I am going to try handgun hunting for whitetail deer this fall, and this will be the first time that I have hunted with a handgun. I have recently purchased a Taurus model 44 .44 mag with an 8 & 3/8" barrel and have mounted a Weaver 2X scope on it with the Taurus base and Weaver rings. The range where I usually shoot is only a 50 yard range. Approximately how high would I need to sight in the 240 grain hollow point factory loads at 50 yards to be right on or only slightly low at 100 yards? I have not decided on which specific factory load I will use yet, except that it will probably be a 240 grain hollow point and any comments on which would be the best would be appreciated too. I don't plan on shooting farther than 100 yards, and the deer where I live average about 130 pounds with a big buck weighing up to about 200 pounds.

Thanks for the help!

Ole Miss Rebel

"If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch!"

I use a 5" Perf Shop S&W 44 mag and use Fed. 250 grain FPJ Sierra factory loads. I zero at 50 yards with iron sights. I prefer this bullet due to less meat damage than hollow points, and works great on game up too moose. I have taken several black bear also with this load and my pistol was zero at the factory when i received it with this load.

Sight it in 1 in high at 50 you well only be about 2 in low at 100.

The best distance to sight a 44 mag is 75 yds. It's amazing how little drop it actually has. The best all around hunting bullet is the 320 gr. LBT WLNGC with 21.5 grs. of 296. Use a STANDARD PRIMER. Magnum primers have always tripled the group size. The most important thing is to have a very tight fit in the case, don't rely on crimp for accuracy, just crimp to keep the bullets in the cases.
This bullet has never failed me and none of the deer have gone out of sight. Meat damage is non existant and I butcher right to the hole.

Welcome to the wonderful world of handgun hunting!! Just remember to practice, practice, pratice. It's a lot more diffcult to be accurate w/ a handgun at first but it can be obtained by lots of practice. Good luck and good hunting.

[ 10-12-2003, 10:59: Message edited by: 44magnum ]

I ran some numbers through my load from a disk program, a 240 gr JHP with a ballistic coefficient of .172 leaving the muzzle at 1300 fps with have to be +2.5" at 50 yds for a 100 yd zero.

because of the rainbow trajectory out around 100 yards what I have allways done is to sight in at 50 and then if a deer is out at 100-125 yards I can just hold a little bit below the top of the back just have to keep in mind which handgun I have and what kind of groups its capable of shooting at those distances If its a 4 inch gun I hold 4 inches down seems to work for me as about 95% of the shots I get are 50 yards or less.

[ 10-14-2003, 13:29: Message edited by: Lloyd Smale ]

I'd sight in dead on, or at most 1-2" high at 50 yards. Ideally, all your shots will be inside 50 yards. I consider 100 yards my absolute maximum for a .44 mag (and thats out of a scoped pistol or a carbine, for my iron sighted revolvers, its more like 50-60 yards). I usually use Remington 240 grain soft points. You might also want to try Winchester 250 grain Partitions, or Speer 240 grain Gold Dots. Nearly any decent 240 grain slug will suffice for deer.