Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Zero Range?

I now have a red dot sight on my Ruger .357 and I'm planning on using it hog hunting with 180gr bullets. Hopely, my shot will be fairly close BUT at what range sured I zero my revolver for; 25 / 50 / 75 yds? I want to have a practical sight-in range (that most people who hunt, have found usefull)and then don't mess with the sight again. Thanks for the help.

What I'd do is sight it in at 25 and then see where it is at 50 and 75. Also 100 if you might be shooting that far. That's pretty much what I do with my Holosights on my handguns: start at 25 yards and go from there. If you are dead on at 25, you'll probably be high at 50 and coming back at 75 or so. You just need to experiment since different guns, loads, and sights can change the equation.

I guess what I was trying to ask is at what range do most people who hunt with handguns actually sight them in at? The only time I would actually shoot 75 or 100 yds would be only at practice or just messing around. If I'm shooting that far at game, I will be using my rifle. Thanks for the suggestion.

Depends on the handgun.

Purely defensive? 10 yards.

Small game? 25 yards.

My 10mm is dead-nuts on at 100 yards; about 1.5" high at 15, and about 2" high at 25, 3" high at 50, and 2.5" high at 75. Only about 4.5" low at 125 and 12" low at 150. I can like that, for defensive use at any reasonable range, hunting to 75-100, and plinking/varmint shooting to 150.

Depends on the handgun. FWIW, my Ruger .357 Blackhawk 6.5" was dead on at 75 yards, and top-of-back hold at 100. That's MAXIMUM, IMHO, for that round.

I'm not sure about most people, but know how I sight mine in. That's at a mid-point range within the range I am comfortable taking a shot. Right now I sight in my big Smiths for 75 yards figuring I'm good for a dead on hold at 150. Same with the Rowland, although I'd not take it out past 100-125.

You might be surprised how far you can shoot accurately after a little practice and some resulting confidence. Right now if 50 yards is about as far as you would be comfortable taking a shot at game, you might want to sight in at 35. You'll be plenty good out to 75 as well as inside of 25. I'd still figure just where I was hitting at various yardages both for information and confidence that a vitals hit is doable with your sight settings.

Hello Lippygoathead
I have been invited to Hunt Wild Boar this spring. I have not hunted them before and will be going with a guy that has Killed several.We have discussed the issue of Handgun shooting on Boars, and I felt the .357 would be a good gun. I was quickly corrected by my friend who told me you can't judge the size and resistence of any wild boar, and he has told me to use my .41 Magnum or .45 Colt revolver. he said Wild Boar can range up to 700 LBS in his area and can be very tough to kill. he also shared with me most instances the shot will take place up close and personal so a 25 yard sight in would be more than plenty of range. He said at ranges of 50-100 Yards in all the excitement Misses are common, and the last thing one want's to do is wound and Piss off any wild boar. He uses dogs and Pit's the boar for the Kill. I look forward to this hunt and will be packing a little heavier than a .357 Per his Instructions. Regards, Thegeneral.

I always zeroed my handguns at 75 yards. I also loaded them all to 1200 fps which is coincidentally about the same speed as a .22 LR from a rifle barrel, so the trajectories of all would be very close. Pretty much on at 25, about an inch high at 50, back on at 75 and about 3" low at 100.

Obviously this depends on sight height above the bore line, but unless I was trying to dot the "i" on a Pepsi can, I found this sufficiently precise to seriously endanger ground squirrels with my .41's and .45 Colts out to 60 or 70 yards, and those with bad karma were in some danger out to 90 or so.

I just ran the load thru a ballastic program with the 75 yd zero; the bullet doesn't rise much more than a 1" out to 75 yds and doesn't fall too bad at 100 yds. Thats leave plenty of room for messing around practice shooting for fun and accurate enough for serious shooting at game at 25 to 50 yds (my max range for a handgun). Thanks, guys, that the kind of info. I needed.

lippy, if it's shooting that flat, zero at 100; it'll make plinking and practice MUCH more fun at longer range. JFSAG, try it and see.