It's that time of year again, when many of us are heading for the field in pursuit of our favorite game. Alas, I will likely miss this year due to yet another surgery stemming from our bike wreck last year, but at least I can b.s. about it a bit.
So, here is one of my favorite dedicated hunting revolvers. It's a Ruger Bisley in (what else?...) .45 Colt. I bought this back when they first came out; the grip frame was supposed to be better when dealing with heavy recoil. And, lo and behold - it actually is.
My standard hunting load for it (and the only load that actually gets shot in it) is a 300 grain bullet cast of wheel weights in an LBT mold, lubed with SPG, and seated over 24 grains of W-W 296 or H110 (these powders are identical - from the same hopper at the same plant), and sparked by a CCI #350 magnum primer. Good for just about 1,400 fps.
I've never actually recovered a bullet from anything killed with it; it achieves full penetration on the largest of big game animals available around here, from any angle to boot.
Which brings me to this - I have not hunted with the darn thing in a decade or more. Recoil and blast are both pretty darn stout. Prior to hunting with this thing, I used this next revolver, an Interarms Virginian Dragoon in .44 mag.
I played with 300 grain bullets in it as well, but went back to the old Keith (Lyman #429421) bullet and load - 22 grains of 2400 with a standard primer, for about 1,300 fps. It, too, would shoot all the way through anything I ever hit with it. It, too, is loud as hell and kicks more than a little bit (but nothing like that heavy .45 Colt load). In retrospect, I have to wonder why I thought I needed "more".
Which brings me, finally, to this next revolver - a plain old Peacemaker in .45 Colt.
Shooting either 40 grains of FFFg black powder or a smokeless powder equivalent load of 16 grains of 2400 behind the RCBS .45-270 SAA bullet, for about 900 fps. Recoil ain't bad, it won't pin your ears back to shoot it when hunting, and it
still has managed to shoot clear through a couple of big mulies standing broadside. What more do we really need?
In light of all of this, this year's "new" hunting revolver was going to be just my 7 1/2" Peacemaker, just to gain a bit of sight radius. After all those years of playing with the big boomers, the light has finally come on. A standard velocity .45 Colt (with the proper bullet) appears to be all I really need to go hunting. Nobody could have convinced me of that 25-30 years ago.