Went out one bitter cold morning with 2' of snow on the ground and more coming down. Took my old 30-06 and the Mountain Revolver loaded them in the truck and headed out with my Dad and Uncle.

When we got to the parking spot and started gearing up, I discovered I had forgot to pick up ammo for the rifle. It was getting light and I had the revolver, which I had killed several squirrels with that fall, all with head shots. Unfortunately, all I had was light loads with 8 gr. Unique under 240 SWC BB casts, but that is what the squirrels fell to, so it was sighted in for them.

Hustled through the snow to a spot where I knew the deer crossed a river, but had never hunted before, and sat down in a little clump of saplings. Not 5 minutes later a very respectable buck, at least an 8 point, came down the ridge a stopped 10 yards in front of me.

It was still too dark to make out the black sights against his hide, so I lined up the sights against the snow in front of him, drifted the gun back over his shoulder and touched it off. At the shot there was a shower of snow out of at least one sapling that was hit between us.

The buck showed no reaction to the shot, casually turned around and sauntered partially back up the ridge, stopping behind a jack pine and looked back at me from about 40 yards.

I did not know whether he was hit or not, or maybe wounded, so decided there was little to lose by taking another shot. Did the same routine of lining up the sights in the snow in front of him, sliding back and touching it off. This time a lot of snow came down from the Jack Pine in front of his shoulder that I tried to miss.

This time he did not stick around and trotted off downstream toward another crossing. I waited a short time for things to get brighter, then got up to look for hair or blood before it got buried by the falling snow.

After going back and forth over his path for an hour and finding no evidence of a hit, I found where the second slug had hit dead center in the pine and did not exit. In between where he and I had been at the first shot, I found one sapling cut off and a graze mark on another. I had not seen either of them in the dim light just before taking the shot.

Later that day I saw him tied to the top of a car that belonged to some guys hunting the other side of the river, as they drove out at lunch time. I never heard any shots from that direction and have always wondered if....

There are limitations regarding caliber and such for handguns, but here in the north the only limitations are the same as for rifles, that it cannot be a rimfire during the regular firearm season.

Same here. We also have minimum case dimensions for legal rounds. Minimum of basically .357 magnum for 'standard' pistol rounds. I believer .243 is the minimum caliber, allowing rifle calibers in 'pistols'

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Nm

I've always been of the thought that ifnits good enough to shoot a man, it's good enough for a deer. No, the .38 isn't the optimal caliber but I've seen deer run off never to be found when hit with a 12 ha slug and a .50 cal muzzle loader with .429 Hornady XTP's. I would think a handloads with a good expanding hollow point and a good broadsides shot and you'll have meat in the freezer. Personally I get so little time to hunt, I want every advantage I can get! If I had more opportunity, I'd love to try out some various handguns I own.

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Is the 38 Special with 150 gr RNL running at 625 fps "enough gun"? Years back was at a friend's place on New Year's Eve. His son had flown down here and he was doing an old fashioned hog killing to celebrate. They had about a 100 pound pig tied up and I asked if he'd let me put it down. (much preferable to hearing the poor thing squeal while someone sticks it with a knife, trying to find the heart) He agreed and when the time came I lined up the sights and touched off the shot. The pig dropped dead right there, even though I'd forgotten the PPPPPP throws shots high left so the shot went higher and off the the side a bit from where I'd been aiming. As they butchered it out they found a part of the slug deformed and resting in the right side shoulder and brought it to me. Later on they found the other piece of the slug in the left side ham. The bullet struck the vertebrae and split in two. BOTH pieces penetrated more than I'd ever expected from a 625 fps 38 caliber slug.

Would a 38 take down a deer? I've no doubt it could - especially with good handloads. Would that be my first pick as a deer gun? Nope. But if push came to shove and that was all I had to do the job, I'd do the job with it.