I live in Wyoming. Currently, caliber regs for most big game (excepting Bison and Grizzly) are:

I think it's bizarre that my snubnose 357 magnum airlite is legal for hunting say Elk and my HK45 is not (despite the 45 having more energy thanks to a longer barrel), but the law is what it is.
I have a 4" S&W 629 in .44 Magnum that meets the criteria without a problem, and also meets handgun hunting regs for every contiguous state - but I'm curious what semi-auto options exist.
Options I know of:
Desert Eagle in 357/44 magnum or 50 AE
Wildey in .45 WinMag/475 Wildey Magnum
LAR Grizzly/Automags which are out of production but available on the used market
Anything else? Not looking for AR pistol type setup in 308 or similar, looking for a rather standard-ish handgun that would meet that criteria. 45 Win Mag is particularly interesting as I already reload for 45 ACP, and have a few hundred bullets available that would fit it for practice purposes. If there's some new guns chambered in that, I would love to know.

The 10mm? and most 45 1911 can be converted to .460

https://clarkcustomguns.com/product/460-rowland-conversion-kit-for-1911/

There is a 357 magnum 1911 type gun, the coonan.

I had a DE 44 Mag once.  Beautiful shooting handgun.  Had to invest in a set of skis to mount to it and a tow harness to drag it around though.

Pretty sure the 10mm isn't long enough.  Only pistol cartridges that arelonger than 1.5 are the wheel gun cartridges.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've seen 460 is under the 1.5" OAL - I'm seeing 1.25".


Nice, I don't hear all that many reviews of the DE. The weight does concern me, as most any of the guns I mentioned are the weight of my 629 and HK45C combined. They seem to be well in the category of horse pistols that you'd carry in a saddlebag.

On it's own mule!

That's what's holding me back. While it's not super likely I'd need to shoot a bear or moose in self defense, it can and does happen to some folks, so it doesn't hurt to have the capability. The Desert Eagle seems to depend on proper form and grip to function properly, while the 44 mag revolver I have doesn't care. Still, might be a fun gun to get if another Trump check comes around.

The Auto Mag and the Automag are two COMPLETELY different guns.

Tony

So you can hunt elk with a 125gr. Hollow point .357mag but not a 200gr. Hardcast 10mm???

Makes sense.