Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Sight in distance, trajectory?

New to this. For now shooting iron sights, .44 mag 7.5" Ruger super blackhawk and 240 gr factory stuff.

For deer hunting, what distance is a good first zero, without too high a midrange trajectory? Like when you zero a scoped rifle at 25 yards then it is on again at a longer distance with maybe a 3" midrange height above zero.

I know there are trajectory charts but was looking for hands on experience. How do you sight in and where do you hit at various ranges 25,50,75, 100yards?

Cheers

With a handgun it really depends on your ability to hit at distance. People bandy the .44 magnum about these days like it�s a .22 and it�s just assumed that everyone can shoot �like the gun writers� do in the magazines. Unless you�re experienced with the .44 mag, a 50 yard shot will be a tough shot because you�ll be fighting that flinch, and that flinch grows exponentially as distance increases. The .44 magnum is pretty flat shooting where magnum revolver rounds are concerned. A .44 sighted in at 25 yards is only off about 3� or so at 100 (check a ballistics chart, I�m pulling that from memory). If you can honestly make a 100 yard shot, then a 50 yard zero makes some sense. I don�t recall ever shooting a .44 mag at game beyond 100 yards, and even then only once at a Coyote that was trotting slowly across the meadow. I was shooting on a meadow that was at the top of a hill, so the whole thing had this gentle slope, which made the Yote look farther away than he actually was. I missed that Yote 4 times, shooting right over his back. I didn�t see a bullet strike until the last shot, and then I dialed him in and ruined his day. Had it been a deer, I surely would have missed that shot, and the funny thing is, I do most of my handgun shooting at 150 yards. But that�s the challenge of handgun hunting. It�s very satisfying when it all comes together. I don�t mind the misses because then you get to learn a lesson about why you missed.

I know it will take practice...just looking for the trajectory based on real experience.

I just looked up an internet ballistics chart, which more or less confirmed what I was gonna write anyways, but here it is:

240 gr bullet @1200 fps: +1.5" @ 25 yds
+3.0" @ 50 yds
+0.5" @ 100 yds

That basically means you aim for what you want to hit from point-blank range out to 100 yards. The vital organs of a deer are roughly 8-9" in diameter in broadside presentation, so if you can put your bullets into a paper pie-plate out to 100 yards with consistency, you'll be good.

The "trick" is being able to put your bullets in that pie plate with consistency. For handgun hunting season, I train with my hunting loads out to 75 yards or so... I used to be able to see well enough to hunt out to 125 yards, but my eyes are aging poorly, so I've brought the range in somewhat. I put the top of my front sight 1/3 of the way up the deer's chest (or in the center of the woodchuck, or whatever varmint I'm shooting at) and let fly. I don't worry about +/- 2" trajectory on deer... on small game, it's usually inside 25 yards, so I tend to aim a bit low. It's mostly a sense of getting a sense of where your load hits through practice, really.

My rule for handgun proficiency in deer hunting is to have as many hits on the pie plate as the target is from me in yards. I start with 25 hits at 25 yards, then move out to 50 hits at 50 yards, then 75 hits at 75 yards. This usually requires more than a few range sessions, in case you wondered! After a couple dozen heavy loads at 75-100 yards fatigue sets in and I start missing more than I hit. It's better to keep your practice sessions

Thanks. Sounds like even just an inch high at 25 keeps you in the boiler room at 100. Will hit the range once we lose more of the snow and ice up here. Maybe some day I will winter in Texas!