I'm curious, in shooting a revolver at 50 yards off hand with open sights, what would you consider acceptable accuracy for big game hunting? What is about the best you could to with whatever open sighted handgun you wish to choose?

Well that's kind of a broad question.Hunting accurate and target accurate is different in a lot of folks eyes.I read an article once that said 1" per ten yards was good off hand accuracy.For me personally about half that is what I consider hunt ready.Shoot me a 2 1/2"-3"group off hand with open sights at 50 and I am ready.

Now the second question there is very open ended,cause I've seen some open sighted customs that in the right persons hands and on a good shooting day amaze the hello out of me.

So much depends on the gun, shooter, ammo ect.

I personaly with my older eyes now days a 8x11 is about what I can hope for.

When I had younger eyes 3 or 4 inch groups were common 8x11 at 100 back then.

Give me good optics now that is a differant story.

A good revolver should get at least 2.5-3.0" from a rest at 25 yds. Handloads should half that group .A good handload offhand at 50 yds should give 3-5" .Under field conditions [fast shooting ,no rest ,etc ] you'll be able to keep within the 10" vital area of a deer .BTW typical 1/8" front sight covers about 10" at 60 yds.
This seasoned citizen last year took a 250lb deer with one quick shot at about 50 yds with an iron sighted M29 ! Metallic silhouette is great practice !

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
A good revolver should get at least 2.5-3.0" from a rest at 25 yds.

Mete, you should be able to do that with your eyes closed! LOL!

I guess I don't feel so bad.

With scoped Encores and Contenders, I think I do quite well off the bench but not so well with a revolver. I recently found out I actually shoot a revolver better offhand than off the bench; yes, I know, I must be doing something wrong but I'm not sure what it is.

Anyway, in shooting an open sighted 460 S&W revolver offhand, the best I've been able to do fairly consistently for 3 shot 50 yard groups is in the 6 inch range. I do a little better with my Redhawk in 44 Magnum; 3 to 4 inches. I was just wanting to bet a better idea of whether I needed to chase a better load.

In my search, for the perfect load, I've now gone through about 80 Barnes Buster bullets.

Grumulkin, best sixgun shooting I ever did was sitting with my back against a post with a 10.5-inch SBH between my knees and 300-grain XTPs over a case full of 296. Got a four-inch group at 100 but that was with a Leupold 2X EER scope. I find my iron-sight capabilities rapidly receding the closer I get to age 60.

I have a target around here somewhere I shot years ago out of my 357 Redhawk. It was shot off a bench, and is one ragged hole at 50 yards. The Redhawk sports a Leupold EER 2X, and the load was my own cast 180-grain truncated cone with way more Accurate #9 in it than the load book said was max. I probably won't ever do it again, but it shows the potential of the revolver...

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
I have a target around here somewhere I shot years ago out of my 357 Redhawk. It was shot off a bench, and is one ragged hole at 50 yards. The Redhawk sports a Leupold EER 2X, and the load was my own cast 180-grain truncated cone with way more Accurate #9 in it than the load book said was max. I probably won't ever do it again, but it shows the potential of the revolver...

You've got that right! I'm not a particularly good group shooter. bfrshooter shot this three round group at 50 yards with my BFR in .500 JRH. Revolvers have tremendous potential to shoot accurately!

Whitworth , I'm talking about average performance not the best .All too often shooters do everything from the bench and in the real world can't hit anything !
It's been shown that after 10 seconds your ability to hold steady gets worse.Often the deer doesn't give you a fraction of that . You must then train to shoot quickly !
I've had a number of situations where I had to shoot one handed and fast !!.
Can you raise your gun, aim and fire in 2 seconds and hit he 10" circle at 50 yds ?? If you can then you're a handgun hunter !

2 seconds to raise and fire into the kill zone at 50yds is pretty darn good. I was pretty darn good at IPSC and USPA when I competed and that is a pretty high standard for most handgun shooters. I often hunt with a handgun and have taken numerous deer and hogs as well as truck loads of small game. I can count on one hand the number of shots I took "on my hind legs" with no type of rest. The same bipods/tripods we use on rifles make equally great rests (and an excellent walking stick) for a handgun. More often than not I just practice at the range shooting off of my sticks with rifle and handgun. I use paper desert plates as my target painted brown, black or grey. They are slightly smaller than the kill zone of a deer or hog and the dark color gives a more realistic view of your sights on an animal. The distance that I can hit that while shooting under field conditions is my maximum effective range.

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
Whitworth , I'm talking about average performance not the best .All too often shooters do everything from the bench and in the real world can't hit anything !
It's been shown that after 10 seconds your ability to hold steady gets worse.Often the deer doesn't give you a fraction of that . You must then train to shoot quickly !
I've had a number of situations where I had to shoot one handed and fast !!.
Can you raise your gun, aim and fire in 2 seconds and hit he 10" circle at 50 yds ?? If you can then you're a handgun hunter !

Just pullin' your leg, mete!

A good revolver from a rest should do 1/2" to an inch at 50 meters. Every 29 I owned would do 1/2" from Creedmore---NO REST!
BFR's have been down to 5/16" and under 1" at 100 yards. Rugers will run around 3/4" at 50. SRH's have done 1/2" many times.
Off hand is tough but stop and think about the 6" groups at 50 from a rest, just what do you expect off hand?
You do not understand how the smallest groups from a rest will increase off hand accuracy. The boolit must go to the sights even if you are 12" off. It is up to you to reduce that 12" but the gun should put the boolit where the gun was aimed.
Don't tell me you get 2" at 20 yards from a rest but can shoot 2" at 50 off hand.

quote:

I'm curious, in shooting a revolver at 50 yards off hand with open sights, what would you consider acceptable accuracy for big game hunting? What is about the best you could to with whatever open sighted handgun you wish to choose?

ALWAYS chase a better load. Open sights with good vision can be as good as it gets.
Never work loads off hand. Get the very best from a rest first. I can't shoot open sights from bags because they are too close to my eyes so I shoot Creedmore with them. It is 100% possible to shoot 1/2" groups that way at 50 meters.
Once the gun will shoot, your off hand accuracy will get REAL good.
Now to explain, if you are way off because of wiggle, wobble and shakes but the boolit hit where the sights were and you can call the shot, you are good and just need practice. If you were way left at trigger break but the boolit went way to the right, you will chase your tail forever and never improve.
Accuracy first, accuracy first, accuracy first! Only then can you become a better off hand shot because you can't wish a boolit into the target.

The telling factor is your eyes. For me as I have gotten older (perhaps not wiser) I have reduced my acceptable range with an open sighted revolver to
50 yards max, and I prefer 25 to 35. At those ranges I prefer using a rest, even an improvised one, rather than shooting offhand, and I find that I can easily get minute of hog.

I have tested revolver loads in a Ransom Rest that would easily go 1/2" at 50 yards. But when I move to the standing position with no rest the groups open up just slightly. On an average day I can make minute of a barn (broadside), on a good day minute of a large shed.

Mart

yep, right with you!

Yep, look at a pointer on a bird or a deer standing there staring at you. Not a muscle moves!
But we are the shakiest, wobbliest pieces of junk when holding a gun.
Then you think about recoil too much or making the gun fire as you sweep through the target and it passes the spot.
I just refuse to add a 12" group to all the bad things I do. There is only one thing that works and that is to blame yourself for a miss, never the gun itself. I can live with my failings but I can't live with a gun that shoots where it feels like shooting.
I have a pile of gun rags that I get for some reason, never paid for any???
I have found something new being done and the large calibers will respond nicely.
First you shoot 4 to 6 shots from a rest at 20 yards with a scope or red dot. Then you measure and record the best 3 or 4 shots for the groups sizes and ignore any shots out of the group. Then the load info is listed with the best shots only.
That will make it easier for everyone to get a 1" group at the long range of 20 yards and make it easier to hit a deer at 100.
I should have thought of that long ago to build confidence in my gun.
You fellas need to read more gun rags! A wealth of information. All of you know the writer.

If you can put all the shots from your wheelgun into a group the size the cylinder at 25 yards that is good. If you and your combination can do it at 50, very good.

When I first started handgun hunting my goal was an 8" group at 100 yards. Now it's a bit tighter.
My tightest group with a whitness was 1.75 inch group at 100 from an iron sighted 6.5" revlover, seated and resting my arms across the table no sandbags. My friend and witness took the same load/gun and shot a 2 inch group. It is a custom revlover and it will flat shoot.

I know the gun could do it again. Not saying I could.

I have several targets with 3 shots into 1/2" or less at 50yds, I guess I should have thought of leaving the fliers out also, lol. But with all 5 counted they are still around 1.5- 1.7"ish.
Some health problems over the past year have messed with my eyesite, so I'm looking at putting scopes on more of my handguns

To be honest, the 1" per 10yd thing isn't a bad criteria IMO, for the majority of handgun hunters. While not perfect, it does take into consideration the lack of practice that most get.

Here where folks shoot week in and week out that could be cut in half by some but others might still need a bit of work.

As mentioned make sure the load is there using a rest first, then work on the off hand part of controlling where it goes. Learning to hold and shoot a revolver at arms length is very similar to shooting a bow. You have to get the muscles tuned up and ready to hold it out there before you can be steady. The more you practice the easier it is.

I shot these two groups offhand at 40yds with my Redhawk in 41mag, simply to demonstrate the differences in crimps to my buddie. They are both the exact same load,


These loads from the bench will shoot like the right hand group at 100yds, and have done so quite a few times. I however am the weak link. If I were using them specifically for deer, I would work on my shooting way more as I did back when I hunted with my scoped 44. However I usually only hunt for feral hogs, and this is plenty accurate for them at most of the ranges I encounter them at.