# Hunting with 45 acp?



## HogHunter (Mar 13, 2018)

Does anyone out there hunt with a 1911 in 45 acp? How has it performed on deer and or hogs? What type ammo do you use?


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## SamBond (Aug 30, 2016)

I'm kind of a ballistics hobbyist but I've never hunted anything with a 45 ACP. 
I have hunted deer, hogs, small game and ducks with appropriate calibers.
You might try deer with the 45 auto (up close) but I don't know what bullet to recommend. Maybe somebody else can recommend one.
Hogs are not easy to kill. I've seen them run 40 yards hart shot by a 30-06 rifle. I've also seen them drop dead from a perfectly placed shot from a 22 LR at point blank in the trap.
I believe '_a perfectly placed shot_' would be a must with the 45 ACP..... Do you own a 44 Magnum? I have recommendations for it.

Sam


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## HogHunter (Mar 13, 2018)

I have a couple 44 magnums: one with a 2 1/2 power Leupold scope and one open sights. Both are too heavy to carry on my hip and I consider them stand guns. I recently purchased a 10mm, but it has on-going problems and is not ready for the field at this time. I have a 357 magnum, but the only deer that I have ever lost was the first and only deer that I have shot with a 357 magnum. And it lead to the worse accident that I have had in the field. My story is at the bottom of this reply. 

There is a four day early gun deer season starting October 13. I need to be in the field right now scouting bedding areas, potential feeding areas, travel routes, deer droppings, early rubs, checking creek crossings, checking watering holes, and checking out deer stands. For me, deer hunting is 95% prep work. I usually take three deer a year. That is all my wife and I need. I like to take them early and then I can hunt horns the rest of deer season. Any excess deer that I take is processed and given to the food bank.

This is the best time of the year to be in the woods. After a rain when the leaves are wet and the temperature is cool in the morning, you can be very quiet and nature comes alive. It is a fresh new day. I love it. I will normally see a few hogs and deer easing through the woods and maybe a black bear, but they are very rare in south Arkansas. Of course, hogs are the only big game that is legal this time of the year.

Anyway, I was looking at YouTube the other day and noticed that some people hunt with 45 acp, but they don't give any details. I have a 1911 Colt light weight commander. It was my first concealed carry handgun. I am a fair shot with it out to 35 yards (5 for 5 on an eight inch paper plate). I am not a fan of 45+P ammo. I need facts, details, help. 

My story. There were 8 or 10 white oak trees around me. There was a lot of deer sign. The deer were feeding on the white oaks acorns. A nice 8 point came in from my left side and stopped broad side in front of me at 20 yards. Very slowly I lined up the sights at the crease formed by the back of the shoulder and pulled the trigger. It was the definition of a text book double lung shot. The deer ran into a ticket and I mentally marked a tree close the where the deer entered the thicket. The time was 3:03 pm. I waited until 3:30 pm before going to the tree to look for blood. It was a great blood trail for 100 yards, then spotty for 100 yards, and then just a drop here and there. It was about 7:30 and it was getting dark. I got my flashlight out and continued. The deer had crossed through the ticket and was traveling across the bottoms. It was mostly big oak trees with pools of ankle deep water from recent rain. The temperature was projected to go below freezing and it was probably in the upper 30s, maybe 38 degrees. It is now about 9:30 and I decided to return to camp and come back in the morning. 

I had parked the 4 wheeler on an old logging road about 1 1/2 miles from where I am. Wouldn't you know the deer would run directly away for the 4 wheeler. I knew this section of woods pretty well and I had a good idea of where the 4 wheeler was. I was walking through a shallow pool of water when I stepped into a hole. As I fell, time slowed down. I saw a root wad from a nearby tree coming up to my face and I tried to twist my body and get my left arm up to protect my head. When I woke up, blood was running down my face. My right knee was on fire with pain. My body had twisted, but my foot had not. I was wet and very cold. 

I was later told that I had a concussion. The thing about concussions, you can't remember things. In time, you sometimes remember most of it and sometimes you do not. As I lay in the near freezing water, I did not know where I was or how I got there. The only thing that I knew was that I was in trouble, bad trouble. I was so cold that I could not control the shakes and I could not walk. Apparently I was hunting, but I had no idea where the 4 wheeler was. The flashlight was somewhere in the water and was not shinning. My backup flashlight in the backpack was wet and would not work. It was dark and it was so cold. Where was I, how did I get here. I kept forgetting and I could not focus. 

I could see a V made by the trees in the sky line and my instincts said, head for the V. Not that I had much choice, it was the only land mark that I could see. I hobbled, fell, crawled, got back up, hobbled, fell, and crawled some more. I had made my mind up. I was not going to die in the woods and let the hogs eat my body. What seemed like hours later, I came out on the old logging road within 10 yards of the 4 wheeler and I saw it in the moon light. Miracles do happen and I am living proof. I have had two operations on the knee and there is barely a scare on my forehead. But all things considered, I was very very lucky. I am not hog droppings in the woods and I will never hunt with a 357 magnum again.

PS: 9/18/2018
The accident happened 10 or 11 years ago. I have tried not to remember and I know why, the pigs. Last night, I was thinking about the accident just before I went to sleep. This morning, I remember a little more. My clothes were wet and I was cold. Colder then I have ever been in my life. Crossing back through the ticket, every bush limb, weed, brier, and vine grabbed at my right foot and when they connected, my knee hunt bad. I remember falling twice. I remember thinking that it might be easier to crawl out, but it wasn't. I just wanted to quit, to lay there and rest till morning, and then I heard the pigs. I guess my biggest fear was that I might not be dead when the pigs found me. That was when I decided, I was not going to die in the woods and I was not going to let the pigs get me. Strangely enough, the pigs might be why I survived. I have no doubt, if I have laid there and rested until morning, I would have died from hypothermia.


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## SamBond (Aug 30, 2016)

If you find the 357 (with correct bullet) not enough gun... Could a 45 auto be enough???



Sam


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## Tangof (Jan 26, 2014)

I have shot many Whitetail Deer. A .45 ACP is not an adequate round for a clean kill. I shot one with a soft point .223 at about forty yards, The round hit in the heart/lung area. Two miles of tracking and the Deer was down, but alive. .30/06 is my minimum. Causing an animal to suffer for some "Bragging Rights" is not my idea of Hunting. Son's four pointer, 2017. Browning X Bolt. .30/06


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## Goldwing (Nov 5, 2014)

When I was a lot younger I used my Springfield Armory 1911 equipped with Laser Grips to take down a vicious ring neck pheasant at 40 yards. Just about took its' head off. It was delicious.:smt083

GW


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## HogHunter (Mar 13, 2018)

Tangof . 

I have taken deer with a handgun. I am not looking for "Bragging Rights". I am looking for people that have experience hunting with handguns to give me their opinion. And, I started asking questions about 45 acp after watching Keith Warren kill an elk with his 45 acp on YouTube. There are many YouTube videos of people hunting and killing deer and hogs with 45 acp, but they do not give details about ammunition. Also, if you go back and look, I clearly stated in my second post that I am looking for something lighter to carry on my hip when scouting woods. So please, don't put me down if you don't know me. I have killed enough deer and hogs with a handgun that I don't need bragging rights.


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## crewchief (Jul 25, 2018)

HogHunter, you ever seen the Faulk monster down there in the swamps??? I was stationed at Little Rock AFB in 71. It was a hot topic back then...


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## HogHunter (Mar 13, 2018)

Oddly enough, the Faulk monster does keep popping up every few years. The last time, a large set of bones was found in the woods. There was a lot of local press, proof the Faulk monster existed or had existed. Investigators sent the bones off to verify or disprove the Faulk monster. The bones were real, just not what people expected. There was a local animal farm nearby. One of their tigers had died. They had skinned the tiger and thrown the remains in the woods. The animal farm was fined. Local people believe it was a cover up. The Faulk monster lives.


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## SamBond (Aug 30, 2016)

The Faulk monster? Is that some kind of a Big Foot like critter?



Sam


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## HogHunter (Mar 13, 2018)

You got it in one guess.


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## Tangof (Jan 26, 2014)

Sorry if I came off sounding like I was attacking you personally, I should have expressed myself better. I live in the woods in an area heavily populated with Whitetails, and have seen too many Deer Hunters that have no clue what they're doing. Since the legalization of crossbows and handgun hunting the woods has filled up with people that use either once a year. The result being wounded Deer being shot and not recovered. On my own land I have found: A Doe with a crossbow bolt in her head, still alive. A Fawn, dead, with 9MM FMJ wounds in the hind quarters, and a really nice six point buck shot with what I think was a pistol round, but I'm not sure. I do know whoever shot it couldn't have made much of an effort to recover it, as you could see it from the road. Anyway, please accept my apology for seeming to go off on you,


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