Hunting with a handgun at Long range is very possible, but the cartridge and bullet choice will dictate just How far is possible to hunt with it. The idea of hunting is hitting where you want to with enough energy and bullet performance.
Pistol cartridges are limited by energy and trajectory. Also the ballistic coefficient in most pistol cartridges like you mention have very poor BC's and at some range become unstable and even tumbull. They can /will still hit a target, but will be inaccurate and not perform consistently on game.
The only real way to find out is to shoot your favorite pistol, starting at 25 yards to get a group and moving out 25 yards at a time until you feel accuracy is not good enough to hunt with and also run the energy numbers at that distance to see if they are still enough to do the job.
I recommend Having a comfortable distance for each handgun you have and sticking with those limits while hunting. The type of pistol also makes a huge difference in the shooters capability and the pistols itself.
Most people that hunt long distances (400 yards +) rely on bolt action pistols. Revolvers are/can be used to 300 yards in the hands of a good shooter. The Semi Auto's are normally held to 200 yards maximum for hunting. All pistols can hit a target well beyond their effective hunting range. I have seen videos of people hitting targets @ 1000 yards with big revolvers, but you wouldn't want to hunt anywhere near that distance.
I consider 500 yards a long shot for a bolt action pistol, some (Better shots than I am) have extended this to 600+ with the right cartridge pistol combination.
It is a good question, but lots of thought of what pistol to use, and practice are necessary to shoot at the limit of a handgun in my opinion.
J E CUSTOM
