.45 long Colt for deer from a rifle - yes or no?

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Absolutely suitable. Just keep your shots inside 150 yards and go hunt.

Theodore Van Dyke, the author of Still Hunting, and once a guide for Teddy Roosevelt, loved the Winchester '73 in .44-40 with a lead alloy bullet out to 200 yards using open sights, on deer. For me that would be "pushing it a bit". I submit he didn't like the .45 Colt for the same purpose because Winchester didn't chamber their rifle in .45 Colt at that time. ;)

Of course check your sights or your scope at various known distances, and know your personal limit for accuracy. For me it'd be 100 yards or less, and at that limit, I'd expect to not need to track the animal very far if at all.

LD
 
Having killed a number of deer with a couple of .357 revolvers I know a .45 Colt in a revolver or rifle is more than enough for deer. Although I've never hunted deer with the .45 Colt I do have two .45 BlackHawks and, until recently, a Win M94 in .45 Colt. My 7.5" BlackHawk gives 1250 fps with 18 grains of 2400 and a 260 grain swc. I have used the BlackHawks on other game but not deer.
 
Theodore Van Dyke, the author of Still Hunting, and once a guide for Teddy Roosevelt, loved the Winchester '73 in .44-40 with a lead alloy bullet out to 200 yards using open sights, on deer. For me that would be "pushing it a bit". I submit he didn't like the .45 Colt for the same purpose because Winchester didn't chamber their rifle in .45 Colt at that time. ;)

Of course check your sights or your scope at various known distances, and know your personal limit for accuracy. For me it'd be 100 yards or less, and at that limit, I'd expect to not need to track the animal very far if at all.

LD
I use .45 caliber pistol bullets in my .50 Cal muzzleloader. A couple years ago, I put a 240-grain Remington hollow point through a Texas whitetail at a measured 142 yards. MV was only about 1800 fps. Two holes, perfect bullet performance and dead deer 50 yards away. I've now shot 7 deer with my muzzleloader using .45 cal pistol bullets. So that's what my comment was based on.
 
If you are deer hunting with a hot load in the rifle, please don't mix the ammo up with the SAA loads. You don't want to destroy a good handgun, and typing with one hand is no fun.

Back when I had a Uberti SAA clone and an old Vaquero, I would write a black line on the head of any “Magnum” .45 Colt load I made up so it wouldn’t be used in the Uberti.
I sold off the Uberti years ago but still mark the cases because I load for the Vaquero and a SRH .454 along with the Rossi.

These are 250 gr XTP over 11.5 gr Unique. Not a buffalo stomper, but too warm for a SAA.
(For the older SASS guys; note the TenX ammo box from the 1990’s!)

EBDA801B-7B1A-47A8-8228-3BAB5D01E091.jpeg

Stay safe.
 
I hunted Ohio white tailed deer with a 44 Magnum revolver with Keith bullets and loads. My buddy would use a 45 long Colt with black powder and cast bullets. With similar placement his animals dropped sooner than mine. I now use the long Colt and blackpowder in a 5 1/2” barrel. I have to think a rifle would make aiming a bit easier.

Kevin
 
An “earth momma” friend who’s main meat for her family (a widow with two small boys) is venison. She hunts and has killed deer with her late husband’s 1911 45 acp. She owns a safe full of center fire rifles too. She’s one of the most interesting ppl I’ve ever met.
 
I’m going with a probably. The 45 Colt in a revolver can be plagued by a number of issues in old guns and as such factory ammo is not all that peppy. With a modern revolver pressure and performance can be amped up significantly making the revolver a lot more suitable for hunting. A rifle or carbine will benefit from the longer barrel and lack of a cylinder gap so it will certainly do the job with realistically any ammo that has a bullet that’s worth a flip. My concern with 45 Colt long guns ties directly to the handgun that is accompanying it, because as a safety factor one should only possess ammo safe for the weakest gun it will fit in. If your revolver will take heavy loads then by all means buy them from underwood, buffalo bore, etc... or load your own. If the revolver can take a load suitable for hunting then you should happily possess such a load and it will be well above the mark for adequacy at reasonable ranges.
 
Some states are limited bylaw to straight walled ammo for their deer season.
I totally get hunting with a favorite gun that might be less than optimal.
<<<guilty.
<<<<....has cost this guy some opportunities too. Fyi.
Just dont whine when the big buck is standing broadside at 155yds and your self imposed limit is 100.
If you're good with that, then go for it.
 
I don't see a problem with it. I have taken several deer with a 357 GP100 and one with a 45LC in a Blackhawk without any problems. A 45 in a rifle could take at least 75% of my deer. I would just have to stay away from the big fields.
 
Some states are limited bylaw to straight walled ammo for their deer season....Just dont whine when the big buck is standing broadside at 155yds and your self imposed limit is 100.
If you're good with that, then go for it.

Learn how to hunt from the ground and stalk your game.

Kevin
 
I had fully planned on using my Rossi 92 with a 24” octagon barrel for blackTail deer :p hunting in the thick timber of Oregon. I had worked up some fairly hot loads for taking deer out to 100 yards, but decided instead to try Hornady Leverevolution.45 Colt for accuracy and found it very accurate to 75 yards in my gun.

Anyway, I crashed my motorcycle and my injuries took me out of the picture for hunting for 2 years and I now live in SoCal so I never did get to find out how that would have worked out on deer.
I am confident that it would have worked great.
 
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I had fully planned on using my Rossi 92 with a 24” octagon barrel for blackmail deer hunting in the thick timber of Oregon. I had worked up some fairly hot loads for taking deer out to 100 yards, but decided instead to try Hornady Leverevolution.45 Colt for accuracy and found it very accurate to 75 yards in my gun.

Anyway, I crashed my motorcycle and my injuries took me out of the picture for hunting for 2 years and I now live in SoCal so I never did get to find out how that would have worked out on deer.
I am confident that it would have worked great.

How do you blackmail deer after you shoot them? :neener: Or do you blackmail 'em first? .....And just how do you blackmail a deer?:what::rofl:

;)

Yea, blacktail. I get it. :) Was it "autocorrect?" :uhoh: I hate that. Gets me too.
 
With hot loads it would work just fine from a rifle, with the following caveats:

Keep the range SHORT. I've heard recommendations of 150 yards, which is too far IMO. It might well still be powerful enough, but hitting the target would be a challenge. 45 Colt bullets are about as aerodynamic as tuna cans and trajectory drops fast past 100 yards.

Be SURE the hot loads don't find their way into a pistol that's not strong enough to handle them.
 
What's up with all the horse killing in this thread anyway? I'm calling BS on any round ever being designed/adopted because it can kill a horse. My buddies dad killed a horse back when we were in high school with a rock he threw at the horse that didn't want to get caught and ridden. .22 LR will do the job better than any rock..

.45 LC on deer? Of course it will.
 
What's up with all the horse killing in this thread anyway? I'm calling BS on any round ever being designed/adopted because it can kill a horse. My buddies dad killed a horse back when we were in high school with a rock he threw at the horse that didn't want to get caught and ridden. .22 LR will do the job better than any rock..

You can’t “call BS” on historical fact. It was a requirement of the Army that the pistol it adopted in 1873 shoot a cartridge capable of killing a horse at 100 yards. In theory, at least, the 45LC was deemed able to do so.

https://americanshootingjournal.com/colt-single-action-45-revolver/amp/
 
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