45 auto ammo for lion

Heading to Utah for a lion hunt gonna try taking one with my bow if opportunity is available but was gonna carry my pistol on my pack heard both good and bad about heavier vs lighter ammo and different brands I'll be using a 3" kimber
I know shot placement is a factor to just wanted to get some opinions

Thanks

All depends on what type of trees your treeing in or catching on the ground.
Killed some with 22lr and the 22 mag, all the way on up will work fine. I usually caught on the rocks or juniper/cedars. The shots were 4-20 ft away. Put it in the lungs and your fine. If your in pines you'll want a rifle or bow.

Talk to your guide or the houndsman you are going with. I have a rule of no archery gear around my dogs. The arrow can still hurt and a bullet cannot. I also believe in bigger is better. If there are big pines you might be looking at a 10 yard uphill shot. The kill zone on a lion is very small. A .22 will work if the lion can just sit up there and die. If there is any chance of it being on the ground, in rocks or in pinion/juniper, I want it dead now. This rules out the auto pistol calibers.

My choices start at .357 in a revolver up to .454. 30-30, 35 Remington and similar cartridges in a lever gun as well. I have killed 3 lions and one bear with the 30-30 in trees. All but one was DRT. Had another on the ground that was shot with a .45 colt twice by another person then it came towards me and I put one .357 into its chest at arm's length.

Bottom line - go bigger if you can. DRT is best.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-01-16 AT 12:36PM (MST)[p]Like said it depends on the situation, lions die fairly easy, thin skin anything will penetrate. They get killed by archery hunters every year. Someone who is confident in their shot with a bow,is often much more effective then someone with a rifle because they take their time and are careful shot placement. If you need to you use your 45 and can shoot it in the neck base of the skull severing spinal cord, or vital shot it will jump out and bleed out. Which as long as the houndsmen ties their dogs back your good to go. I've killed a bear with my bow and Took a nv bear hunter last year who smoked a bear with Mathews, it was dead before it hit the ground.

LAST EDITED ON Sep-03-16 AT 11:34AM (MST)[p]I 2nd the no bow rule. my only issue with a pistol was that it cost me the one mega lion that I wanted to kill over my hounds. it happened on the 3rd lion treed of the day, right at dark.....did not take the rifle to the tree, just my pistol. big mistake. he bailed out over a big ravine to the other side and as the dogs struggled thru the snow drifts it just walked away well with in rifle shot. never caught up to him, caught the dogs a couple ridges over when they crossed the road. turned loose on him and a female the next day, he zigged and the dogs zagged and ended up with the female up a tree. never caught up to him again.

never packed a pistol again....never...

Don't use personal defense ammo if you use your .45, use FMJ's. My buddy had his big cat's shoulder stop 2 PD rounds from his .40 in the front shoulder last year. It did shatter the shoulder, but did not penetrate. One of the slugs was just under the skin of the entry hole. Less than 20 yard shot.

Also, be very confident and competent in the weapons of your choice. Very few people can effectively shoot a 3" barreled pistol at moderate ranges in my opinion.

30 years ago when i ran hounds I had an old colt army Special
in 32-20 I hand loaded it with a 100 grn lead pill, and its muzzle velocity was about 800 fps. Loaned it to too fellers to shoot their cats and it worked great, both 1 shot kills ( both lung shot). Have witnessed 4-5 killed with 22s and 1 guys used a 30-30 and put a hole the size of a softball tho his cat... What im getting at is that it really dont take a lot of gun to do in a Lion. I.v seen Coyotes a bunch harder to kill. You wont have very long shots but might have steep angle shots with limbs in the way so practice with that in mind. As for a 45 load I'd use what your accurate with. I didnt like bows for the reasons stated above and I wouldnt want to pack the dang thing over hill and dale in the snow either. Good luck and show us pics of the 8 footer