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I'm triing to decided if I should use my 454 Caussull ruger super red hawk 7.5 tube for elk and deer hunnting. This gun is not scoped but would like to do that! I would like to know if using this pistol well provied a good kill! any help would be great! thanks! cosmo.
Welcome to Gunloads, cosmo.
The .454 was designed specifically as a big game hunting round. It can do the job. Like with any other handgun for hunting, the question is not so much one the cartridge's capabilities, but of the hunter's. Ask yourself this question: At what range can I put five shots offhand (NOT from a rest) into a 9" paper plate? This is the classic "pie plate test" for hunting big game with rifle or handgun. With a handgun, some shooters are hard pressed to do it at 25yds, while others have no problem at 100yds or more. (I am comfortable shooting at anything live within 75yds with my .30 Herrett. Rested, I can keep them on the paper well beyond the effective range of the cartridge, but you don't shoot game from a rest at the range - My effective range with it is 75yds.) If you are honest about your limits and willing to work within them, there's no reason not to hunt deer and elk with it. The larger the critter, the closer you have to get to be sure of a clean kill, so you need much better stalking skills and a lot more patience than are necessary when hunting with a rifle.