Maximum Effective Ranges

[TrapMan13]

Looking into taking a whitetail with a handgun this coming season, curious as to what maximum effective ranges to cleanly take a whitetail by caliber would be???....

.357

10mm

45acp

.44 mag

Thanks!

Chad

[jay83196]

I would use the 44 or 357 and it depends on how accurately you can shoot. If you hit it well at 100yds it would do the job but that's a long shot with any handgun. If open sites 50 yds is a reasonable range with practice. With a scope 75+, I have both those calibers and a 500 s&w with a scope on it and free hand that's about as comfortable as I shoot. The problem is they are all heavy guns and hard to hold steady especially if you have the weight of a scope. Not sure if the 10mm or 45 can be used for big game there used to be restrictions on size and it was not just based on caliber of bullet the case also had to be a certain height along with the caliber, have to check regs. I would still use the more powerful 357 or 44.

Good luck...

[c0untryf1sh3r]

My uncle has a S&W 500 "hand cannon" that he uses for whitetails. He has a bipod on his and has pretty good luck with it so far.