Wanna try handgun hunting

[WoodlandScout82]

I'm handgunning for Big game for the first time this year, I just got this Super Blackhawk Hunter .44 magnum

 

[Wifeshusband]

Hornady 158 grain XTR Hollow Points. I detest hollow points for use with rifles, however, with a handgun, they are necessary. Do not expect a DRT. I would limit your shots to no greater than 50 yards for best success.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

Im not shooting gas checks.
Wears out your barrel for a little more speed. If I want speed I’ll use a copper coated bullet.

could you please explain for us occupants in the slow section how a copper coated bullet is less abrasive on a barrel that a copper gas check swaged onto a lead bullet?

 

[Mr Bya Lungshot]

could you please explain for us occupants in the slow section how a copper coated bullet is less abrasive on a barrel that a copper gas check swaged onto a lead bullet?

I don’t know enough about gas checks to teach. You got me but I read it in a old speer reloading manual and also my father said it was so. It’s something that stuck with me since I was a kid. I never mentioned copper gas checks either. I think it was a brass gas check or maybe aluminum that causes undue wear.
Again I don’t use any gas checks so I don’t have the ability to back it up.
Maybe you can enlighten me on gas checks?
I’ve been wrong before.

 

[NE GA Pappy]

I don’t know enough about gas checks to teach. You got me but I read it in a old speer reloading manual and also my father said it was so. It’s something that stuck with me since I was a kid. I never mentioned copper gas checks either. I think it was a brass gas check or maybe aluminum that causes undue wear.
Again I don’t use any gas checks so I don’t have the ability to back it up.
Maybe you can enlighten me on gas checks?
I’ve been wrong before.

I have been reloading since 1976, and I have never used anything but copper gas checks. They are just little copper cups that you put on the backside of the bullet before you run it thru the lube/sizing die. The die crimps the copper into the lead, and this is a shield to keep the hot gases from softening the lead and fouling the barrel of the gun quicker.

Aluminum checks, I would suspect, wouldn't be any harder than copper checks.

From what I have worked, brass isn't really malleable enough to swage into that lead bullet with a regular lube/sizing die

 

[Anvil Head]

Although brass may be a bit "stiffer" in most circumstances. The brass GC's come totally annealed and can be folded with your fingers. They follow the same process as the copper ones during resizing. Really don't know that they offer any better or worse in the performance category, but it'd take several thousand rounds to make any real comparison. I never experienced any issues with either (never used Al ones), however I don't burn that many rounds these days.
All that being said, I have mostly used the copper ones due to availability. I think it's more like personal choice thing than a wear issue.