What was your first handgun kill?

As it says, what was your first with a short barrel? Also, how long ago and with what platform/caliber?

Mine was a whitetail doe with a TC Encore 12? .44 magnum and factory load. Roughly 40 yards if I?m remembering correctly. That was 17 (2002) years ago and I?ve been consumed with handgun hunting ever since.

Mine was a four point whitetail here in North Carolina. It was a thirty five yard shot. The handgun was a 10.5 inch super blackhawk 44 mag with my hand load. One shot and I was hooked. Thirteen years ago.

Mid 90's contender 6.5jdj doe prolly 80 yards. Was still a big time duck Hunter back then so it was ducks first deer 2nd then rifles and prairie dogs. Small stint with encore 44 mag and the past 3 years all handgun hunting all the way 10mm-460 sure want a 50 cal. Of some kind

My first handgun kill was this deer in 1993. I was 17 years old. I used a TC with a 10 inch 30/30 and 150 grain CoreLokt at about 30-40 yards. I haven't used a rifle since.

Whitetail doe;45 yards;S&W 29; 1998;

Mine was in 1992, Visting a friend in south Florida. Decided to go chasing some hogs with dogs. Had a Colt 1911 with Black Talon 230g. Ran with the dogs thru the swamps. Dogs corned one in a Palmetto thicket, One between the eyes on a big sow. Guides were impressed. Ran some more and shot a boar running across the road near dark dropped him on second shot. I was done running thru 2 foot of swamp water. Been hooked ever since! Now I use revolvers.

Mid 1960s, squirrels and groundhogs with H&R .22LR. First deer 1971-doe, Ruger Blackhawk, .357 Mag.,60 yds. 100% handgun kills since 1978.

Rabbit, 1965, Colt Army Special, 4" .38 special, home cast Lyman 148gr wc/ 3.5grs Unigue.

I'm guessing I was about 6 years old, sixty years ago, and my dad let me shoot at a turtle on a log in our pond with a Colt Police Positive 22 WRF. I hit the turtle and my dad couldn't believe it. I was hooked. The Colt is in my safe today.

Squirrel & groundhog High Standard Sport King .22 early 70's. Big game Doe with 10 in 30-30 40 yds on the run earlt 70's.

Don?t remember the first small game, probably a rabbit with a High Standard Centinal .22 LR. I do remember the first Kodiak Island blacktail in 1986. Ruger BH 4-5/8? in .45 LC, 255 Lee RF over 9.5 grains of Unique. Complete pass through at 20 yards.



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SO FAR I AM GOING TO BE THE EARLIEST AS IN THE LATE 1950's I WAS KILLING WATER TURTLES, WATER SNAKES, GRACKLES AND A RABBIT WITH A PLAINSMAN CO2 BB PISTOL. FIRST CENTERFIRE KILL WAS IN 1972 OR 1973 WHEN I SHOT A REAL NICE 8 POINT BUCK WITH A 7 1/2 INCH RUGER OM 45 COLT AT ABOUT 35 YARDS WHILE LOOKING FOR A BUCK MY DAD HAD SHOT AT.

About 60 years ago when I was 6 or 7 I killed rabbits with my Dad's High Standard. Around 12 I gave my Dad money to buy me an H&R Sportsman 999. With it I took many rabbits, squirrels, and frogs.
Since then I have used handguns to take ground hogs, coyote, deer, and black bear.

http://www.handgunhunt.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1043&ppuser=2724

About 1998 killed my first deer with a handgun. SS Ruger Redhawk with 2x burris took a smallish 8 point at about 35 yrds from a tree stand. I also used a mk2 comp target model for a few squirrels, but forget which came first 🤦🏻‍♂️

Sadly i went back to rifle for a while, until early 2000s i finally gained enough confidence to stay full handgun. I was actually afraid of getting shots too long and missing an opportunity. There werent many deer around when i was young. I learned i could use a 14? contender out to a couple hundred yrds. I wish i could go back in time, id never use a rifle to start with.

Now......be glad you still have the interest to hunt. I dont for whatever weird reason. Life kids, grand kids, n family are more important to me. Id rather just reload n shoot my guns when i aint working 🤷🏻‍♂️

Have no doubt. I could still kill em if i wanted to.😈 went out a couple times this season. Crosshairs dead on a small 6..... i didnt pull the trigger. If it had been a monster, i might tell a different story. Enjoy it, life can change you.

My first was probably a rabbit with a Single six. First game species was a turkey at 65 yds with a Virginian Dragoon in 45 long colt about 1980 or so.

First revolver kill was with a FA 454-Whitetail buck.
First TC kill, Super 14 7mm TCU-Antelope

My first big game kill was in the early 80's. One year after JDJ came out with the 45-70 contender. I used a 300 gr Hornady hand load and it was a complete pass through length wise on a spike buck at 40 yards. The load was 30 gr H2400 with a large rifle primer.

first kill with a handgun was a sparrow with a daisy bb pistol looked like a SA colt. 1984 first turkey with smith model 57 41 mag

I used my Ruger Government Target Model 22 to take squirrels and rabbits throughout the 90s. My first big game animal was a medium size feral hog in Albany, Texas in 2001. I used a Freedom Arms Model 83 Field Grade 454 mounted with a Leupold 2.5-8X scope. The shot was 50-60 yards off of my shooting sticks.

Great stories everyone!

First deer was a 5 point buck with a Dan Wesson Supermag in .357 Max with a crudely mounted red dot. 40 yards. Think it was 2012.

1996 with my new 14? 309 JDJ Contender barrel took this small 8pt. Load at the time was a 150gr x .030 Hawk SP powdered by a stiff load of Varget ~2400fs. Distance was 125 steps. (no ranger finder back in that day). I remember this well, for ear protection I had those spongy squeeze type press in ear plugs. I could not get them in my ears in time, so I shot without ear plugs ? Ouch!! My ears rang for hours. The buck hit the ground like a sack of hammers DRT.

Sometime in the mid- to late '70s I acquired this Smith & Wesson CO2 pellet gun. From that day forward, no varmint was safe in the neighborhood. Killed a boatload of rats with it. A good friend had a grove of avocado trees that attracted rats in droves. We used this air pistol and a .22 semi-auto pistol (I still have) loaded with CCI shot shells (it wouldn't cycle them so you would have to wrack the slide after every shot). Whack and stack rat parties...this is where the obsession began.

First deer was 1982 with an 8 inch Smith and Wesson .38 so it almost had to have been a model 14. It was the first handgun I ever purchased. Shot was about 10 yards on the small doe. Walked up on her along a creek where the water masked my walking and she was in the thick stuff so her view was limited. I saw her from a distance and planned the stalk but she still surprised me when I finally found her up close. She never knew I was there. Later I thought I made a good trade as I traded it for a Marlin 39A, now I obviously regret that trade.

First handgun kill was a feral hog in 1994 with a Smith & Wesson
8 3/8" Model 27 using a Lyman #358429 Keith bullet.

In 1998 I killed an opossum with my dad's Ruger Single Six .22LR.

Black bear with my 308AI encore
http://www.handgunhunt.com/forum/ubbthre...55790#Post55790

Don?t recall my first small game, with rimfire stuff. But first Centerfire kill was a turkey witha Ruger Redhawk, 87-88, 44mag, 240 Nosler jhp, 22gr 2400, Leupold 2x at about 50 yards with low neck shot.

Trapr

96' large doe with a TC 35 Rem. The shot was roughly 50yds. It has since been rechambered to a 358JDJ

Been awhile, but probably a fox squirrel with a S&W Model 53 in .22 Jet, but using .22 LR in the inserts. That handgun took everything from cottonmouth moccasins to coyotes and was my only handgun for years. Squirrels, rabbits, snakes, (many snakes), armadillos, a couple skunks, one bat (flying), and at least two coyotes. I shot it about 99% of the time with LR in the chamber inserts because as a kid I could not afford the .22 Jets. I foolishly traded it for a High Standard auto. A good gun in its own right, but not nearly as valuable as the Model 53.

Colt Python using Winchester 158gr JHP ammunition.. There was`ent much cammo in those day`s.....

Whitetail button buck.
.44 Mag
10.5in Ruger SBH
2x Pentax Scope
240gr Remington Factory Ammo
35ish yards

I was 16 years old.

1992 8pt. With a T/C Contender 10? in 41 magnum, purchased in 1979, factory Remington 210gr. sp at about 30 yds. Still have the T/C and it?s still my best buck with a handgun to date.

I was probably about 8yrs old (~1982?) when I started shooting rats in the barn where we raised cows. I had one of those Crosman C02 pistols that looked like a Colt Python.

Bought a used Thompson Contender around '81 in 22WMR-a Super 14 that had been cut to 12.5 and crowned, put a 2-6 Bushnell on it. Killed my first handgun Squirrel with it. It's still my favorite Squirrel gun(much more accurate than I am).

Randy, hopefully you don't mind, I'll post my first big game animal with a pistol. It was a WT doe with a Freedom Arms Model 555 50 AE with a 300 gr Sampson IMI load. Middle 90's. From there, my love of harnessing as much power as possible in a handgun as been my addiction.

My first handgun kill was a mouse that tried to escape the range target shed in about 1995. Smoked him with a Colt Diamondback .22 LR at about 5 yards. Followed him up with a second mouse about 5 seconds later with a second at about 7 yards for my first double too yet.

First big game, a busted up little 5x5 WT buck with a Colt Anaconda in .45 LC. Wish I still had that gun. Still have the Diamondback.

PH

Mine was with a Remington XP-100 chambered in 7mm BR. Decided to go on a last minute hunt on some National Forest in WV and right at dark I had a doe come out of a laurel patch to feed on a white oak flat. She was 60 Yards broadside and she was DRT when the gun went off.

This year I was able to take a few squirrels with my T/C contender in 17hmr
Squirrels with the 17 HMR

If I had to guess(50 years back) it was probably either rabbit or squirrel with a S&W model 18?
Steve

I'm sure my first ever handgun kill was probably a ground squirrel or a chipmunk, can't remember. First big game kill was a whitetail buck in Idaho a couple years ago. There is a pic in my photos. 6" GP100 357, 158 XTP HP @ 1500 fps. Recovered bullet up in the neck after 16-ish inches of penetration, XTP still weighed 141 grains.


Eric

Mine was a squirrel. Its nothing big and amazing but it did start my hunting hobby. I miss doing my outdoor hobbies like metal detecting. I cant wait for the pandemic to die down.

I have been trying to remember and I still ain't sure.
Probably a rabbit in the the late 70s. I do remember my first handgun deer and first handgun hog but they weren't my first kills.

2008. Last drive out of the field on the last hunt of the last weekend of the season. Just before we left the field I saw and got a shot off on a 1.5 year old mule deer buck at 60 yards with a Smith & Wesson Classic 629 with a 5" barrel. Used Federal lead free ammunition. Maybe about 220 grains. Hit the deer mid-body. This was my first time shooting at big game with a pistol and I wasn't really certain how this would play out, so I held for mid-body, but in the lungs. The hammer fell and the deer dropped like it had been struck by lightening and never got up. It's body slid down the hill toward me until it was stopped by a tree. Bullet did not exit the off-side. It was a very young, small buck.

My first was a dinky East Texas whitetail with my 14? Encore in 270 JDJ. Ranged 185 yards with a 130 gr Partition at 2850 fps.

My first big game with a handgun was a muley spike buck with a T/C Encore in .30/06. I love that gun!! Load was a Nosler Ballistic Tip. Range 100 yards or so. Hit him once through the chest and had a blood trail that was impossible to miss.

This was a turning point in me becoming a handgun hunter. I had 3 rifles. Gave one to each daughter and kept one for nostalgia. Thought I would probably never hunt with a rifle again. This was at least 5 or 6 years ago. Hunted one time since with a rifle.

Rat, right between the eyes, with a Crosman Pump pistol in .17.

My first was a pig with a rear grip SP I built in .458 SOCOM. Went on to kill a whitetail, axis, and elk that year.

Small black bear four years ago on my western mountain property. 40 yards with my Stealth Hunter 629 .44 magnum. 240 grain softpoint commercial load. Usually use my hard cast 255 grain polycoated bullets but not that evening sit

Excellent!

Late 90s at deer camp, mid day everyone came back to camp for lunch, my dad let me take his scoped Ruger mark 2 down to the creek to look for squirrels. Shot a little grey squirrel and been hooked on handgun hunting since.