From the beginnings of cartridge ammunition in handguns, which started in the 1850s...with the first S&W 22 rimfire handguns which had a genesis in the Rocketball Gun. The Rocketball handgun eventually became the Winchester leveraction rifles. Those rifles really started with the 44 Henry in cartridge ammo. The Henry a rimfire 44 caliber round that gave from a 20 inch rifle barrel, about what today's standard 158 grain lead 38 Special gives in power out of a six inch handgun. The Henry 44 'Flat' as it is know looks like a goiterized 22 RF short.

Powerful ammo development started again, in the early 1950s and in 1955 the release of the 44 Magnum to the public. It took the public by storm. Then in the early 1960s the 41 Magnum came along...then in the 1970s and 80s new interest in handgunning exploded bringing a new era of cartridge development. This era saw the incredible jump in handgun use for American hunting, long range silhouette, and the beginnings of the surge to African hunting with handguns....Also in the late 1970s and 1980s, Dick Casull and John Linebaugh started with the first revolver megamagnums. Single shot handguns of course had a great influence during these times...but we are dealing with revolvers in this article. The Mega Magnums were to hit the market place.

The 454 Casull in the Freedom Arms handguns, and Linebaugh and his Heavy  45's in custom single actions...woke a nation to the true abilities the handgunner could expect from strong revolvers and their megamagnum ammo. The 475 and the various 500's came after that.,and it seems now everyone is trying to neck up and down all kinds of brass to gain more velocity, flatter trajectories and more power...personally I think it is great.

But in all this there was one fine cartridge that was still born...the 357 Maximum died a needless death. The Silhouette handgun game brought about a long line of new handgun calibers...but the 445 seems to be the only one of those that is surviving..And it is a shame, there were some good ones....

So as time permits I will explore the full range of the cartridges that go beyond the magnums in power...and those that have the potential to go beyond with strong guns~ and new powders. I think you will see some surprises. Some old cartridges...because of modern strong guns have become part of this category. We all look to the Colt 45 cartridge in strong handguns when we hear that...but there are a few more. And we will start with an unlikely pair, the 30 carbine in this report and the 32-20 in the future.

There are two 30 caliber cartridges when chambered in strong handguns, quietly slip into this superb magnum level. But because they didn't have the power potential of the 44s and the 45s we have heard little about them in print. They are the mega magnums for small to small/medium game.

The 357 magnum 110 grain to 125 grain ammo is all the rage right now for a number of purposes...especially small game and personal protection. I bet that last line didn't bother you...'for small game and personal protection'. It has always amazed me how we think the 357 lite bullets are OK for small game and personal protection but not for animals as large as deer...with that thinking then, the lite bullets in the 357 are OK for personal protection as long as the assailant is smaller then a deer?

Silly isn't it. I know that personal protection is defined as within 20 feet, and rightly so...and deer are at longer range...but out to around fifty plus yards, the 357 and it's lite bullet/high velocity loadings are effective on even several hundred pound living creatures no matter the number of legs....

So if I can fire a 125 grain bullet at 1700 fps plus, from a 7 and half inch barrel...l'm upping the 357's lite weight bullet power even more than it's normal magnum velocities of 1400 to 1500 fps...right?  No, I'm firing a Ruger singer action chambered for the 30 Carbine. That's right.. it can attain more power then the lite weight 357's. And the trajectory is just string flat for a handgun. Why is this?..because the Ruger 30 carbine is probably in the top five strongest handguns on the market today...and that includes such as the Freedom Arms Single actions.

My first 30 Carbine Ruger was purchased in 1967/8. My prize pictured three screw Ruger SA, has a serial number in the very low 1000 listing. I think it may have been one of the first run of carbine Rugers off the line. I have been using the 30 Carbine in Rugers, Automag autoloaders, and one Colt clone...a progression through 31 years...So it's safe for me to say I think I have a handle on the cartridge and it's abilities and short comings....

I have taken Javelina, coyote, feral cats and dogs, one puma (treed head shot). small black bear, raccoons, numerous vermin, innumerable pests, birds of a number of kinds, and much more. I have hunted with it in a number of states...as a Federal Agent in the 70's I stopped a twin engine plane with a load of drugs from getting off the ground with a 30 Carbine Bushmaster. And sadly in my youth had to use the 30 Carbine M-2 (full auto ability) against military people in a far away land with a strange name....

It is obvious by now that Bill Ruger and his R&D team make few mistakes. Certainly the 30 Carbine Ruger SA, wasn't one of them. It has quietly been selling over all these long years. And rarely do I see one on the used gun market. Also the Ruger team when they developed and tested the 30 Carbine round...must have known that folks would shoot military ammo in their Single Actions. So it had to be rated and strong enough to handle the (approx 55,000 psi) very high pressures of military ammo. I know a nationally accepted journal states the military round doesn't exceed 50,000 psi. But as a training officer of small arms our specs always showed it much higher... that was in the late 1950s. Not that I would trust a carbine rifle bolt to be able to take the loads a Ruger SA can take. Remember too, some of the old Military Carbines have been shot to a state of looseness beyond some of the professional ladies of the night.

Commercial ammo I have used, tested and hunted with mostly is Federal's soft nose and softnose hollow points, also Winchester's ammo of the same configurations. Both these brands of carbine ammo are superb...the finest group I ever fired with a Ruger SA was with Federal's soft nose 110 grain ammo...on a 25 yard pistol target at 100 yards...l got 3 Xs..2 10s...and a scratch 10, the range master called a 'nine'...obviously the boy needed glasses, what ever...that is excellent accuracy for commercial ammo. And Winchester's stuff will do the same...both of them out of the 7 and ½ inch barrel go 1450+ fps and over 500 lbs of muzzle energy.

And you can get brass at very inexpensive prices. The brass  is some of the strongest rifle brass on the market...so in a handgun it's almost indestructible...almost! Using 12 to 17 grains of powder makes it cheap to handload, and the 30 caliber size has numerous jacket bullets you can use and choose from. From the likes of the 85 grain XTP, and the 100 grain Plinker for varmints and such, to the 123 grain 7.62/39mm for larger game...with all kinds of bullets in between, it's a reloaders dream. And as with all Ruger sixguns I have found cast bullets really do very well in power and accuracy.

Back in the mid 1980s outside of Tucson Az, friend Holt Bodinson and I had driven out and over a railroad bridge...Holt was driving and had my heart in my mouth.,.because my door was on the drop off side of a few hundred foot deep ravine..if a train came I couldn't jump and we would have been cream cheese....but Holt wanted to bring me to a very special place...we came out on a ridge, a ways from the tracks. Across from our side was a flat wall of a hill, like a cliff...it was good old hard pan type Az dirt...and it was a good 250 to 300 yards across.

He was packing a six inch 357 loaded warm, and I was packing a six inch custom 30 carbine Ruger SA. Shooting at various spots on the far wall both of us were amazed that we could see every 30 Carbine strike...but very few of the 357s. After a few ranging rounds and learning the needed sight hold...I was placing my shots...and most likely being obnoxious to my friend about the failure of the 357 at that range...ot course Holt it you are reading this I repent and l'm...almost sorry....

And that is indicative of the little 30 caliber..it is a long range wonder. Using the 120-130 grain class of jacketed bullets, that are not good on game because they are too stiff, they work well on the iron chickens, pigs, and turkeys, but the rams are a little tough if set full. With cast bullets of 150 grains, like the superb flat faced, gas checked, Lyman 311440, the rams will come down. You have to load them warm enough to stabilize ...but like I said, both the gun and the brass can take it. Over a medium load of 13.5 grains of 2400, these flat faced cast bullets hit hard. With a 100 yard zero they drop 7 inches at 150 yards and only 13 to 14 inches at 200 yards...for a handgun that is flat. And that is in the Automag 30 carbine autoloader...in the Ruger SA it gets a lot better.

Even though I know coyotes are terribly destructive, and I do hunt them, I can't stay angry at them. In a five year period we lost 40 farm animals to feral dogs and coyotes. Where the feral dogs just don't have the intelligence to be the stealth-like thieves at night the coyotes are....the feral dog destroys for dominion control over an area he thinks is his and sometimes just for blood sport, not always for food. The coyote for the most part is an opportunist for food. I know a number of sheep ranchers that won't agree with that statement....and I think the situation and the environment of an open ranch is much different than the heavily forested wilderness home we had.

So like here in Az and in some areas in Texas, probably some other areas as well...the coyote has a deserved reputation for wantoned blood lust killing. He just hasn't done it to me...and in the deep woods of the southeast in the 1970s I found him to be a different creature. But as I said I still hunt him. Because he is an enemy of man's animals. And sometimes because of the liberal approach of some, who think it's cute to feed them...the coyote at least here in the Tucson metro area, have become a danger to man himself...especially children.

The last two I nailed just outside of Tucson were with a few buddies...and they had killed a small dog and were feeding on it. From my inspection of the remains of the dog, the pack had played rip and tag with it before they killed it to feed. The two I killed got a much faster and cleaner death than the poor dog. I also killed a coyote one day that actually had a kitten in it's mouth. So much for those that say coyotes only eat mice and rats....

Because of the closing down of the Tucson metro area to shooting of any kind...the coyote is spreading and getting very bold. As I said, then we have very misinformed people who feed them. Even though it is against state law to feed wild animals, we have some pretty resolute tree hugger types that won't stop. They even feed the bears on part of the mountain chain we have that surrounds Tucson. And we have had six bear attacks on these ranges in U.S. Forest Parks. Attacks resulting in badly mauled people, and intensive law suits all because of misguided practices. So with the inability to shoot the coyote and the feeding of him by people, he has lost his natural fear of man. A dangerous situation that is going to cause children to get hurt. Just like it did in California last year where a child playing on the curb of his suburban home was mauled by several coyotes....

The 30 Carbine handgun round is a superb coyote cartridge. With the right bullet, and there are a number of good ones...this K-Nine is the quick looser. I have hit them at 100 + paces with the carbine Ruger, and still brought them down quickly. The 85 grain XTP at near 2000 fps at the Ruger muzzle is still a flying bomb at past 100 yards...and it will blow up inside the little wild dog...death comes quickly.

The various 110 grain softnose and hollow pointed round noses, made for handguns...are also very effective. The Plinker is absolutely one of the finest 100 grain, half jacketed varmint bullets, to use in the 30 carbine. On feral dogs..some can grow much heavier and hardier then coyotes. I have killed some that have topped 60 lbs easy...coyotes just never really get to that size. One monster feral dog that I had to shoot in Virginia, was about 98 lbs...he was killing calves...and the farmers in the area put a bounty on his head....What I have found from observation about feral dogs and coyotes is that the coyote has a greater tenacity to live...you have to hit right. Many feral dogs hit hard, but with bullet placement a coyote would run with...dogs stop and howl.

I don't recommend the 30 carbine or a heavy loaded 32-20 for deer...though some areas have very small deer. The little white tails I used to hunt in Texas, especially the doe would easily fall to 30 caliber heavy loads....l've even taken these small doe with the 22 Hornet, when out hunting other small game. Remember there are better calibers..but if you are out and about, and a good shot presents itself..you are sure of your gun and load...and the 30 calibers are all you have...l wouldn't pass up winter's meat...

I like the Lyman 311440 because for the bullet weight it is a short bullet, and doesn't take up a lot of cartridge powder space...being non jacketed it's friction is less, so pressure doesn't climb like a heavy jacketed bullet, and with the right lead to tin mix it will expand on sizable game. Lyman's 311008 (used to be 3118 - that's what I have) about a 100 grain flat nose that can be pushed well over 1700 fps...and it is a terror on pests and vermin as well as varmints....The nicest Lynx I ever shot was with this bullet out of a 32-20 Colt SA loaded to around 1500 fps. The bullet fired at 70 paces caught the cat behind the left rib cage angling toward the right shoulder...it exited the right shoulder knuckle, wrecking everything in between. But left the pelt with a pin hole entrance and a quarter exit.

With one two screw Blackhawk in 30 carbine, I had the barrel set back to a 1000ths cylinder/barrel gap and cut the barrel back to 6 inches...ln doing this I maintained the velocity the 7 and 1/2 inch barrel gave, and yet could carry the gun in a high pancake holster in the truck. Approximately 1 700 fps with the 100 grain Plinker was this gun's top end. But that was fine....it took a lot of game in the late 70's thru the SOs in Az. It was just a specialized varmint gun supreme. And I think that is the way you have to look at the 30 Carbine in a revolver . specialized. Certainly the 357 is more well rounded and with heavy bullets can take larger game...but that's not the carbine's role. Long range, flat for a revolver trajectory, deadly on animals up to 60 pounds out to 100 to 150 yards or so...with exceptional accuracy...no recoil to speak of, easily reloaded, cheap brass...and can give reduced loads and keep it's accuracy without a hitch....that's it's role..,.

Every rose has it's thorns...the 30 Carbine is no exception. I rolled up to a stop one day on the access road to a railroad track...on a telegraph pole was a black monster. It had shiney wings and a large body of the raven/crow mix of the southwest...these birds are big and terribly destructive to anything they can be....they will trash nests of other birds...especially song birds...destroy the bird eggs in every unattended hawk, owl, and eagle nest they can find...kill small animals like cats...and generally are on my hit list. In short they are a nasty predator, a real gangster. I stuck my 30 Carbine Ruger out the window lined up him and pulled the trigger. And then very painfully remembered this round's thorn...noise! Not a loud noise..but an ear splitting, ripping, and wrenching noise....l got the crow. But the noise got me