deer with 1911/45acp

[BRL]

Interesting

[atitagain]

Several years ago, I decided to try deer hunting with a 1911/.45acp.  I found it worked best in two situations.
   1) It worked well out of my tree stands that I normally used for bowhunting.
   2) It works really great if you want to walk and stalk in standing corn fields where you can get really close to the deer.

[levi joseph]

I have taken two deer with my 1911. One was a bad idea as I had it loaded with some winchester 185 gr silvertips. It had very little penetration and I had to finish the deer with a rifle. I was a young dumb man at the time and learned a good lesson. Several years later the chance came again with lots better results. I had replaced the light bullets for some starfire 230 gr hp and the deer was DRT. One bullet and it was all over Found it under the hide on the off side, it was a very slight quarter away shot @about 40 yards standing still. Bullet performed well and had a fair amount of mushroom and weighed 219 gr. the bullet did break one shoulder and just missed the other.
 

[Kmrere42]

HI,


I have heard that the formula for figuring minimum energy for handgun hunting was, 40cal, 200Gr wt, and 1000fps with a meplat of at least half dia.  The 45acp just barely meets this.  I would think that a max load of bluedot or AA-7 with a bullet like the magnus #807 215gr swc. 

If I really wanted to use a 1911 based autoloader then I would probably want to upgrade to a 45 super or a 460 rowland kit.



Paul

[jstevens]

I have shot four or five years ago with my Series 70 and 200 grain cast flat nosed bullets.  They did OK, usually run thirty yards and fall over, not as much shock effect as a .300 Win.

[Hank08]

Back in the 70s when I lived in Calif. I cut down a 1911 slide to commander length and put it on an alloy frame for a purse gun for my wife.  Her and her girlfriend were
riding around on the girlfriends property when a blacktail buck jumped up and ran up the hill, she hopped out and popped one thru it's neck, breaking the neck and killing it instantly.  This with a 185 swc and 3.5 grs. bulleye.  She didn't know that load was too light and the deer didn't either.  I used to load 185 JHP to 1100 for my carry gun and killed one deer with it but I shot it in the back of the head and blew it's nose off
so most any load would have killed it.
H08

[myronman3]

sounds like a good woman!

[eod20]

Wednesday night i was tracking a deer my nephew shot in the neck    long story short it went into a standing cornfield to hold up and i walked up on it in the dark to about 8 feet before it bolted  shot it thru and thru in the chest with a Remington 230gr HP   it only went another 15-20 feet before dropping     still love the 45  but i am going to switch back to corbon      not happy at all with the terminal ballistics of the Remington's     no expansion that i could detect     after gutting only located a small entrance and exit wound

[SharonAnne]

full penetration on a deer and you are unhappy? What 'expansion' signs are you looking for? You will not get hydrostatic damage from a .45acp. It sounds to me as though your 45 performed very well.

[44 Man]

The Remington has never been know to open up a lot, say compared to a Starfire or the big hollow point Speers (CCI).  What you do get is a reliable feeding round with the hollow point that acts as a flat nose and punches a hole on entry where the ball load will pucker shut after the bullet passes.  Glad to hear of all the good results!  I have carried a 1911 in the woods myself many times but never got a chance at a deer with it.  44 Man

[jlwilliams]

Very informative thread.  I recently had an Enfield bolt action rifle converted to 45acp by SIA.  Nice work.  Shoots well.  Naturally, I apreciate all the information I'm getting here before I point it at any sort of living target.  With the 16" barrel and a scope I'm getting very nice groups within the distance limitations of the cartrige.  I don't know if I'll use it this year but it's likely to find it's way into a tree stand eventually.

[eod20]

that was the first "live" target i have personally shot with a 45     just a few days prior i was at a police shooting where a subject was shot thru a vehicle b pillar with a 45    only 1 of the rounds fired made it to the subject   it was not a shoot thru     stayed in the chest cavity   total stop with 1 round    instant stop      i guess i just expected more damage and no exit      i am still happy with the fast incapacitation of what i used   but i think after next qual i am still going to go back to the big corbon hollow points  or maybe try the win ranger hp

[Ak.Hiker]

Have you thought about trying the 230 grain Hornady XTP +P? I would think the heavy XTP running at +P velocity would make a good field load.

[eod20]

the 45 is my daily off duty firearm     i was carrying it at the time i shot the deer with it as a field test of my carry load and i had it on me when it got dark during the track of the deer

[Lazermule]

I have a guy that works for me that is retired military and was enlisted during the switch over from 45 ACP to the 9mm and saw action with both so he tells me.  He said when the enemy was hit with the 45 ACP, they went down and stayed down, where as when hit with the 9mm it was not the same result. 

[eod20]

i believe that    look at the history of both rounds    and being restricted to ball rounds only    i do not care how fast you push a 124gr bullet    it can not and will not do what a 230gr will do     the only thing that keeps the 9mm alive in the police community is the new hollow point tech that makes the round a competitor with larger rounds      and still the 9 is losing ground to the 40 and the 45    my department is looking at the xd45 the state police just went back to a 45 and our next door department just went to xd 45's

[1911crazy]

Well okay, enough of the 300 gn bullet (in my gun) business.  I just couldn't get those things to shoot worth a dang, sqoze or unsquoze, front end or butt end forward, recommended accuracy load or not.  Couldn't get a group - would get two nice ones and a flier out of every 3.  Got a couple of tumblers goin' butt end first and even a couple of jacket/core separations too.  They are way too expensive to play with.

Sooooooooo, its back to the search for a good, accurate heavy swc load for the 45.  A man's work is never done......................... Mikey.

Mikey/Guys/Gals;  With all due respect and not reading every post here i been thinking about the hunter using a 45acp for deer.  I believe that speed and penitration is the key so a lighter bullet maybe the way to go.  I would think the 185gr or 200gr JHP just may do the kill properly loaded to the max of course to +p power or more.  Sometimes heavier bullets doesn't mean there better over the lighter ones.

When hunting bear with my 06 i always swear by and used the speer 180gr magnum mag tips.  In my wet sand tests the performance ballastics was awesome.  I didn't like the slower 200grs. again its finding the sweet spot for the caliber your using too.

I found out in wet sand the copper coated steel jacket opens up to a flat piece of shrapnel with most of the calibers that i tested. (357mag, 44mag, 45acp, 30-06, 444)  The lead becomes a gray powder around the expanded jacket. I didn't trust my reloads when i first started reloading so i wanted to test them in wet sand before i took them out hunting.  Now 35 years later i can trust them for sure but i like to make sure i have the proper load for the best performance and accuracy.

I've used the 200gr JHP on feral wild dogs and it worked great making a quarter size hole on entry. And stopped them dead in there tracks rather than get bit.   This was the soup bowel speer 200gr JHP's these are my 45acp carry rounds.   I had to polish the feed ramp to feed them.

OT;  They talk about the 9mm,  the 10mm and the 40cal but in my eyes you still can't beat the old 45acp.

[SHOOTALL]

cheese , have agood hunt ! they work with ball ammo so a better bullet should work better !
When in high school a friend had a colt he kept in his VW bug ( yea things were different then ) he would show up anytime with a deer he got with the 45 . Legal here no ! shot gun only area , worked yes !!
that was back in the 70's at least the gun is better !
can you believe the teachers would let us skin it and hang it in the barn ? We also got to hunt school property ! GOOD OLD DAYS !!!!!