357s (ROM with 6" barrel, RNM with 4 5/8" barrel, Colt trooper with 4" barrel and several M19s, M27/28s mostly with 4" barrels.  Of course all that was before I knew how undergunned I was using the .357 with 125-158 HP and SPs along with 358156s and 358421s. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

Larry Gibson

[Dune]

congratulations, that's a nice sized pig, Dune

[GRIMJIM]

60 yard shot on a big whitetail doe with a ruger super redhawk 44 mag with a 9" barrel.

[Lawful Larry]

A few years back I was sitting in a tree stand and two does came up over a ridge.  They stopped because they were geting out of the way of a pack of dogs.  They were not in a hurry, but were just making some distance between them and the dogs.  Well I took aim at one and fired.  It went down and the second one just stayed there and looked down at the first one.  She didn't move and I said why not, I needed the meat.  I shot the second and she ran about 60 yards.  Oh yeah, this was about 45 yards distance. 

I started handgun hunting, because it gave me something new to try.  I still hunt with rifles too. 

[markc]

Good job Justin, I hope that is just the first of many handgun harvests.  My first was rabbit with a Ruger single six .22 LR.  My first deer were 2 doe within 20 minutes with a TC 7-30 waters and my own handloads,  One was around 30 yds and the next one was around 55 yds.   

[tatonka]

Just killed a maurading chicken eating coon at 30 yards on a dead run with my 40 S&W Glock at twilight. The night sights came in handy! I fired twice, connecting on the second shot through the lungs. This coon cost my daughter several chickens after he had chewed through some hardware cloth over the henhouse. He was dead before I got to the carcass. Once killed 5 squirrel from the same hickory tree with a T/C contender with a 22 match barrel and Burris 2 1/2-7 scope - all but one head shot. Once in the lifetime affair I imagine. Hunted with a pistol since I was 10 years old when my dad gave me an old High Standard Sentinel revolver to use on the farm to take rabbit, squirrel, coons, and whatever else we could put in the pot. There was a time that if we didn't shoot it, we only had milk gravy and vegetables. I thought it was a tough life. Boy do I wish I could return to that life again with a better perspective!