Have you ever taken your cowboy guns hunting?

[Dapper Dave]

Context - my gunsmith buddy said he'd like to go bunny bustin' again sometime, which I think would be good for the Coach Gun and some #6 or #7 loads. Guessing. It's the only shotgun I own and buying another right now ain't in the cards.
Or maybe wing shooting...which is something with which I am flat out terrible.  Safest thing to be is a bird, that day. 
But the rifles are certainly useable, and pistols are generally of good caliber for small game like out peccary/javalina/giant rodents. 

Just curious how many here put those fun guns to work away from the steel?

[Blackwater 53393]

I’ve never actually “hunted” with any of my cowboy guns, but I HAVE dispatched a few varmints with them.

 

I have some rounds of ammunition that will probably suffice to take down most any local game if I chose to take it into the woods, including black bear with a reasonably well placed shot.

 

As far as your “bunny busting” goes, my granddad always said that if ya’ couldn’t take a rabbit with a single shot .22, you didn’t deserve to eat rabbit!  Same went for squirrels although he wouldn’t eat tree rat.

[Eyesa Horg]

My coach gun has been known to scare black bears from the deck and bird feeders!

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

I have taken  several deer with my 73 in .45 Colt. I was using smokeless powder instead of BP which I shoot in matches.

[Chili Pepper Kid, SASS #60463]

A Stoeger Uplander was my first shotgun I purchased for this sport. It also became my pheasant & quail gun here in Iowa. Took many a bird with it.

[Irish Pat]

quail hunted with 97 riot gun. worked fine 

[Irish Pat]

also primitive weapon season I took my trapdoor 45-70 but never had a shot

[WD Farren]

Nope.
Not a hunter.

 

I would take my Henry Frontier on a sagebush crawl for prairie dogs.. if'n I was as young as I was the first time I did that.

Since that won't happen, the Henry might be used to dispatch skunks in the back yard.

 

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428]

Didn't take a shot with them, but my OMV 45 was always on my hip loaded with some Cor Bon hot loads (there are bears where we used to hunt for deer).  Always used to take my Win 94 trapper in 44mag too, for close in areas.  Depending on where we were going for the day, it was either a scoped hunting rifle, or the Winchester.

[Rye Miles #13621]

A friend of mine can hunt on hid property, I sold him a Marlin .45-70 and also a Marlin Cowboy in .357. He uses both on deer but prefers the .357. He said the .45-70 is too much for deer. 

[Stump Water]

No.

 

I guess I could load up some hunting appropriate rounds for the Marlin 1895 in 45C or the original Vaqueros in .357 or 45C, but I have better "tools" for hunting.

[Pulp, SASS#28319]

Taken deer with my Marlin .45-70 and my Buff Classic .45-70.

Numerous dove squirrel and rabbits with my 16 gauge SXS before I ever heard of SASS.  A few rabbits and one squirrel with cap and ball, again before I was in SASS.

[Pat Riot]

I took my Rossi 92 .45 Colt octagon barrel rifle deer hunting in Oregon for Blacktails. 
Me and the rifle got skunked. 

[J-BAR #18287]

I carry my Ruger Old Army in an original Bianchi Ruger flap holster, charged with round balls and as much FF Schutzen as I can crush into the chambers, as backup to my TC .54 Hawken during Missouri's Alternative Methods Season.

 

So far the Hawken has been sufficient, but if a deer strolls under my stand and presents a close shot I'm ready!

[Adolph Vancinghand, SASS #28923]

My old Marlin '94 .45 Colt took a white-tailed doe with the third shot I'd put down the barrel. A 250 grain RNFP did just fine.

 

In 2002, I took my Marlin 1895 .45-70 to Zimbabwe and hunting leopard with hounds. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating; a 350 grain Hornady settled the spottie once and for all.

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2025 by Adolph Vancinghand, SASS #28923

[J-BAR #18287]

32 minutes ago, Adolph Vancinghand, SASS #28923 said:

My old Marlin '94 .45 Colt took a white-tailed doe with the third shot I'd put down the barrel. A 250 grain RNFP did just fine.

 

In 2002, I took my Marlin 1895 .45-70 to Zimbabwe and hunting leopard with hounds. As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating; a 350 grain Hornady settled the spottie once and for all.

 

 

 

Wow!

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

22 hours ago, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said:

I have taken  several deer with my 73 in .45 Colt. I was using smokeless powder instead of BP which I shoot in matches.

My '72 is .44-40 and has a 24" octagonal barrel, a gift from my wife for Christmas in 1982....my first dedicated SASS gun.

I've taken a Mule deer and a whitetail, two bobcats and a badger with it.  (The badger was almost an accident.   I wasn't really hunting anything that morning.)  All of these were before 1991.

 

My SKB 220E  26" 12gauge has been used on several pheasant, four chukars, two huns, three or four California quail, and jackrabbits galore....all before 1984   Too long and heavy for much SASS work and my Rossi coach gun wasn't long enough for decent hunting, so I adapted.

 

I bought another Ithaca  12 gauge Model 34 Feather Light  (one of several plus one 20 Gauge). Haven't hunted much of anything since 1999.

Edited June 18, 2025 by Forty Rod SASS 3935

[watab kid]

no - ive not but it is not outside the realm these days , might be just outside my back door too , 

[Dapper Dave]

17 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

I’ve never actually “hunted” with any of my cowboy guns, but I HAVE dispatched a few varmints with them.

 

I have some rounds of ammunition that will probably suffice to take down most any local game if I chose to take it into the woods, including black bear with a reasonably well placed shot.

 

As far as your “bunny busting” goes, my granddad always said that if ya’ couldn’t take a rabbit with a single shot .22, you didn’t deserve to eat rabbit!  Same went for squirrels although he wouldn’t eat tree rat.

Well, there's the problem - I don't even OWN a .22lr anything. My son has the only 22 in the family, and using a GSG STG44 clone would be interesting for hunting...

[Trailrider #896]

Not exactly.  I did use an old Ruger Flattop in .44 Mangle-em to administer the coup de gras on a  Shiras Montana moose that a hunting companion had dropped, but not finished with his .300 Weatherby rifle, back in '67.  I did take a couple of wild boar down to Tennessee back in '63 using a M1886 chambered for .33 WCF.

[Jabez Cowboy,SASS # 50129]

I have cleanly killed our Large Deer up here with both my .45 Colt and my .40-65 using my Cowboy Loads...

 

Jabez Cowboy

[Hashknife Cowboy]

On several occasions I have used cowboy guns for hunting, I have my guns tuned for use in the woods and on the range.  I have taken mule deer, javalina and cow elk with CAS guns.....

[Michigan Slim]

I started CAS with a Winchester 94 in .44 Mag so it could double as a hunting rifle. It is a FINE hunting gun. CAS was terrible.

Edited June 19, 2025 by Michigan Slim

[Michigan Slim]

My Sharps is a fine hunting gun. I need a larger aperture for my sight though.

I also bought a Marlin 1895 that needs to kill something.