here is may story when i was kid i would watch all the cowboy shows gunsmoke bonanza every western movie on the tube...so when i started hunting and killing game i would read mags on hangunners like metcalf, elmer keith, john taffin, and love seeing them short guns work . my dad never used pistols but had a 44 black hawk he got just to shoot around with. i loved it so he gave it to me. the first couple years i carried it but a long gun to and would use the long gun every time .but really wanted to use that 44 .so my dad said if u want to shoot game with that gun let the rifles at home .i did just that and shot my first deer a doe open sites at around 30 yds never hunted with long gun again .they actually feel weird to me now lol . so thats my story whats yours.................still have that 44 mag and love that gun. lost my father but not all the joy he gave me. and now i have short gun sickness i want every on i see !! ..lol.

Great story. I just became bored with the longgun, shortguns are more fun. And, challenging.

I traded for a 30-06 Lone Eagle about 10 years ago. Took it hunting first year killed a 6 pointer. Havent took a rifle deer hunting scince. I have yote hunting. But the only long guns I have now 2 22s me and grandson and a 12 guage turkey gun. And a safe full of pistols.

this part of NY is shotgun/ML only. and the areas I hunt there are alot of open fields. so I bought a savage ML-II while I was in high school. that helped a lot as deer that used to be out of slug range now were being taken cleanly. My father has always had a couple handguns floating around. has a 10.5" supper blackhawk that I really liked shooting. got my permit when I turned 21 but it did not come back until December 08. so that was after our season here. I ordered a encore frame not to long after that. started with a 7mm-08 barrel as friends of mine have contenders and the 7-30 was their choice. what a great choice that was. spent a lot of time at the range and worked up a very reliable load for it. hunted the 09 season with it and a long gun. shot two that year. one DRT at about 100 and one at just under 300. I was sold on the performance and ease of carry. now my inventory is two encores, two strikers, a 1989 N frame and a couple of autos. plus all the ones Dad has on his permit. with the single shots and bolt guns my range is extended considerably over a shotgun or ML. that was my original reason but now its the challenging and fun aspect of it. people as what you took that deer with and how far then look at you funny when you tell them a handgun and within a couple yards of the 500 yard mark. this years goal is to shoot one with the 44 n frame and the striker that I converted to a smokeless 16" muzzle loader. Might even go all short guns this year. thanks to all on this site that have helped along the way also!

Shot a little antelope buck back in the 80's with an iron sighted model 29 and it was fun. So I thought about trying the Encore. Used my .30-06 this year to take a little muley buck. Will be taking the Encore with me when I go for elk on Nov. 7.

What drives me on it? Not sure but I sure do find it enjoyable.

thanks guys like to here why as im ask that often in the woods.and find no limitations as i go in the thicket were no one goes. the longunner stays on the path........

I bow hunted for several years befor I ever gun hunted. I was never into muzzeloaders and I'm too lazy to carry a long gun. So handguns won out and I love it; I shoot wheelguns as well as the single shots as I think they all have their place. I bowhunt with recurves; they call it the romance of the bow. I guess I have an on going affair with hand guns. Great to have choices; is this a great country or what.

Joe W

The first gun I ever fired was a .45 a.c.p. revolver. I was hooked. My first gun was a muzzleloading revolver that I used for groundhogs. I grew up watching westerns and reading Louis L'Amour novels. A handgun has been at my side since. In Indiana we could only use shotguns, muzzleloaders and bows for the few deer we had back then. I became a competitive pistol shooter in bullseye and handgun silhouette. When Indiana first legalized handguns for deer hunting I killed one by still hunting a doe with a S&W M57 .41 Magnum. That was hunting! Now that rifle cartridges are legal in pistols I enjoy loading my 7-30 and .308 and taking game with them. Pistols are challenging. Since pistol caliber center fire rifles are legal I took a deer with one for the experience. That was enough. Besides, I enjoy amazing my shotgun and muzzleloader buddies by killing deer they consider out of range.

At some point I realized that a lot of the hunting I was doing with a scoped rifle wasn't very challenging and that I was having so much more fun with the difficulty of handgun hunting. It's just SO MUCH MORE SATISFYING at the end of the day.

Rifles got boring and I have always liked handguns of all kinds.

Great topic dc74, I agree with Whitworth, hunting with long guns was not a challenge any more, it really was to easy. Now it's the single shots and the revolvers.Like tigger used to say TOTAL SATISFACTION. Good luck to you all this season. J.T.

I always had an obsession with handguns. When I was a kid, a guy down the street from me had a RSB and when I saw that gun it looked AWSOME! I caught the handgun bug after that. I love the challenge of using a handgun to hunt with. It takes (IMHO) more practice than a bow to become good at it to hunt with. And second of all why should I carry 10 lbs. of rifle when I can carry 3 lbs. of my 454 and still cleanly kill a deer at 100 yds. But most of all I LOVE THE CHALLENGE! Good luck hunting this year folks!

I have always been a rifleman, and still am. I use a model 70 in .308 WIN. I have carried my Model 28 S&W .357 mag for what I call "Swamping", but have never had a chance to take anything with it. I have killed a slew of rabbits & sqirrels with my Ruger .22 MKII. What really has made me pumped up on handgun hunting, & reloading is that my wounderful(& cute) wife bought me a Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter for my 50th birthday. I'm hooked, and last fall/winter I carried my SBBH exclusively. I use a longbow or recurve for my bowhunting, and a flintlock longrifle for muzzleloading. I have always liked to challenge myself. By the way, I LOVE THIS SITE!

Well said Grendel,i also enjoy this site.


I think I like to handgun hunt because there is just something about having all of that power in just my hands ...

I just love walk-in around the woods with nothing but a handgun on the hip. Feels freeing somehow.??

Plus the pictures with a handgun laying across an animal are so cool.

A High Standard Sport King was my first .Skeeter Skelton article my second, 45 Colt. Then along came Silhouette,around79-80 and my eyes were opened to what could be done with a pistol.I still shoot and enjoy everything. Have competed with flintlock ,bow, rifle, pistol. I hunt because (I need to,) it keeps me centered, in touch with what I am, who I am, and what I value. I like the aloneness of it ,I like the comraderie of it.I hunt with a pistol because (I choose to)it is a passion,A fire I hope never goes out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first deer hunt was with a bow, and I dropped my first deer with a bow at 45 yrds. The next year I bought a Marlin 1894 in 44 mag and dropped 3 deer in one weekend. On my way home that weekend I thought about it and a long gun to me takes away the fun of the hunt. The next year I used a 629 and dropped a doe at 50yrds in her tracks. Thats when I went handgun nuts. To me it adds to the challenge of the hunt. Even though you can get your handgun to do the same as a long gun at certain ranges to me a handgun increases the bragging rights.

A friend of mine got me into so its all his fault. Started with a 35rem. in a t/c contender super 14. I used it that way for one season and then had it rechambered to a 358jdj. That gun got me a whole lot of venison over the next 15 years, then a guy made me an offer way to good to refuse so I sold it. Now twelve years later the bug bit me again and lets say I'M BACK, bought a striker 516 in .308 this past spring and just a couple weeks ago I finally got my MOA in 6.5 x 47 lapua that I ordered last Dec. Firearms season opens in 3 weeks so yes I am excited. Handguns, easy to carry, a bit of a challenge to master but thats the fun part and when you make a good shot with a pistol it feels great.

What, more so, who got me hooked on the handguns was a combination of Chuck from Macs Gunworks, Ernie and an old book I found at Gun Traders in Gillette. Watching Chuck and Ernie shoot and listening to thier disucssions on long range shooting and handgun hunting started the ball rolling. The old book was Elgin Gates Metallic Silhouette Shooting. It describes the birth of IHMSA and goes into very fine detail about the sport and hunting with handguns. Still waiting to go on my first hunting trip.....EVER. Been a shooter most of my life, just never got to go hunting yet. First deer WILL fall to my 25/35 Contender!!!

Rifles really present no challenge to me anymore. And, I just like the shortguns.

Deer season with guns in Ohio, one can only use shotguns with slugs or a pistol. Since my shotgun has a full choke, I use my 357.

I believe it is more challenging for me and I also get great satisfaction everytime I harvest a deer.

I just enjoy hunting with handguns. I like the challenge, the portability and compactness of hunting with handguns. I also like the look on peoples faces when I drag out one of the T/C's I hunt with and especially when I take a deer with one of them. It also provides a sense of pride that I choose to hunt with handguns.

I wanted a challenge that I was not getting with my rifles. Once I started shooting at the range and practice in the field I realized how much more skill is required of the handgun hunter than the rifle hunter. I also like the idea of having compatable calibers between my handguns and rifles.

lost the fun when hunting with rifles to easy to kill something with a rifle pull up and shoot. handguns are like bowhunting. you have to put a little thought in your shot.

For me it was and is the challenge. I carried both for a while too when I first started but then killed a big 10 pt and I decided if I could kill a deer like that with a handgun I no longer had much use for a rifle.