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Revolver long range?

wilkup

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2013
Messages
1,792
Location
Cle Elum, WA
Just picked up a 44 mag and am curious what people consider long range with an open sight revolver. I'm looking forward to having another option when it gets thick and I can't get my rifle into action quick enough.
 

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I've taven a cow elk at approximately 200 yards with a 6" and open sights. I would say it all depends on your abilities, just shoot the different yardages and see what your ethically capable of, and run your ballistic data on your load for what you set as your longest shot willing to take.
 
Been shooting 44 mag. since the late 70's Larry Kelly of Mag-na-Port lived down the street from me and JD Jones is a friend and has built many guns for me...I've shot a lot of deer never more that 100 yards with a 44 mag.....only use Hornady 240 gr. HP every deer has only gone the maximum of 50 yards after being shot....
Depending how good your vision is 100 yards is a longer shot with most iron sights....put a dot or scope with 2X on it will help make longer shots easer....
Remember with a 44 mag. you start getting past 100 yards thats when bullets for a handgun starts slowing down a lot....

All I can say is practice and practice some more shooting a handgun and being good takes a lot of practice much more than a rifle....
 
100yds is a poke with a 44, course you can step up to a 460S&W and headout to 300yds to say long range. Not sure on the 500smith, but its a powerhouse, not a speedster like the 460.
I picked up the 44 because it's not too large or heavy. Those X frame Smiths are sweet but with the size and weight involved, I'll leave them to the dedicated hand gunner.
 
Been shooting 44 mag. since the late 70's Larry Kelly of Mag-na-Port lived down the street from me and JD Jones is a friend and has built many guns for me...I've shot a lot of deer never more that 100 yards with a 44 mag.....only use Hornady 240 gr. HP every deer has only gone the maximum of 50 yards after being shot....
Depending how good your vision is 100 yards is a longer shot with most iron sights....put a dot or scope with 2X on it will help make longer shots easer....
Remember with a 44 mag. you start getting past 100 yards thats when bullets for a handgun starts slowing down a lot....

All I can say is practice and practice some more shooting a handgun and being good takes a lot of practice much more than a rifle....
I was thinking maybe 200, just cuz that's what I limit myself to with my leverguns. I'll have to look into what sort of drop the big 44 has between 100-200 yards. Adding optics defeats the purpose I have for it as a conveniently packable light backup.
 
I've had two silhouette target pistol which is 200 yards courses or 200 meters. Then i decided that it would be fun for antelope season. I experimented with two pistol scopes a 2 power and a 4 power. Both worked fine. 10 inch 357 mag and 14 inch 7mm TCU
 
Silhouette Target Pistols and a .44 Magnum Revolver are two completely different firearms. The sighting systems alone are enough to be difficult to adjust to at 200 yards.

I would give consideration to having the revolver sights refined for longer range hunting up to your 200 yard suggestion.

The sighting systems used on the Silhouette handguns are excellent! They just will cause problems trying to adapt them to your revolver.

There are still a couple of great pistol smiths around so it might be a good idea to open a discussion with them for suggestions regarding your thinking. You might be surprised with the outcome!

Enjoy the process!

:)
 
I agree with most here on the 100 yards if you are keeping it open sights. I had a colt anaconda and could fairly consistently hit steel at 200 but it was not very precise.
I have shot a deer at 150 with the 44 mag but this was from a Marlin rifle using 240 grain Hornady XTP and after this decided that 100 yards would be my max for this rifle. Your velocity will be very slow past 100 with the pistol barrel.
As coyote Wacker said, lots of practice to be efficient.
 
Lots of practice at different ranges is important. Four years ago I practiced at 80 to 100 yards throughout the summer. I came across a young two point Mule deer up fairly close. I shot over his back. A friend that was hunting with me pointed out that it went over his back, but I thought it was just a bad shot. The buck was still standing there trying to figure out what just flew over him. I shot again. It was also over his back. He got a pass at that point, and I just watched him walk away. The .44 mag was hitting the targets consistently at 80 to 100 yards, but was near 15 inches high at 40 yards. That was totally my fault.
 
When I used to shoot IHMSA. I had A S&W Model 29 Magnum Hunter. It had a 6" barrel, unfluted cylinder and a 4 position fromt sight. The front sight had a small thumb wheel to change ranges. Each range was adjustable. I set the sight to 50-100-150-200 yards. It was great silhouette and hunting revolver. I took several deer with it at extended ranges. I used the 180 gr. HPs because they expanded better than the 240 gr. HPs on deer sized game.
 
To this day I still hunt with the 10-1/2" barreled Ruger SBH that I shot silhouette with. Stock irons went away a few years ago because I could no longer get the definition needed to continue otherwise. An UltraDot now sits atop the SBH and 200yd targets are very doable from field positions. That would be a long shot on a deer sized animal FOR ME. It takes a lot of practice to keep that up and mind you I have a 200yd range in my yard.
Ol' Red ain't kidding when he speaks about different ranges, the .44 mag has a trajectory of a rainbow.
 
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