45 ACP load for deer

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lscocoa

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Does anyone use the 45 acp for deer and what loads do you use ? I am a 44mag. hunter but the owner of the range brought out a springfield 1911 ,somewhat custom and he said it would make a nice deer gun . So if this is true let me see some of your loads and what range do you shoot , or max would you shoot ?
 
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In Indiana the 45ACP cannot be used for deer hunting. The round has enough energy to do the work on small deer but I would think that the corn fed behemoths of our two states would be out of it's league any further out than 50 yards.

Of course, there are the hybrids out there too. 460 Rowland, 45 WinMag and either one of those would be more than adequate for any animal out to 100 yards. Just remember that there is going to be a considerable amount of drop to a 230gr bullet that started out at only 800fps @ that 100 yards. If you can get that weight bullet up to over 1000 fps, either by using one of the variants mentioned above OR shooting them in a revolver and running them over pressure or in +P and you my be good to go too.

For me, the 45ACP is my carry caliber. 2 legged @ less than 20 yards and they have had it! 4 legged though, give me a 45 Colt with Linebaugh's loads or a 44Mag in a carbine. Just sayin' :D
 
I tried to use a 45 ACP round for deer hunting in Missouri. I heard that you couldn't use the FMJ so I got some rounds that were, IIRC 180 gr. They were a kind of cone shaped lead bullet. I don't reload and have no idea what the powder was or anything like that. Whatever it was it didn't work. I shot at a deer in an open field, about 75 yards off and the bullet made it little more than 2/3rds of the way out there.
I traded the gun for a Winchester .300 magnum. Problem solved.
Peace,
gordon
 
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I think this is a big case of just how much you stalk your target when hunting. The .45 ACP was never intended for hunting. But I know guys that have used Beretta 92's in 9mm for hunting. And they got in darn close to do it and claimed it was one heck of a rush. I can only assume bow hunters do and feel the same way. SWC ammo for .45's is typically loaded as target paper punching ammo and loaded soft enough to cycle reliably but get you back on target fast. If you wanted to hunt I would try and find a good 185 or 200 grain SWC and load it out to the max stats allowed in a 1911 and see if you can shoot them accurate enough at fifty yards MAX. Add to this I would drop in at least a fresh spring if not a heavy one. You might even add one of the nylon buffer bits. I just don't see this as a good idea unless you are going all Predator style on them and slapping them in the face first before you shoot them. I'm not the avid hunter but I know at least a little bit about 1911's.
 
Years ago, a Virginia Conservation Official got in a lot of trouble shooting two wild pigs with a 1911 .45....

Trouble was, he shot them on a Federal Wildlife Refuge, they were driving through the refuge on the way to a National Gaurd picnic as I remember, he saw a sow hog and a piglet not far from the road. He stopped his car, shot both pigs with his .45, killing the piglet but not the sow. Sow was injured, immobile, and knucklehead had run out of ammo. He had to go to the Refuge Manager and tell him what happened, the refuge manager returned with a revolver and put the sow down.

Why so much trouble? The car following him to the picnic was full of reporters who witnessed the whole thing. All over the papers the next day, "Top Virginia Conservation Official Kills Wild Pigs Out of Season, On a Federal Wildlife Refuge, Shooting From the Road, etc. ", and the fact he shot them without enough gun and left them didn't help....
 
i have killed a few deer w/the .45 acp.

they were both small texas deer (100 lbs) and were within 20 yards.
i have killed about 10 bow hunting, also.
if you keep your range the same as bowhunting, i think the .45 acp has a definite advantage over any arrow,
hollowpoint or fmj roundnose works well.
 
Personally I would not use 45 ACP for this purpose. However if I had to, I think I would go with a 230gr XTP over a very stout charge of Unique. My testing with max loads of this powder gave me 930fps average out of a 5" bbl. A Gold Dot gave the same velocity. 440 ft/lbs of energy with a 45 caliber frontal area is nothing to sneeze at. If you do work some loads with XTPs or Gold Dots, keep in mind that both of these bullets require a shorter COAL than FMJ ball for proper chambering. This will reduce remaining case capacity.

Also, as much as I don't want to say it, I think a Glock 21 would make a better "deer gun" than a 1911. The G21 is an extremely strong firearm, derived from the G20 10mm design, firing the low pressure 45 auto. While this is not a license to work up dangerously high-pressure loads, it does give you some leeway to stretch the cartridge's legs into the "+P" range.
 
A friend of mine had a Glock 36 KB on him with factory ammo. I sure wouldn't push the platform. Don't take that as Glock hate speach. I have a Glock 21 SFNS that is my constant companion. I have nothing against Tactical Tupperware.

Like the cartridge too.

I was riding my horse through the apple orchard one day and came upon a deer that had been hit by a car. Back leg was busted pretty well and it didn't run. Have to call the cops for wounded deer around here or if you get caught with the carcass you can get into tons of trouble. When the cop arrived, I asked if he wanted to use my 1911 to put it down. Loaded with 5.0gr of Bullseye under a 230gr XTP. It was a Smith 1911 of course! :)

Anyway, he put one in the right eye of that deer. Never left the skull and mushroomed to about .800".

'Course he was only 30' from it! Just saying' :D
 
The last buck I killed with my kimber custom classic fell. Got up and wobbled off about 20 yards and expired. Shot him with a Fed. 230 gr. hydrashock. Bullet entered behind the left shoulder and came out the right shoulder breaking the leg. Shot was about 35 yards. Would I do it again. Heck yes! 45acp has plenty of power to shoot through a deer at close to moderate woods ranges.
 
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smith crazy said:
A friend of mine had a Glock 36 KB on him with factory ammo.
Click to expand...

Everyone on the internet has "a friend" with a Glock that blew up. You'd think there were Glocks blowing up every day at ranges all over the US... :rolleyes: I've never seen one. Not trying to give you a hard time, I just hate seeing this falsehood constantly perpetuated on internet forums.
 
If you like the 1911 enough to try it on deer, there's a better way to boost the power. Get a longer barrel, and then tinker with powder types and charges.

I've given this a lot of thought for a few years, but so far, I've stayed with my wonderful Remington 11-87 and bulldozer 12 ga. slug loads. In Ohio, we can use handguns, but caliber must be .38 or over, minimum 5" barrel, and no bottle neck cartridges. So I bought a 6" drop-in 1911 barrel. In a handgun, each additional inch gives you the chance to boost velocity considerably.

But there's something even better, and legal. Numrich's is still selling a kit to make the 1911 a legal detachable shoulder stock carbine. You get a mainspring housing slotted to take a stock, plus the stock, plus a 16 1/4" barrel. It sounds awkward, but the thing is a tack driver. All is legally well, as long as you do not use the stock with a short barrel installed. You could use the long barrel without the stock, as a legal deer hunting handgun in Ohio. All you need are good sights, such as a red dot.

With registered Thompsons (10" standard barrel) we can get around 1000 FPS with standard .45 ACP ball ammo. Load it with slower burning powder and you can get well above that. So for a handloader who likes to hunt with a pistol, there is no reason why you cannot use a long slide 1911, or one with just a longer barrel, and boost velocity to the 1000+ FPS range, where a well made expanding bullet can do a very respectable and accurate job on deer in the 50 to 75 yard range. I've never had a longer shot here in Ohio, and most are much closer. No thoughtful hunter should consider taking a pistol shot at a deer beyond 75 yards anyway.

Maybe this year I'll try a handgun. I keep thinking about my .44 Automag. Then I think about that rifled and scoped 11-87 and the certainty of it, and I hesitate. :rolleyes: That gigantic air rifle sabot slug does the job every time...all the way through, and with an impressive exit hole.
 
Dragon88 said:
Everyone on the internet has "a friend" with a Glock that blew up. You'd think there were Glocks blowing up every day at ranges all over the US... :rolleyes: I've never seen one. Not trying to give you a hard time, I just hate seeing this falsehood constantly perpetuated on internet forums.
Click to expand...

I have seen a G17 that gave up the ghost when the locking block on the frame simply gave way. I suspect it was poor disaasembly/re-assembly that led to the officer's service weapon giving up the ghost the day before her re-qualification . Of course, I have also seen an M9 and a 1911 each have a catastrophic failure. I think in each case it was due to material fatigue and a poor maintenance routine, or an inadvertent hot load.

Back to the thread, I would stick with the XTP bullet in a +P level charge.
 
If you can get a revolver take a look at the 45 Auto Rim loads in Speer #8. The 240 gr bullet looks like 452423. Assuming you can work up to the top loads, you can get >1,000 fps. That will handle a deer.
 
lscocoa said:
Does anyone use the 45 acp for deer and what loads do you use ? I am a 44mag. hunter but the owner of the range brought out a springfield 1911 ,somewhat custom and he said it would make a nice deer gun . So if this is true let me see some of your loads and what range do you shoot , or max would you shoot ?
Click to expand...
You have a 44 mag? Why would you want to go down to a 45 acp?? I have shot 3 deer with the 44 mag that were heart lung shots and had to track all of them from 40-90 yds, all were broadsid , both lungs destroyed and 1 heart this was with hydroshocks, IMI soft point, Rem soft point. I have since switched to 250 XTP- one FELL about 3 yds otherwise is was like Thor's hammer and anchored them in the spot. All were broadside 33-35 yds. Why did some run ? I have no idea, at necropsy the damage was essentially the same with all loads, deer range from a 120 doe to 175 lbs buck?? I have shot deer with 357 mag and 40 SW ( 165 gr ranger ) all dropped there. IF you have to go with the 45 I would use XTP 230 or ranger 230 +P, and keep it to 50 yd or under. There is nothing worse than trailing/tracking a deer that should be lying on the ground. Enjoy. Be Safe.
 
Choose wisely, grasshopper

Used my government 1911 with Federal 230 Hydrashocks to put down a deer hit by a car near my home.

I was on my way to work, dressed in "business casual," and the poor critter was lying in the middle of the road. Went back to my house and got my 1911 (because its always loaded), and had my wife call the warden.

Should have brought my rifle. The deer got up on two broken legs when I returned, and began to hobble off. Must have had it's nervous system totally maxed with adrenaline, shock and pain. Didn't want to lie down on the ground in my work clothes to make a head shot at 30 yards, so stuck with center mass. Took about 5 rounds in the rib cage to put it on the ground. Took maybe 30 seconds.

There are better calibers for deer.

Took a course with Clint Smith at Thunder Ranch last month. We were practicing transitions from the carbine to the pistol. Clint said, "Think about this. By going to your pistol away from your rifle you have just traded Ken for Barbie."
 
Years ago I took several whitetails on Fort Benning, Georgia using an issue M1911A-1 and GI ball ammo. Solid hits in the heart-lung area within about 25 yards always did the trick.

Not the choice I would prefer, but it's what I had to work with at the time, and I was acting under orders to get it done and that's how it got done.
 
Murdock said:
Used my government 1911 with Federal 230 Hydrashocks to put down a deer hit by a car near my home.

I was on my way to work, dressed in "business casual," and the poor critter was lying in the middle of the road. Went back to my house and got my 1911 (because its always loaded), and had my wife call the warden.

Should have brought my rifle. The deer got up on two broken legs when I returned, and began to hobble off. Must have had it's nervous system totally maxed with adrenaline, shock and pain. Didn't want to lie down on the ground in my work clothes to make a head shot at 30 yards, so stuck with center mass. Took about 5 rounds in the rib cage to put it on the ground. Took maybe 30 seconds.

There are better calibers for deer.

Took a course with Clint Smith at Thunder Ranch last month. We were practicing transitions from the carbine to the pistol. Clint said, "Think about this. By going to your pistol away from your rifle you have just traded Ken for Barbie."
Click to expand...

I too had to dispatch a car injured Doe. I used my Kimber ultra and it took 6 shots to the head. I was standing right next to the poor thing. From my very close hand experience I can verify the .45 ACP is not adequate for Deer.
Another time I had to use a m-60 2 inch .38+p on a injured Doe from about 30 feet away and it took all 5 shots, I no longer carry a .38 ,for that reason.
Stick with your .44 it`s better to have too much gun so that you are more able to stop the animal`s suffering sooner.
 
I carry a Glock 21 daily to protect me and my family( of course all of my other hand guns are S&W's). All my other guns are S&W's I have never seen one in person go BOOM! I have a friend who is a C3/C7 so he get Post Sample MG's and we beat on them. He had a Glock 18 that he put 30,000 rounds thru in two years, he had a handful of FTF's, but no BOOMs!
 
Dragon88 said:
Everyone on the internet has "a friend" with a Glock that blew up. You'd think there were Glocks blowing up every day at ranges all over the US... :rolleyes: I've never seen one. Not trying to give you a hard time, I just hate seeing this falsehood constantly perpetuated on internet forums.
Click to expand...

I DON'T like Glocks at all, but I have never witnessed or heard of one blowing up. If nothing else, they are reliable. The 23 is the most popular weapon in LEO circles. That would NOT be so, if they were blowing up frequently.....
 
Not an optimum choice, but IMO something on the order of a 230g cast TC moving @ 850fps properly placed would be enough to do the job if you were close enough.

Cast is a monolithic solid and the large metplat does damage, so this would be my choice over a HP or ball and for hunting it would improve the performance by way of penetration.

Consider the 45 Colt cast at 255g and moving 850 to 900fps being used and while not thought of as the best solution, it is adequate. Cast in an acp is not so different.
 
ive kiiled deer with a 5" 1911 loaded with 230gr. fmj wwb.

it was not my intent to do so initially , but when a descent sized doe walks out at close range it become more of a challenge to put it down with a proper shot from a handgun.

ive shot wild pigs too, though again it was not my intent at the time to go after them with a pistol. of course wild pigs are never out of season where i hunted and any time day or night with any weapon, any season you can kill as many as you can.
 
In an earlier post, I suggested how a longer barrel can help boost .45 ACP power. But why use such an inherently low powered round at all? Is the point to prove that it can be done?

I've only been hunting deer for about 8 years, all on a very large family owned swamp and river bottom paradise for deer. About a dozen of us hunt this closed area. So I see lots of deer shot every year, with slug shotguns, bows, and the occasional handgun.

What has impressed me most, and was completely unexpected, is how difficult it is to kill a deer, even with a heavy, high power projectile going directly through a vital area, expending most of its energy. We've lost a number of deer so hit, because they ran long distances and could not be found before the meat was ruined. Our bow hunters have lost the most.

Several years ago, I shot a deer from about 50 feet with a 575 grain blunt 12 gauge slug which went directly through the heart, causing it to literally explode into a flat pancake. I watched a cloud of blood and tissue exit the far side, but the deer took off through knee-deep swamp. I eventually found it, and towed it out by the antlers. I had to track another one nearly 200 yards, after I solidly hit it through the chest/lungs bullseye area.

Not even a .44 magnum will decisively stop a deer, unless you hit the spine or brain, maybe. So it seems to me that anything less than a heavy shotgun slug from close range, or a large bore rifle slug in states where it is allowed, is just not a wise or humane way to hunt deer. They seem to be about as hard to kill as members of the cat family, and that came as a surprise to me. To hunt them with a bow, or low powered handgun, is just something I could not in good conscience do, although I know it is possible. And I know some of you probably take exception on the bow hunting comment, but I just see too many deer disappear to die an agonizing death and have the meat wasted. My personal entertainment is not worth that.

Because of what I have seen on how hard they are to kill, I would not even use the .357 Magnum. Model 29 in .44 Magnum? That is accurate enough for a scoped head or spine shot, and that will stop them right now.
 
Phil, id like to clarify if i may, that the deer are no harder to kill but in fact harder to stop right there. they havent watched enough t.v. to know they should drop right away.

PhilOhio said:
In an earlier post, I suggested how a longer barrel can help boost .45 ACP power. But why use such an inherently low powered round at all? Is the point to prove that it can be done?

I've only been hunting deer for about 8 years, all on a very large family owned swamp and river bottom paradise for deer. About a dozen of us hunt this closed area. So I see lots of deer shot every year, with slug shotguns, bows, and the occasional handgun.

What has impressed me most, and was completely unexpected, is how difficult it is to kill a deer, even with a heavy, high power projectile going directly through a vital area, expending most of its energy. We've lost a number of deer so hit, because they ran long distances and could not be found before the meat was ruined. Our bow hunters have lost the most.

Several years ago, I shot a deer from about 50 feet with a 575 grain blunt 12 gauge slug which went directly through the heart, causing it to literally explode into a flat pancake. I watched a cloud of blood and tissue exit the far side, but the deer took off through knee-deep swamp. I eventually found it, and towed it out by the antlers. I had to track another one nearly 200 yards, after I solidly hit it through the chest/lungs bullseye area.

Not even a .44 magnum will decisively stop a deer, unless you hit the spine or brain, maybe. So it seems to me that anything less than a heavy shotgun slug from close range, or a large bore rifle slug in states where it is allowed, is just not a wise or humane way to hunt deer. They seem to be about as hard to kill as members of the cat family, and that came as a surprise to me. To hunt them with a bow, or low powered handgun, is just something I could not in good conscience do, although I know it is possible. And I know some of you probably take exception on the bow hunting comment, but I just see too many deer disappear to die an agonizing death and have the meat wasted. My personal entertainment is not worth that.

Because of what I have seen on how hard they are to kill, I would not even use the .357 Magnum. Model 29 in .44 Magnum? That is accurate enough for a scoped head or spine shot, and that will stop them right now.
Click to expand...
 
PhilOhio said:
We've lost a number of deer so hit, because they ran long distances and could not be found before the meat was ruined. Our bow hunters have lost the most.
Click to expand...

A deer properly hit will go down in short order...it doesn't have a choice. It will bleed out if it doesn't drop from shock from the initial bullet impact. I've killed dozens of deer with a bow and the only time I had to track one more than 50 yards was a bad shot that I made that hit too far back. Even then, I gave the deer time to lie down and it only went about 100 yards. If you're losing deer, it's because you aren't hitting them right or you're chasing them too soon.
 
Dragon88 said:
Everyone on the internet has "a friend" with a Glock that blew up. You'd think there were Glocks blowing up every day at ranges all over the US... :rolleyes: I've never seen one. Not trying to give you a hard time, I just hate seeing this falsehood constantly perpetuated on internet forums.
Click to expand...

Well, this isn't a falsehood Drag ole buddy! In fact, the friend is a forum member here so verifying the KB is relatively simple. Send a pm to Paul5388 and see what he has to say. The gun belonged to his son or son in law.

Here is how I see the Glock and KB issue. They happen, period. If you turn a blind eye to it, you are an idiot, plain and simple. They have happened for various reasons other than an unsupported chamber, got it. What I liken it to is this: Let's say you have a folding knife. That knife does not have a lock for the blade on it. No problem, it was designed that way. Now let's say you need to pry something with it and the only way you can git r did is to pry in the way that the knife closes. Would you put your fingers between the handle and the blade? No, that is, unless you are an idiot.

Same thing with a Glock, and a high pressure round especially, you just gotta know how to load for them. Plain and simple. That is why I NEVER load fast burning powders in a 40S&W nor a 9mm for that matter if it is going to be shot in a Glock. I just know that "it ain't got a lock" and "pry in the other direction", simple.

To ignore the well documented FACT that Glocks have had an exorbitant amount of KBs with factory ammo is more than silly. It is down right dangerous. :rolleyes:
 
Freischütz said:
If you can get a revolver take a look at the 45 Auto Rim loads in Speer #8. The 240 gr bullet looks like 452423. Assuming you can work up to the top loads, you can get >1,000 fps. That will handle a deer.
Click to expand...

Mine is a load of SR4756 and the 240gr LSWC for 1100fps out of a 4" M625JM. Like I said earlier, use one of the variants! :)
 
Most handgun calibers only develop about 10-50fps per inch of additional barrel. I haven't shot this over the chronograph YET but I will be letting you all know.

It is a Glock 21 SF (slim frame) with full Picatanny rail and a 6.2" Lone Wolf drop in barrel.
A bit hard to conceal in this configuration but VERY accurate! ;)

G21SFwithLW6bbl.jpg


Then, if you really want to take it to the next level with the 45ACP there is always this option! You could even put a scope on it if you want! :)

45ACPFriends.jpg


An you would LOOK SO COOL shooting a deer with one of them that words could not express it! :D
 
Bomberman said:
A deer properly hit will go down in short order...it doesn't have a choice. It will bleed out if it doesn't drop from shock from the initial bullet impact. I've killed dozens of deer with a bow and the only time I had to track one more than 50 yards was a bad shot that I made that hit too far back. Even then, I gave the deer time to lie down and it only went about 100 yards. If you're losing deer, it's because you aren't hitting them right or you're chasing them too soon.
Click to expand...

Bomberpilot, I have to differ with you strongly, and the reason is that what you say makes total sense, but conflicts with what I have experienced and seen with my hunter friends. It is illogical, but it happens. It has nothing to do with "aren't hitting them right". The most extreme personal example was the destructive heart shot from about 50 feet, mentioned in my first post.

I hit this deer from almost point blank range, saw the hole open and saw tissue and blood fly out the other side. Unbelievably, the deer did a fast walk through 18" water and into very heavy thicket. It went several hundred feet and was difficult to find.

I field dressed it. I always save the heart and liver, which I love to eat. Field dressing this one, I couldn't find the heart, and thought...??? Finally, I realized a big flat pancake thing had once been the heart. That 575 grain slug had hit it squarely, and hydrostatic shock literally caused the heart to explode. So you think that deer was not hit right????

Almost the same thing happened two years earlier and 100 yards from that spot. I hit one broadside, from close, squarely in the bullseye area. But that deer, one of two standing side by side, took off like a shot. I thought I had missed it, but could not imagine how. I began walking in the general direction, just to check... About 100 yards away, there it lay, stone dead, and hit precisely where I had the cross hairs. The slug also passed all the way through and caused great exit hole damage. Not hit right??? I think not.

There is something about deer physiology, or stamina, or adrenalin, or something that I/we may not fully understand. But sometimes squarely hit ones drop like a stone, and sometimes they run like the wind...for a short time. It may have a lot to do with where you hit, in relation to the nerve system. Break that information transmission system, and it stops right there, but such a hit is a matter of luck.

I learn something new and amazing each hunting season.
 
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