I'm an experienced hunter but entirely new to the whole pistol thing. Last season my crossbow hunting buddy killed a black bear that weighed 450 lb. field-dressed so I bought a S&W scandium .41 Mag as a back-up gun. I like the gun well enough that I'm thinking of maybe trying it for whitetail out to ?40-50 yrd.s?. The standard iron sights on the gun are next to useless (short radius and to hard to see) for a guy my age, so I need some options. An optical pistol scope seems heavy, a laser sight seems useless in bright light, and I know nothing of red dots. Help drive back the darkness of ignorance. What other options should i consider? What should I ask? What are the trade offs? What do I really want?

Red dots work well, holosites work well (same principal, a little smaller) The red dots correct for paralax so where the dot goes, so does the bullet (in theory, can't forget about wind and gravity). The downside is lack of magnification and the red dot tends to subtend a large area (2 moa to 30 moa). At 40-50 yds a 4 moa sight would work well.

John

First off ANY kind of optical sight will take away much of the portability of a "backup gun". Turns it into a little gun with a big old hunk of stuff on the top. That being said I know from where you speak about "old eyes" and iron sights. I've at one time or another had red dot and holo-sights mounted on my handguns. Both work well out to reasonable handgun ranges and if you keep yourself to the 40-50 yard limit you mention they will get the job done. Bushnell makes a red dot called Trophy it has IIR 5 different reticles and 11 light settings. I had one mounted on a 12 inch .411JDJ (.444Marlin necked to .410)Contender. It held up to earth moving loads. Trick is to mount them correctly . I had this one mounted with three Bushnell rings on a 6 screw base that was epoxied to the barrel. Think I posted pictures of it here back when.
I you can Try to mount a "hi-Viz" front sight with a shallow "U" rear to try to replicate DGR open sights. They should be fast and highly visible in low light situations and you'll be able to carry the Smith in a regular holster

BTY THANKS RJM

The smallest red dot sight I am aware of is the Doctor Optic.

It is a good quality product.

If you want to keep the 41 Mag fairly compact give it a look.

The Docter sight that NE mentions is now marketed by Trijicon...and they make one of their own also... I am not sure what bases are available for S&W revolvers but the Trijicon home page should list them.

Crawfish..the FO sights you mention are the ones that come on the S&W M357 that Holzague has. Having a M357 also I can agree that they are not a great sight for fine shooting long range...but a great sight for a close range BU gun.

Guess my thought would be if you really want to hunt with a handgun and need better sights than are on the M357, if you can afford it buy a second handgun have it fitted with a type of sight you can see and shoot well and keep the M357 as a backup gun...that's really is it's specialty. There are still a lot of M57 Mountain Guns out there for sale...they are already drilled and tapped for scope use. Nice compact package in a gun you already know...

Bob

Thanks guys. I'm still seeking input and pondering the issue. I'm hearing the weight and bulk comments on the sights you guys have mentioned. Maybe I should limit my ambitions to inside 35 yards and try for simpler, lighter sights. I seem to remember looking at iron sights for my black powder rifle with fiber optic inserts that were supposed to make the sights easier to line up for older eyes. Have you tried them? Do they work?

Doesn't your M357 come with FO sights? Or is it the "V" rear sight that is giving you sighting problems?

Brownells has several different aftermarket sets of sights for the S&W revolvers.

Bob

Seems to me it wouldn't take much parts swapping to switch out the V-notch and bead front for a set of conventional square notch and post front sights. Seems like Brownells or Midway could provide the parts and the tools if you want to do it yourself.

I have a 329 44 mag and before I had it modified I use it to kill a pronghorn at about 50 yards but it wasn't easy. I didn't like the factory fiber optic/express type sights as I couldn't get them to repeatedly index like traditional S&W sights. I had it converted to a traditional S&W square notch back sight and post front by my gunsmith. He fitted a factory back sight, but had to make a front sight as there are no after market front sights for these scandium guns. I like the new sights much better.

Perry.

Looks like Bowen will install real sights and do an action job for $395 http://www.bowenclassicarms.com/NEW/SW02.htm or he'll sell your 'smith the parts for $115. Still, whether a fella can hit his deer in the ribs at 50 yards depends on several other variables.