Yeah, I've heard stories of folks dropping a deer with a .22 and a head-shot... so far in life, I've never been that desperate/hungry. As far as the .45 goes, I've got no doubt that it'd get the job done, if it came to it, just thought it'd be interesting to hear what others thoughts were.

Troy

Sorry about jumping to conclusions... try taking her/them out shooting more often, if they/she can show proficiency with a given firearm, have an extra key made, if not, don't. I'm sure you'll find that it'll become a full win or full loss situation. If they pick up on the shooting sport, it won't be long and you'll have extras for every lock you own, and if they don't, the locksmith won't be making any money off you. I've had some folks who I thought were pretty puny surprise me with how well they took to an 870 or a 1911 Colt, with a little coaching.

Troy

Not just good... Great!!! BUT... have you seen the price those things bring... beautiful collectors pieces, but I'd be afraid to pull the trigger on something worth that much $$$.

Troy

I have a Colt Combat Elite .45 that I love dearly, but I would not attempt to kill a deer with it unless the deer was stationary, unawares, and preferably broadside. (Of course if I were starving that would be an entirely different matter.) A 200 grain Speer hollowpoint (the old style with the enormous cavity) would be my choice and at 25 feet I'm betting it would only take one. I've got about half a box of those left that I am hoarding like a miser. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Regards, Vince

I'm kind of partial to Winchester silvertip H.P.s... the I.D. perfectly matches the O.D. of a small pistol primer... kind of good to know when you need EXTRA knock down power <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

This is an AR-7, an old design. They were once made by charter arms, and had the unfortunate tendancy to go full auto now and then - which is NOT what you want to have happen when you only have 8 rounds in a mag! it's like BZZT - and you're empty. It happend to my old charter arms version before I got rid of it.

Henry re-tooled them and solved the full auto problem. It's a better made gun and, like other Henry products, I expect you'll have good luck with it.

In general, the AR-7 design can't handle "hypervelocity" rounds - that's your CCI stinger, Velocitor and similar rounds. It sort of handles high-velocity rounds - like your CCI Mini-Mag or similar rounds. It's happiest with standard velocity rounds.

I've found that it's so light that I can't hold it too steady while standing, but I can lay down and hit a 3" circle reliably from 50 yards, and a 6" circle from 100 yards, with some effort.

It's got one of the best "gee whiz" factors for any small gun, but in the end, I'll take my (now discontinued) M6 Scout in .22/.410 any time. I've used that rifle sucessfully for rabbit, squirrel (with .22 Velocitor) and phesant (with .410 #6 shot). The .410 slug is legal for deer here in PA, but I'd want to be no less than 30 yards out for a clean kill. I've not tried deer hunting with a .410 yet.

That said...I still think I'm going to have an AR-7 around. Just because.

Since the M6 Scout is now discontinued, and since I just ordered the Henry, it appears I got what I wanted. I appreciate your post, since you actually answered the question I asked, which was, what ammo it likes best. I have more powerful weapons of course, but I wanted a backpack survival gun that I could hit something with and that was light and compact.

My first one (not this state) was a 22 lr std velocity with a deliberate cns shot and it fell dead in its tracks like the lights were turned out. The hit where aimed was mostly skill but I'll hopefully never know if the result was luck or to be expected. A 45ACP gets about the same result as any large bore pistol within the shooter's individual range limitation and with a caveat that it will NOT penetrate like a heavy hard cast from a 44 mag or heavy 45 Colt load, so either a classic broadside or dead-on sternum shot is more certain to make venison. Broadside usually will fully penetrate with proper 230gr but 185 may or may not - too many variables. A hot Speer 200 gr is da bomb on a classic shot, but there are much better factory loads than that available now IMHO. YMMV; these are just my observations so far - limited data sample.

With care and perhaps luck either would surely beat running down a deer and slitting its throat with a Mora. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

It's hard for me to imagine needing to shoot a deer in likely survival situations, especially in MOST of North America. A rabid skunk seems a more probable situation - my limited experience with those is STAY UP WIND <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Tom

>> A 200 grain Speer hollowpoint (the old style with the enormous cavity) would be my choice and at 25 feet I'm betting it would only take one. <<

The very one! And launched at a fair bit over 1,000fps (+P+ and not for a poorly ramped gun) , you can readily get the job done quite a bit farther away - if you can hit the zone, it will do the job as nicely as anything. Nyah-nyah - I have a LOT more than 1/2 box left..

My current fav, though, is the Remington Golden Saber stuff - I no longer feel an urge to reload "for business" with those readily available. Haven't tried them, but the Federal Hydra-Shok has a huge real-world reputation that continues, despite being the oldest of that "new" generation of performance pistol ammo.

Run a few clips of the Golden Sabers thru your M1911 and see what you think...

I definitely agree with the "stay up wind" for skunks <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />