Why Hunt with Handguns

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(This book was originally published by the Winchester Press back in the 1970's. It is long out of print and hard to find. I am going to post a few of the chapters as I get them transcribed. I am not going to reproduce the book, simply a few parts of it. - the webmaster- )

Handgun Hunting
by Lee Jurras & George Nonte

Chapter 1 - Why Hunt with Handguns?

"Why under the sun would anyone want to go out and hunt a deer or a bear with a revolver or automatic?"

"You must be out of your mind. Nobody can count on killing winter meat with a sixgun."

"You’re gonna do what in Africa? Better pay up your life insurance before you go messin’ after a lion with that puny sixgun…"

Those are just a few of the typical reactions I’ve heard after mentioning casually that I had done, or was planning to do, a particular type of hunting with a handgun. And those remarks didn’t always come from non-hunters or from people who knew nothing about handguns. They came from ardent hunters and shooters, including some who make their lining with handguns. Many a policeman who accepts the idea of using a piddling little.38 Special revolver to defend his own or other lives against dangerous criminals will shudder at the notion of coming along into the swamps with that same revolver to help kill a wild hog for a barbecue. Conventional rifle and scattergun hunters have heard and red so much about the difficulties and supposed ineffectiveness of handgunning that it is almost impossible for them to visualize a sixgun or auto as a practical hunting instrument for anything bigger than a field mouse. And so they ask, "Why?"

"Sportsmanship" is a much overworked word, but I can’t think of any word that describes one aspect of handgun hunting more accurately. When we think of sportsmanship, we think of achieving a particular goal by fair means within a framework of legal and moral rules and in such a manner as to give us a personal sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, along with the pleasure of knowing we are developing a skill to a high degree. Sportsmanship is playing a game to win, developing and sharpening our skills and abilities toward that end. And the demonstrable fact that a handgun is a most inefficient hunting arm and difficult one to use makes it that much more sporting if used safely and with regard for the game. A good hunter holds his fire if he doesn’t think he can make a clean kill, which means that a good handgun hunter holds his fire even more often than a conscientious rifle hunter. In short, the more difficult the accomplishment, the more "sporting" we consider it to be. There are those who hunt squirrels and rabbits only with .22 rifles, sneering at others who go after the same game with shotguns - insisting that the rifle with its single projectile is more sporting than a basket-size spread of pellets hurled in the general direction of the target. The shotgunner’s answer is that his method is just as sporting because he shoots at moving targets. True! He could probably save ammunition while putting more squirrels in the pot if he restricted himself to stationary targets, but that would be too easy, not challenging enough, not "sporting" enough. The sporting content of a particular endeavor is generally conceded to connect directly with the difficulty of accomplishment. And if you think hunting with a handgun is not more difficult than with rifles and shotguns, then, friend, you just haven’t tried it yet.

Let’s take a look at the relative difficulty of handgun hunting. Where small game is concerned, let’s compare the handgun with the shotgun most commonly used on rabbits and squirrels. A typical setup will be with the hunter moving slowly in a known came area, gun loaded and at the ready, eyes and ears alert for a target. Suddenly, out of the brush at his feet or out of a leafy clump up in a tree, a furry animal bursts form cover and attempts to escape at full speed. In the very short time the quarry remains in sight, the hunter quickly unsafeties his scattergun, swings on target, and pulls the trigger – and a charge of shot 18 or 20 inches (or more, depending on range) in diameter and containing a couple hundred or more pellets is hurled at the animal. So long as the gun is aligned well enough on target for any portion of that circular shot pattern to hit it, the animal will most likely be bagged. This isn’t to say that shots won’t be missed, for they will, but no particularly precise alignment of gun on target is required to achieve a hit. Now place a hunter armed with a handgun in the same circumstances, and let’s see what he must do to avoid being skunked.

First of all, he must move much more quietly and covertly, and be much more alert. If he simply walks in until an animal is spooked, he may never be able to even fire a reasonably well-aligned shot before it disappears. He must locate his quarry before it attempts to flee, then freeze and avoid giving alarm; then wait and watch or stalk until the animal gives him a reasonably good chance for a killing shot. He must wait until the animal is still and presents a certain target, and then must bring his gun into alignment and squeeze off the shot without frightening his quarry. He must align the sights and squeeze the trigger to deliver the single, tiny bullet precisely to a target area less than two inches in diameter – and that is a hell of a lot more precise operation than blanketing the target with a cluster of pellets. In short, the successful use of a handgun on small game often requires a higher degree of concentration, marksmanship, observation, and woods-craft than the use of shoulder arms.

When it comes to larger game, let’s say deer and black bear, we can compare the use of a handgun with the rifle. The typical rifle hunter will cruise the timber where he has reason to expect game, alert for tracts and other signs, and will eventually hope to locate his quarry in a reasonably clear area, unalarmed and offering a standing shot. He’ll then get his rifle into position, aim carefully, and squeeze off the shot. His rifle and cartridge will usually be capable of placing all shots within at least a three – or four – inch group at 100 yards, and at that range the bullet’s trajectory will be so flat that he needs simply hold or aim on the point he wishes to hit. In addition, the cartridge will possess at least as much energy as the old .30-30 Winchester, and most likely will be even more powerful. In short, there will be no doubt whatsoever about the bullet’s ability to penetrate and kill the animal with any reasonably well-placed shot.

The handgun hunter possesses nowhere near that many advantages of accuracy, power, and flatness of trajectory. While his actions until he spots his quarry will be nearly the same as the rifle hunter’s, at that point things change. First of all, the combination of hunter/gun/cartridge is probably capable of delivering no better than 10 to 12 inch groups at best at 100 yards, and with any conventional sixgun or auto, the 100 – yard trajectory height will be several inches. This combination makes it essential that the hunter not shoot at 100 yards or more, but that he revert to careful stalking until he’s within certain hitting range without alarming the animal. While a reasonably good rifle shot with a modern high-velocity rifle may take his deer wherever he sees it up to as much as 300 yards, the handgunner must close to within 50 to 75 yards at the outside, and closer is even better.

Any woods-man will tell you that the closer you get to an animal the more likely you are to alarm it by your scent, sound, or sight. If the wind is right and there is even a little concealment, a rifleman can sit back at 300 yards. Smoke a cigarette and eat his lunch without alarming a feeding deer. That means he has plenty of time to get into a good solid position and take the deer with little effort other than the concentration of the shot. But if you are a handgunner, you must begin a slow and laborious stalk that might take hours, and you run a high risk that by the time you get close enough for a sure shot, the animal will move on or become alarmed and take off, leaving you with nothing to show for your efforts but bruised knees and sweat.

To top it off, the handgun is far less powerful than the rifle, and unless the shot is very precisely placed you stand a good chance of only wounding the animal. I’m well aware that much ado is made about the power of Magnum handguns. However, in the final analysis, event the much-vaunted .44 Magnum possesses a good deal less power than the .30-30 Winchester. And it possesses less than half the power of the popular .30-06 and comparable cartridges so much in use today.

So, handgun hunting for large or small game is difficult, more difficult under normal conditions than taking the same game with a scattergun or high-power rifle. Handgun hunting therefore presents a greater challenge to the skill of the hunter, and it is this challenge that many sportsmen seek.

Danger, too, enters into handgun hunting of at least some species. Virtually any potentially dangerous animal can be shot at 100 yards or so with a modern rifle in a caliber suitable for the purpose – without any danger to the shooter under normal circumstances. Even if a poor shot is made and the animal charges, the time it takes it to cover the distance allows for careful follow-up shots. But with even the most powerful handguns, one must approach game much more closely, and if a poor shot is made, far less time is required for the quarry to reach the hunter in the event of a charge. The reduction in time is not all that increases the danger. The fact that even the .44 Magnum possesses so little power in comparison to modern big-game rifle cartridges makes it far more likely that nay really big animal will be able to charge after the first shot. It also makes it far more likely that in the event of a charge even several follow-up shots may be insufficient to stop the animal before he reaches the hunter.

Therefore, when one takes a handgun after any potentially dangerous species – bear, bore, big cats, and some of the larger hoofed and horned species – there is a certain anticipation of danger. The actual danger is probably a good deal less than it looms in our mind, but danger there is, raising the hunt to a new level of adventure. Perhaps, the element of danger has been exaggerated occasionally by self-glorifying writers, but even a 15-pound dik-dik has been known to kill a man with its diminutive needle-pointed horns when he didn’t finish it off properly. And I’ve had a wounded 275-pound wild boar charge and fall so close at the last shot that I could reach out and touch his snout with my hand without moving from the spot where I fired.

Game conservation must also be considered. Pseudo – "environmentalists" have accused hunters of being ravagers of nature. True conservationists, those properly educated and experienced in game behavior, biology, habitat, etc., know and can prove that sport hunting has no ever seriously threatened any North American species. Yet the common claim of the sidewalk conservationist is that hunters "kill too much." These self-appointed critics generally believe that if hunting were completely prohibited no species would ever again become extinct (defying irrefutable historical evidence) and all wild animals would live happily ever after in a idyllic Bambi-filled woodland devoid of any hazard. Hunter are constantly under pressure to show evidence of their conservation activities. Actually, they are the most productive true conservationists in that their money pays for almost all worthwhile conservation efforts.

When a hunter takes to the field with a handgun, he becomes a game conservationist not only in terms of this financial support but in terms of a self-imposed restraint on his harvesting of game: That is, because he chooses to use a handgun, under identical conditions he will be able to kill less game than a rifleman. An area reporting, say, 70 percent hunter success on whitetail deer among riflemen will probably show a handgun-hunter success rate of 25 percent or less.

What we’ve already discussed are fairly tangible reasons why people hunt with handguns. But while they are the most obvious, there are many, many more which are not so easily identified or explained. For instance, I feel that some of handgun hunting’s appeal has its carrying frontiersman, whose handgun was kept ready for any emergency, including Indian attack, unexpected meetings with bears, encounters with road agents, stock raids by predators, or maybe just an occasional opportunity to collect extra meat for the table.

Another intangible reason for hunting with a handgun is merely an extension of one of the basic motivations for all hunting. In distant times, man lived by hunting and gathering. To provide food, he faced the dangers of the wilderness, fought for meat, and carried it home in triumph that his family might survive. The urge to do so is still strongly present, though in these times man’s traditional "hunting" for food to support his family ends at the supermarket.

This primeval – perhaps instinctive – urge to capture one’s own food is surely felt by all hunters and fishermen alike. The young lad, such as my own, who visits the river bank daily to bring home a string of bullheads and an occasional bass is satisfying the same yearning as the wealthy attorney on the pack trip after elk in the Rockies. Even the fly-fishing purist who return most of his catch to the water is satisfying that primeval urge. The handgun hunter is no different, except that he wants the stalking and the killing to be more difficult and more dangerous so that he can satisfy the urge more fully and feel a deeper sense of accomplishment. I, for one, would hate to see this primeval urge bred out of man. If the day comes when it disappears entirely – when men no longer sally forth to the wilds – that day will mark the beginning of mans decline.

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