Most Powerful Antique Handgun?

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Jerek

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hi, im looking for advice on what antique handgun would be my best choice for defense against wolves and possibly an aggressive bear. There are times when it is too cumbersome to carry a rifle with me in the bush and i want the added protection of having a handgun on my person. My reason for wanting an antique is so I can carry it with me in the woods, and defend myself if need be. As an added benefit it allows me to target practice with it. There is no range near my house so antique is my only option for target shooting as well

What are my Caliber Options?
What would be the most reliable Antique Handgun for my needs

I do reload
 
i would feel naked holding a 30-06 with a " agressive " bear .....

as for wolves , i have never seen one up close , all i've seen is just a quick glimpse of one at a couple hundred yards , and *poof * they are gone ......

as for target practice , these are very old guns , some are extreemly fragile and when they break or wear out you will need to have custom built parts made for them . ... and yes custom equlas very very expensive . and thst is assuming you can find a gunsmith capable to do the proper repairs .

for the price of one antique , the equipment to reload for it , brass and bullets for the reloads , and parts and maintenance , you can go buy yourself a proper rifle for bears , another for wolves , a decent shotgun and a 22 for plinking PLUS all the equipment to reload for these ....
 
12 gauge, short barrel, sling.

To get the equivalent 'horsepower' as a modern round, out of an antique, you are looking at spending thousands of dollars to replace a $300 used shotgun.

Compare the prices on Colt SAA pistols in fit shape to use, with a Remington 870.

Buy an antique to #### around with for fun. If you need it for honest backup work, not a good choice.

Cheers
Trev
 
I did what you want to do and felt extremely under gunned out in the woods with a Colt Single Action in .38 Special, ended up carrying a Winchester 1895, SVT-40, P14 Enfield or my 12.5" Grizzly shotgun (870 copy) along with the .38 special just so my nerves were at ease knowing I can put down whatever comes at me.
 
hi, im looking for advice on what antique handgun would be my best choice for defense against wolves and possibly an aggressive bear. There are times when it is too cumbersome to carry a rifle with me in the bush and i want the added protection of having a handgun on my person. My reason for wanting an antique is so I can carry it with me in the woods, and defend myself if need be. As an added benefit it allows me to target practice with it. There is no range near my house so antique is my only option for target shooting as well

What are my Caliber Options?
What would be the most reliable Antique Handgun for my needs

I do reload

I have to ask.

If you do reload wouldn't you be fully capable of answering this question yourself? As a side note if you had your PAL wouldn't you have somewhat of a educated direction of the answer as well?

For a "reloader" only asking caliber options this doesn't seem right where a reloader would know that there are multiple variables in a specific caliber alone that would make it more suitable to one task or another.

Get your PAL, get your restricted license and learn about the penetration ability of modern cartridges, and welcome to CGN.
 
Where are you located Jerek? I'm sure if you were to find a antique owner in your area and be genuinely interested in antiques they would take you out and help you where they can.
 
I have to ask.

If you do reload wouldn't you be fully capable of answering this question yourself? As a side note if you had your PAL wouldn't you have somewhat of a educated direction of the answer as well?

For a "reloader" only asking caliber options this doesn't seem right where a reloader would know that there are multiple variables in a specific caliber alone that would make it more suitable to one task or another.

Get your PAL, get your restricted license and learn about the penetration ability of modern cartridges, and welcome to CGN.

well you're condescending. i have a PAL, i reload rifle ammo not handgun ammo. do i know every rifle ammo that exists? no i dont, so why would i know whats out there for antique hanguns. i have no intention to get an RPAL. reason #1 i dont shoot at a range. reason #2 next to impossible to get the authorization to carry a restricted firearm in the bush around here. unless you have an active trapline or work in a remote area where predators see you as food. like i said before, there are times its not practical to carry a rifle all day. and even if i do, what happens when its leaning on the tree 10 ft away and a cougar is looking you in the eyes. im not saying that an antiques revolver is the best weapon for self defense in the woods vs hungry predators. but if it comes down to that or my pocket knife, i would gladly take the antique.
 
My personal suggestion is to get a rossi ranch hand- they're super small, built on an action also chambered for 454 casull and available in 44 mag and will run you 1/3 of the price of any entry level antique you look at that'll fill the same role. If you want a super fun antique to shoot, thats a different ball of wax, but once again, they are antiques. They aren't modern. It's not a flaw, its just a fact and I actually like shooting antiques a whole lot more than modern handguns.

Edit: I should add that any hostility you're getting is the result of repeated issues with new forum members. I recognize that you're new but we get huge amounts of people we don't know starting threads about very easily researched topics every week. Not only is this frustrating, as it takes time and energy to reply without ever seeming to make any progress, but it doesn't incline us to help, as a primary part of owning an antique is the research and knowledge of antique law, because the police absolutely do not know in any way shape or form any of the antique laws, so it is up to each and every antique owner to make sure he is an educated, safe and polite representative of our hobby. Asking easily answered questions like that suggests a lack of interest in learning and studying and is thus not in our interest to help. I apologise for being blunt but most newbies come on here and think every member is a ####, without recognizing the issues.
 
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My personal suggestion is to get a rossi ranch hand- they're super small, built on an action also chambered for 454 casull and available in 44 mag and will run you 1/3 of the price of any entry level antique you look at that'll fill the same role. If you want a super fun antique to shoot, thats a different ball of wax, but once again, they are antiques. They aren't modern. It's not a flaw, its just a fact and I actually like shooting antiques a whole lot more than modern handguns.

Edit: I should add that any hostility you're getting is the result of repeated issues with new forum members. I recognize that you're new but we get huge amounts of people we don't know starting threads about very easily researched topics every week. Not only is this frustrating, as it takes time and energy to reply without ever seeming to make any progress, but it doesn't incline us to help, as a primary part of owning an antique is the research and knowledge of antique law, because the police absolutely do not know in any way shape or form any of the antique laws, so it is up to each and every antique owner to make sure he is an educated, safe and polite representative of our hobby. Asking easily answered questions like that suggests a lack of interest in learning and studying and is thus not in our interest to help. I apologise for being blunt but most newbies come on here and think every member is a ####, without recognizing the issues.


I concur. We see one of these post's about every two weeks.
Buy a Ranchhand and a holster that can be mounted between your shoulderblades.
An Antique is going to be of minimal use against a large animal. Might make you feel like John Wayne, but the bear will have scant respect for that fact.
No offence intended; really.
 
I did what you want to do and felt extremely under gunned out in the woods with a Colt Single Action in .38 Special, ended up carrying a Winchester 1895, SVT-40, P14 Enfield or my 12.5" Grizzly shotgun (870 copy) along with the .38 special just so my nerves were at ease knowing I can put down whatever comes at me.



I carry a 410 shotgun borto Hiker.... (loaded with winchester PDX 410 ammo)

Is it under powered yes...

Is it super small and way easier to carry then a dominon arms 8.5 inch o heck ya.

Will it mess up a bear if it came running at me o heck yah... would a 12ga do more damage yes is anything guarantied in life no so thats why I carry it in the first place.

I've also carried a webly mark 1 loaded with 45 acp hollow points that may blow up the gun I figure the first shot will go off at least... I found a handgun carry’s allot nicer then a small shotgun but if I really wanted to carry a handgun I would pick a sw 357 mag j frame its light enough easy to shoot and packs a punch in a smallish package. To do that there is taking a course filling in paper work hopping they say yes and then off you go I spend a good amount of time in the bush and I've run into more then a few bears and mountain lions the lions are the only thing that really worry me very sneaky buggers that like to sneak up behind you just to see if they can. The bears tend to be loud and let you know they don't like you in the area and they give you hints to leave as 1 grizzly has done to me when I was shooting clays with a 12ga even with that I went hmm wish I had something with more punch then buckshot and slugs.

By the time I plan on shooting it's point blank so its hard to miss and will do damage regardless of what you use.

I've carried bear spray but it doesn't go very far and takes time to kick in so I don't trust it that and you can spray your self in the wind and get messed up.

That’s me shooting a brand new can of bear spray I wanted to see how far it can spray and it doesn't go very far that’s counterstrike 1.0 caspine bear spray. I shot it with a 12ga slug at 75 yards. shotgun used was a 18.5 Mossberg 590A1 with ghost ring sights. The spray distance is a few ft so I wouldn't trust it way to close and to late.

[youtube]sEIxDoB5_UQ[/youtube]
 
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well you're condescending. i have a PAL, i reload rifle ammo not handgun ammo. do i know every rifle ammo that exists? no i dont, so why would i know whats out there for antique hanguns. i have no intention to get an RPAL. reason #1 i dont shoot at a range. reason #2 next to impossible to get the authorization to carry a restricted firearm in the bush around here. unless you have an active trapline or work in a remote area where predators see you as food. like i said before, there are times its not practical to carry a rifle all day. and even if i do, what happens when its leaning on the tree 10 ft away and a cougar is looking you in the eyes. im not saying that an antiques revolver is the best weapon for self defense in the woods vs hungry predators. but if it comes down to that or my pocket knife, i would gladly take the antique.

No condesention was intended and if it came off that way I apologize.

I can tell you that by reloading that I have a great idea of what rifle round, or pistol round that I can use for a given application by the published reloading information available. This doesn't include personal recipes and is only out of published information. I may or may not have fired or reloaded for .338 lapua or .44 mag but I can tell you out of the published information the FPS, PSI, and grains of the projectile and from that information make a conclusion on the foot pounds of the hitting power. I can also tell you from gained knowledge what projectile is best suited for a given application. You having stated you're a reloader should make you fully capable of the same task, just from published information alone, as such this is what I was asking / pointing out.

H Wally also pointed out part of the problem faced on the boards, and don't think that those trying to help or ascertain your intent on here are being condecending. While I understand that everyone is new at some point and requires help to get over the learning curve being new you should also understand that those that will be helping you must first learn your skill level and intent. I've personally helped all skill levels of genuine people on here and would do the same for you, but I must first learn your skill level and intent to do so.

Finally the antiques section comes under scrutiny every once in a while and as airtruck63chev has pointed out we don't know who you are and you could very well be a journalist writing a article. You did say everything "right" in your first post yet didn't display enough knowledge toward reloading to be questionable as to if you do or do not reload. Your post being the first you made on CGN could have came off as "groomed" but not well enough to display the higher knowledge of the hobby you said you can do. Please understand "the most powerful antique handgun" could be a taboo topic to those who don't care about power and that collect to enjoy the history, beauty, and responsibility of the hobby.

Again I apologize if this comes off as rude, it's not meant to be and I'm attempting to demonstrate the point as to why you may be questioned and why I asked the question I did. As you can see by my follow up post I did attempt to ask your location so that you can get hooked up with one of the members here to learn first hand and reduce the learning curve. If you don't mind my asking again, where are you located? We'll see if you can get hooked up with a board member and if you should choose the antique hobby get you doing so safely, don't be upset or suprised if they ask to see your PAL though ;).

Cheers. :cheers:
 
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The most powerful antique pistol would be one of the so-called "howda" pistols made by British gunmakers to be used by 19th century British sportsmen in the event that a tiger leapt onto the elephant while hunting in India.
Price would be comparable to a collectible Colt SAA. i.e. thousands of dollars.
 
I am not sure that I would agree with Tiriaq on his choice of the most powerful. While a howdah pistol might have the most energy on paper, the few that I have seen were 58 cal and the large diameter of the slug limits their penetraion in my opinion. I think there are two issues; one is total energy which would qualify the howdah but the second is penetration and I am not sure what I would choose on that basis; probably some sort of custom hand load with a hardened bullet and a pointed nose.
I do have the belief that most of the antique handguns / calibers were pretty underpowered by todays standards. Some cartridges like the 45 long colt are reasonably powerful but they also disqualify antique handguns as legal antiques

Final observation is that you would be better advised to consult the pistol cartridge section of Cartridges of the World which has been printed in several editions. Keep a list of the cartridges which make an antique modern in front of you as you read. There are only about 8 or so of them and they are found in at least one and probably two of the stickies at the top of the page. About the only guns that I would consider would be some of the american ones in single action with a 6 - 7 inch barrel in an attempt at being durable and of getting the most power out of a given cartridge

cheers mooncoon
 
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