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A Perfect Shot?

Have I told you I like hunting with my Taurus Raging Hunter double-action revolvers? My two favorites are their .44 Mag and .454 Casull.  Both are topped with Trijicon’s SRO 2.5 MOA red-dot sights and love Hornady ammo.

Soon as I got the .44 Mag, I shot it a “fair amount” at my range from 25 yards to 200 yards, even though I would not try to shoot a deer-sized animal with it beyond 100 yards.

Later I took it hog hunting using Hornady’s 240-grain XTP to take down a couple of wild hogs; one an “eating hog,” the other a larger and older boar. Both boars were shot at 60 yards. I used the same combination on a doe when the Texas whitetail season opened. 

I intended to use the combination on a buck, but whenever I carried my .44 Mag, the only bucks I saw were young, including several I rattled in close, or they were at least 200 yards distant. Try as I might, I could not cut the distance to where I felt comfortable taking a shot.  In retrospect, having continued to shoot the revolver/sight/ammo combo at 200 yards, I now know I could place a bullet within an 8-inch circle.  

This diameter circle equates to the approximate size of our local whitetail deer vital area. i.e., heart and lungs. In all likelihood, Hornady’s excellent 240-grain XTP loads would retain sufficient down-range energy to put a deer down at that range. However, I was not totally comfortable taking such a shot, so it was best to pass those shots.

Hog Hunting with Brandon Houston

Hunting hogs with Brandon Houston, with who I partner in H3 Whitetails Solutions, our wildlife management consulting company, as well as co-hosting “The Journey,” a new digital TV show on CarbonTV, I introduced him to handgun hunting. After some basic instructions, I lent him my .44 Mag Raging Hunter for the remainder of the 2022 hunting season.

Loaning my .44 Mag Raging Hunter to Brandon I knew he would want a Raging Hunter of his own. I concentrated on my .454 Casull, a round I have a history with, going back to the late 1980s. The first revolver chambered for that round I shot was built by Freedom Arms. With it, shooting Hornady ammo, I took several nicely racked and mature whitetails and my first Alaskan Brown Bear, hunting with the Branham Brothers. 

I shot my bear, an ancient sow that squared better than 8 feet, up a steep slope at a distance of 75 yards. With that same revolver/ammo combination, I whitetails at distances out to 150 yards. A Simmons 2.5-7×28 long eye-relief scope topped it. Unfortunately, I had to return the revolver to Freedom Arms. I did so grudgingly.

Running a close second favorite handgun is Taurus' Raging Hunter in .44 Mag!
Running a close second favorite handgun is Taurus' Raging Hunter in .44 Mag!

My next encounter with a .454 Casull was a Taurus Raging Bull in 1997, shortly after Taurus introduced it. I only got to hunt with that particular handgun for three months before I was required to return it. Back then, I was on staff with several shooting and hunting publications. I was often “issued” a consignment gun for a set period of days and then was required to return it to the manufacturer. When I had the Raging Bull, the .454 Casull Raging Bull, I shot four whitetail deer and a couple of javelinas with it. I loved the way it shot extremely accurately!

I, next, hunted with T/C Contenders and Encores, including in .454 Casull for several years. I used it primarily for wild hogs and occasionally whitetails.

After T/C, where I was in charge of the company’s public relations and media, I spent several years as a Ruger Ambassador. I occasionally shot the Casull round in their double-action Redhawk revolver. Mostly I shot paper and steel targets with it.

While visiting the FTW Ranch, where they teach the Sportsman All-Weather All-Terrain Marksmanship Hunter Training course, I had the opportunity to shoot Taurus Raging Hunters in .44 Mag and .454 Casull belonging to Bret Vorhees. A few shots through his revolvers, and I fell for them, totally enamored! The Raging Hunters were extremely accurate at 100 yards, and their integral muzzle brake made them fun to shoot, even the .454 Casull. They looked good, had an excellent dull, non-reflective finish for hunting, and felt good in my hand. Their triggers were a bit “stiff,” but even so, they were extremely accurate.

In today’s “lawyer world,” I understood why the trigger pull was heavy. I also knew a good pistol smith could remedy that. I arranged to procure a couple of Raging Hunter revolvers before leaving the FTW. 

I actually did one each in .357 Mag, .44 Mag, .454 Casull, and .460 S&W Mag! More about the .357 Mag and .460 S&W Mag around another campfire….

My .44 Mag “on loan,” I started shooting my .454 Casull loaded with Hornady’s 240-grain or 300-grain XTP Custom, then Hornady’s 200-grain MonoFlex Handgun Hunter. All three ammos grouped in slightly different places on the target. But all produced extremely tight 5-shot groups at 50, 75, and 100 yards. I, too did some shooting at 200 yards using a 2.5 MOA Trijicon SRO red-dot sight. My five shots all hit the 8-inch steel gong.  

After my experiences of shooting from a solid bench and “hunting” positions, I felt comfortable shooting a wild hog or whitetail out to at least 150 yards.

Before spring 2022, I joined an 8,000-acre lease in western Texas. The property had been hunted for the past 17 years by a group headed by Jim Mason and is under a Texas Managed Land Deer Permit. This means hunting for whitetails can start in early October and continue through the end of February. 

Each fall, deer surveys are conducted, and the results are used to determine the number of bucks and does that should be harvested that hunting season. Deer taken are not part of one’s regular hunting license bag limits.   Matter of fact, a hunter cannot “use” a tag from his or her license to tag a deer taken on an MLDP property; only tags issued to the landowner may be used. The annual harvest is based on current deer survey results, long-term goals and objectives, buck-to-doe ratio, fawn survival rates, and range conditions. 

My “allotment” for the 2022-23 hunting season was nine does and five bucks. Lots of hunting to be had!

I took only three of “my” five bucks, three very old “management bucks.”   However, I did take all “my” does; three with my .454 Casull, two with my .44 Mag, one of which Brandon shot his first deer with a handgun—the remaining four I took with a Mossberg Patriot rifle.

My opportunity to take a buck with my .454 Casull came while hunting with Double AA Outfitters in northern Texas. I shot the ancient 6-point with Hornady’s 240-grain XTP at 75 yards. He dropped in his tracks.

Larry's favorite hunting handgun, Taurus Raging Hunter in .454 Casull, topped with a Trijicon SRO red-dot sight, and shooting Hornady's ammo.
Larry's favorite hunting handgun, Taurus Raging Hunter in .454 Casull, topped with a Trijicon SRO red-dot sight, and shooting Hornady's ammo.

While attending the DSC Convention and Hunting Expo in January 2023, I spoke with Donald Hill about Oak Creek Whitetail Ranch. I have previously hunted with Donald and crew several times in years past and always with a handgun. Oak Creek is “an estate hunt.” High-fenced Oak Creek has produced some of the largest antlered whitetails ever “raised.” Hunting there is fun, always educational because of the number of mature bucks seen, and frankly, I think the absolute world of Donald and Angie Hill and their family! Before departing, I had set up dates. As you might have guessed, I will be using my .454 Casull Raging Hunter!

Also, while at “DSC,” I set up another whitetail hunt where I will be using my .454 Casull Raging Hunter with Choctaw Hunting Lodge owned by the Choctaw Nation in southeastern Oklahoma. I have hunted the Choctaw in the past for whitetails and wild hogs, and I can hardly wait to return.

I will also be hunting whitetails on my lease in Texas as well as several other places in my home State with my Raging Hunter handguns. Some will be with the .454 Casull, and some will likely be with the .44 Mag and .460 S&W Mag. I recently heard there is now a Taurus .500 S&W Mag Raging Hunter. I may look for something a big larger than a whitetail to hunt with that one…

Nice to have choices, but I am addicted to the .454 Casull…

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! “The Perfect Shot?

My perfect shot of this past year occurred on my lease. From a tripod rest, I shot a whitetail doe. She was broadside a hundred and twenty yards distant. The sight picture looked perfect. I cocked the double-action hammer cocked and gently tugged the trigger, which Ryan Hoover (who many will recognize as heading “Handgun Hunters International” kindly and professionally worked on for me.

At the shot, I saw what looked like an explosion right in front of the doe’s chest. She turned, ran about fifty steps, and fell dead.

Walking to where she lay, I passed the mesquite tree she was standing behind when I shot. I wondered if perhaps my bullet had hit a limb en route. It had! My Hornady 300-grain XTP had perfectly centered a limb on the way to killing the doe. A “perfect shot” in many ways!

Larry Perfect? handgun shot?
Larry Perfect? handgun shot?
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