My gun is a ruger super redhawk 44 mag with open sights on a 9.5" barrell.
Just wondering with practice what would be a reasonable hunting distance with a rest i should be able to shoot. so far im lights out at 30 yrds.
Thanks
W

Well, how does it group? A 5 shot group should give you some idea of the confidence you have that you can put a round where it needs to go. I would think that a 2" group should be what you should strive for. That gun should out shoot you. I would recommend getting a red dot sight or a scope to increase your usable hunting distance. 50 yards is easily doable with that gun.
Peter.

You should learn at what ranges you can put a cylinder full into a 6" group from different hunting positions. For me it is 40 yards offhand, 65 yards from a bipod or leaning against a support like a tree, and a little over 100 yards from a solid rest.

Don't kid yourself about these ranges-- if you are too far out, get closer or get a better rest.

If you figure a 10" circle as the critical zone , a 44mag with iron sights is appropriate to 60 , maybe 70 yds. Accuracy of the revolver with factoryloads maybe 2.5" .That's not enough in my view but handloads should get it down to 1.2" .Work things up from 25yds with rest gradually to 50yds freehand.Years of metallic silhouette helped a lot.I can now do a quick freehand at 50 yds for a one shot kill.
Shoot a lot making every shot serious ,no blasting away !

When I was shooting "hunters pistol" silhouette I found that dry fire practice was more important than the time I spent at the range with live ammo.

I balanced a dime on the front sight and practiced my trigger pull until I could keep the dime from falling. Once that is in "muscle memory" you shoot better at the range. I used up a lot of ammo between the practice and events but I spent hours in dry fire practice each day. I ended up as a AAA grade shooter (back when that was the highest grade).