The .40 for huntin g...

[BillinOregon]

I know this has come up before and will come up again, but I was just enjoying some rabbit hunt posts here and the mention of the .40 as being a bit overpowered for bunnies. But it sure seems to me like a good choice for an all-around smaller-caliber gun: Ok for squirrel and rabbit head shots with light loads, a good choice for turkeys where legal, a good choice for targets out to 100 yards, and the bare minimum in my state for a very careful shot at a close-in deer. So what's not to like about the .40 as an all-around sub-big-game rifle caliber?

 

[Dave K]

It is a debate on big game, that it is not big enough. If you use it, much as you would a bow,you are accurate with it, within bow type ranges, use it. (where legal) Like all hunting tools, poor shooting, does not make a bigger cal. better. But, small cal.s also lose energy quicker. So don't try for long shots, where energy will be marginal or non-existant. This is JMHO and many opinions will vary.

 

[nchawkeye]

Billing...A few years back, Old Salem located the original building that had the Vogler's rifle shop...They had a year long display at MESDA, before the grand opening...This display was of Southern Long Rifles...As you know, there are no documented NC rifles that can be placed before the Revolutionary War...But, they did have 25 or so that dated from 1800-1840...None were over .45 caliber and none under .36...Most were right around .40...

I have a .54 and a .40...I use the .54 for deer and the .40 for everything else...I have head shot squirrels with the .54, but its a great waste of powder and ball...With the .40 I have killed squirrels, rabbits, crows, turkeys, groundhogs, foxes and even a couple of deer...These were "meat" deer, not Boone and Crockett...(Funny that club, I bet both Boone and Crockett prefereed a 60-80 pound doe over a big buck)...

If I had only one flinter, limited income and was just looking to feed the family, I'd prefer a .40 caliber or so over another...Thats why they were more popular in NC years ago...

 

There ain't a thing wrong with a 40. It's economical, generally superbly accurate, light of recoil and a joy to shoot. It's also the minimum caliber for deer in my home state.

Only thing "wrong" with a 40, if such it can be called, is that there are better calibers available for small game and big game. As much as I like the 40 it's always seemed to me to be a compromise. Neither fish nor fowl. Just a bit too big for small game and a bit too small for practical use on big game. At least that's my opinion....and it's worth exactly what you paid for it.

Having said[url] that....ain[/url]'t it a neat caliber! Use it but use it wisely on deer sized critters.

Vic

 

[playfarmers]

I have not even seen a .40. The .45 is minimum in my province, and almost everyone uses a .50. I have a .50 and a .54, and am very sorry I sold my .45. The smaller bores are great for cheap shooting.

 

[guncobbler]

If all I had was a forty I'd be happy with it. Hunted deer with buckshot for years and although we hunted on snow one 32 cal 00 thru the lungs worked just fine. My dad always liked the Bob Hagel 36 cal 000 buck. With a 40 thru the lungs and lodged under the skin on the off side that deer is yours. Pick yours shots carefully like Dave and Sharps say and there will be little to disapoint you. I'm waiting for a 40 caliber barrel to fall in my lap so I can make it my next project. Just not sure if I'll make it percussion, flint or matchlock! GC

 

[BillinOregon]

Guys, I would only use a .40 for deer under very special circumstances. But it would be nice to have a do-everything-else gun that was legal if need be. Most of my round ball guns have been .54s or larger. Since one side of my family moved into Tennessee about 1805 after several generations in North Carolina, I thought it might be a good and sentimental choice for a poor boy Tennessee mountain rifle that could "git her done" in most instances.

 

[nchawkeye]

My .54 is my deer rifle...But sometimes as you are sitting there squirrel hunting, a deer happens by, eating acorns, 25-30 yards away...You know you can hit a squirrel's head at that range, and the next thing you know the dang gun goes off by itself... :grin:

 

[BillinOregon]

There you go, Hawkeye.

 

[bigbore442001]

It is for me, fish nor fowl. We have state minimums for deer all at 44 or 45 caliber. For small game, some states like Connecticut allow .36 caliber on state land, but nothing larger.

I think a .40 may be legit on RI state land but I will have to check the regs on that.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I can second that Hawkeye. Driiling a hole in a barrel was a major undertaking in them days and a .40 was considered plenty big size. At New Orleans I'd say the majority of the woodsmen that volunteered to 'meet and greet' the Brits carried .40's and used them to deadly effect.
And Boone would take a young doe for meat over a big-rack buck!

 

I can second that Hawkeye. Driiling a hole in a barrel was a major undertaking in them days and a .40 was considered plenty big size. At New Orleans I'd say the majority of the woodsmen that volunteered to 'meet and greet' the Brits carried .40's and used them to deadly effect.
And Boone would take a young doe for meat over a big-rack buck!

There is no evidence that Boone ever had a rifle as small as a .40. His famous "ticklicker" fired ~0.66 caliber balls (16 to the pound). Some claiments to be a late rifle owned by him (he got his first rifle in the 1740s and lived into 1820s) all are over .40. Davy Crockett, on the other hand is reported to have owned a .40 with which he killed over 100 bear! Of course he ran them with dogs, treed or cornered them, shot them at very close range (sometimes the muzzle touching the bear) and often had to finish them with a long knife!

 

[Runner]

I have a 36. For squirrels it is just fine. Up to coyotes, it is just fine with roundball over 25 or 30 grains of powder. Switch to a 36 maxiball over 60 grains of powder, and it is capable of cleanly killing anything that walks in North America. The same applies to the 40. With roundball it is a close range gun on anything over small game. With one of them new fangled bullets, it is just fine for everything else. The smallbores shine best on the target bench! Five pounds of 000 buck and a can of powder goes a long way. No recoil to mention and even the kids have fun shooting them. Everyone should have one, but I think I would go with a true small bore instead of the 40. The 40 costs a lot more to feed than the 32 or 36.

 

[tg]

I found the .40 do do very well on deer ,grouse and most small game, one must accept and abide by the small balls limitations with deer but it will do fine if you hunt with discipline, since I founs I can shoot rather well with guns that do not have those troublesome groves inside the barrel that hold fouling and cause the ball to spin out of control I have given up the small cal. rifles for the larger smoothguns. as for drilling barrels in the past I think most were formed around a mandrel close to bore size then finished with a rifling jig so the cal size was not a real issue when building a gun.

 

I reenact at the Boone Home near Defiance, Missouri and have to agree with Mike R.. That and the time during which Boone lived would indicate a larger than 40 cal.

As far as the late Boone rifle Mike mentioned a comment comes to mind that I read in a Boone biography. "If all the Boone relics were brought together it would take several wharehouses to hold them. We must bear in mind that Boone lived mostly in a one room log cabin".

Vic

 

[LarryB]

My older son and I both shoot 40 for every thing except Deer and Elk. 54 for that.He decited he wanted to kill a Deer with the 40. One shot and it was just as dead as the 54 do it. As said befor, it is all about shot placement and a bigger ball does not fix a bad shot.

 

[Rat Trapper]

I like the 40 for target shooting, and the 36 for small game. For deer I lean towards bigger is better. Have never found over kill to have any disadvantages and 50 & 54's will work great. Now that I am getting too close to 60, I prefer short trailing jobs. Those deer that are considerate enough to die where I can drive the 4 wheeler and wagon right up to them is appreciated. Big bullets and good bullet placement work for me.