41 mag load question

[courtgreene]

Having wanted to start handgun hunting for a while, I finally chose and purchased the firearm for the job. A ruger blackhawk, shooting 210 grain Sierras that I reload because have you checked factory prices lately? I originally planned to get some lilgun because a friend bought some that he wants rid of and I can get it cheap. He was out of town, though, and I was itching to shoot, so I used the sr7625 that usually goes into .45acp. It's fun to shoot and does not recoil harshly, but I expected that. What I didn't expect is the incredible accuracy that load gives me. My question concerns hunting. Is 1245fps with a 210grn bullet going to get the job done on deer, or should I stick to the original plan and buy the lilgun for higher speed? I'm using the 6.5" barrel if that makes a difference when offering your advice.

Note: this could go in hunting or reloading as well, but I put it here because I've seen a few 41mag related posts here lately.

Thanks!

 

[rcmodel]

1245fps with a 210grn bullet

just about any 210 grain .41 handgun bullet going over 1,200 FPS will shoot clear through a deer sideways, and will shoot through at least over halfway lengthwise.

If the holes are in the right place, you will have a nice blood trail to follow to the body.

Faster??
Don't get no deader then dead.

And that's what you will get with what you got if you put the hole in the right place.

rc

 

[courtgreene]

Thank you

 

[Steve C]

What I didn't expect is the incredible accuracy that load gives me.

I've never been able to make a poor shooting load in the .41 mag, Anything I've loaded has always shot very accurately in my Smiths and Ruger.

Is 1245fps with a 210grn bullet going to get the job done on deer, or should I stick to the original plan and buy the lilgun for higher speed?

What RC said, "dead is dead". Truth is your not likely to get much higher velocity than 1,250 fps from any load as that's the maximum listed from the Sierra data I have and they shot it from a 8-5/8" S&W revolver.

Velocity figures from Hodgdon is taken from a 10.125" test barrel and their velocity figures show that when compared to real world Chrono testing from a revolver. Need to take off 200 to 300 fps from their numbers to get true revolver velocity.

One of the best velocity wise loads I've put together and chrono tested was 17.5gr of 2400 behind a Hornady 210gr XTP loaded in NEW factory primed Winchester cases. This load measured a 6 shot average velocity of 1,413 fps from my 6" S&W 57. Don't think I'd need more than that for anything I'd be shooting at with a handgun.

 

[joem1945]

I shoot a lot of .41 mag with .215 SWC. I don't hunt but kill reams of paper and steel. I've been loading AA #9.