Choosing the Right Caliber

“I started out hunting with a rifle, then did some bow hunting and also hunted with a muzzleloader for a while. Recently I’ve become intrigued with hunting with a pistol, especially from watching you use you Encore pistol on television shows. What caliber would you suggest?” Asked the person sitting four rows back at the seminar I was giving at the Dallas Safari Club Convention.

“Fabulous, and welcome to the world of pistol hunting!  What do you intend to hunt, and,in what states?” I questioned.

“Mostly whitetail, maybe mule deer but also possibly elk.  I might decide to hunt whitetails in mid-west as well.  I like the idea of getting an Encore so I can switch barrels if I need to, depending upon the species hunted and where.” came the reply.

“Perfect answer!  Thank you. Over the years I’ve hunted with a wide variety of calibers in my Encores.  The first one I ever shot which happened at the time to be the only one in existence was chambered in a .308 Winchester.  I used that initial proto-type to shoot an Eastern moose in Maine, then a Shiras moose in Colorado, and then an extremely fine 6 x 6 elk in that state as well, during the course of about 3 weeks.  After that I shot a lot of critters, large and small, here in North America and to a lesser extent in Africa with a .30-06 Encore pistol using factory ammo, mostly Winchester, but occasionally Hornady, particularly when shooting my .375 JDJ Encore.”

“Ballistically, my .30-06 with a standard 15 inch Encore barrel is a .308.  Nothing is really gained from the .30-06 over the .308 when it comes to the Encore pistol.  Using 165 grain bullet ammo I don’t feel under-gunned on anything from moose on down.  Proper shot placement is the key, just as with rifle bullet or broadhead.”

“Thus I would highly recommend the .308 Winchester Encore pistol for just about anything in North America.  The recoil is relatively mild and accuracy is superb.  Using a good rest such as BOG GEAR’s Red Legged Devil tripod with their new pistol shooting rest (www.boggear.com) almost anyone with just a little bit of practice can put three shots within a 1 inch group at 100 yards.  Frankly the Encore pistol is generally more accurate than a rifle in the same caliber!”

“You mentioned you might want to hunt the mid-west for whitetails.  Several of the mid-western states allow using a straight-wall caliber handgun during their various gun seasons.  For that reason I would get a second Encore pistol barrel, that one in the fabulous 460 S&W Magnum caliber.  The .460 S&W is capable of bringing down anything in North America.  Matter of fact I’m using it for my Alaskan Brown Bear hunt I’m doing in August 2010 with Hidden Alaska Guides (www.hiddenak.com.  I’ve also used that same caliber to take a 200+ class typical whitetail in Iowa a few years ago.”

“The beauty of the .460 S&W chamber is it also accepts the .454 Casull and .45 Long Colt.  So you can shoot all 3 in the same gun.  All three rounds also work extremely well on mid-western deer.”

The .460 S&W Mag Encore is ideal in many ways.  If you’re recoil conscious, practice shooting with .45 Long Colt ammo...then when it comes to hunting, sight-in with either .454 Casull or .460 S&W Mag, and you’re ready for anything in North America and a few other places in the world.

“I will tell you the .460 S&W, without being ported, is a hand full.  But it really does a fabulous job on big game.  Again one of the primary reasons I’m taking it to Alaska with me for brown bear.”

“With that combination of .308 Win and .460 S&W Mag you’ve got all the bases covered when it comes to hunting in North America or for that matter other parts of the world where hunting with handguns is legal. If you want information about outfitters that take handgun hunters on hunts, go to www.outfittersrating.com.”

“I dearly love hunting with a handgun! ... Next question?”
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The above will give you some incite as to why Larry chose two calibers, a .308 Win and .460 S&W Mag, for his Limited Edition Larry Weishuhn Encore Pistol Hunting Package.

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