Would you use a Judge as a "finish off" gun for deer?

.357/.38 Single Action Cowboy gun is the perfect sidearm for finishing off a deer.

i would post a video....but no

I wouldn't use a shotgun or a shotgun cartridge. It does more damage to the meat spreading the shot out like that.

I would use a 38/357 as suggested earlier. One smaller hole for a lethal wound and the meat is still in good shape.

Are we talking about a squirming deer that can't get up, or one that has laid down and may jump up and run off once confronted?

You can put a head shot with a judge on a squirmer, but one that jumps up may require something that points/aims a little better.

In my experience, any deer I've tracked, I put the rifle up and grab a 12 ga. shotgun with 3.5" buckshot.

A judge would leave you with no viable meat to process. The deer would vaporize with a judge to the face

I'd take my rifle. What if ol' mossy head stands up 100yds from you're holding a damned scatter gun? Or a single action cowboy pistol. bye bye big buck contest.

Or the OP could stand a comfortable distance away and place a single 250gr piece of lead into the deer at an appropriate vital area.

Back when I was younger I had a pretty graphic event with a buck. I dropped him from about 80 yards with a 30-30. I hit him high and took out both shoulders but didn't kill him. After realizing he wasn't going to bleed out anytime soon, I took a closer shot at his head. I'll be damned if the thing didn't move his head that split second and I ended up with a crippled buck with one eye.

I decided then to grab its antlers, brace its head against my leg and cut its throat. It took about 3 seconds once I hit the artery for him to die, and it left about 6 quarts of blood on me to explain to everyone back at the camp. I'm not bragging and still feel bad for the deer. I try to make my shots count now, but realize that deer could've suffered a lot less if I just used my knife when I first realized it wasn't getting up.