I know a gunsmith who is also a benchrest shooter. Whenever I frequent his shop I am always impressed with his collection of custom benchrest grade XP-100s. These guns shoot .1s and .2s with no problem. The one thing that stands out is that his XPs have rifle scopes. Not 4X or 6X, but 6X24 Bushnells! Does anybody else use rifle scopes on handguns. I may want to give it a try but I would like to hear about others that do this. What is your technique? What kind of gun or scope do you use? What kind of results do you get? I have always found pistol scopes a little difficult when you get into the high magnification.

Brain, I use rifle scopes on several of my XP's and T/C handguns. One being a 250 Ackley, and two of them being 22-250 Ackley along with a few in standard chamberings.
Normally easiest to use off a bench, I get the picture I want in the scope, then pull back a bit before I fire. You will have the total image become a bit smaller, but not enough to matter. On the bigger guns, (more recoil) I uee good brakes such as JP or Holland Ultras, and stay right up by the scope. Never have had any problems. I also use LER scopes designed for handguns, but just find rifle scopes a bit easier to use if firing a lot of rounds in a day. Russ

Brian, I have a 4.5-14X Simmons ATV scope on an XP .17 Mach IV which I use for coyote calling (off tall Harris bipod, sitting). I also have 4-12X Burris Mini on a .224 Vais I haven't worked with yet (although I'm certain it will work fine). A friend is using a 4.5-14X Leupold on a .243 AI. I think the rifle scopes allow a little more flexibility regarding control of the pistol in the field when any # of positions can be encountered. I have a 3-12X LER Burris on my 6.5-284 XP for big game, rockchucks, and spotting and stalking predators. When I 'm in the prone position the eye relief is so critical, that it often takes me longer to acquire the target in the scope @ 12X. Although the scope is mounted as far forward as possible I'm only rarely able to obtain a full field of view, due to my arm length (I'm only 5'5" tall). So far I've been able to improvise, but I came dreadfully close to missing a coyote yesterday that I had put an hour long stalk on. Rockchuck shooting can be a problem with that super critical eye relief too. Often in this scenario you find yourself prone facing uphill which plays hell with eye relief on an extended shooting session. Somehow I'm going to have to find a way to move that scope forward about another inch or two, without having to go to a rear grip stock. Any suggestions????

Greetings! I have been using rifle scopes on Contenders for several years, with ewxcellent results.

I have a Bellm Rechambered 22wmr super 14" barrel (rechambered from a 22lr) which resides on my "Turtle Gun" Contender, with 12" custom Bullberry hanger/freefloated forend, Harris BR bipod, Anatomical thumbhole EABCO grip, Bellm oversize hinge pin, and 8-32x target rifle scope held by Leupold High QRW rings and a Weaver 92A base.

This configuration has allowed me to make some difficult shots with the 22mag, grouping all shots inside a dime at 100 yards with CCI Maxi-Mag+V 30grn hp's, and this 22mag has even taken a Woodchuck out as far as 225 yards. In the pic, the one on the right was taken at 100 yrds (was sitting halfway out of his hole when I shot him) and the other on the left is the one that measured 225 yards, which makes it the longest groundhog to date from this barrel & caliber for me.

I actually hit this one right under the right eye (if you look close you can see this in the pic) though not exactly by design. At the time (late November), I originally thought the Woodchuck was perhaps 180 yards or so away, and so I held roughly 6-8" over his head, watched the grass for wind (there was not much, but ANY wind with a rimfire counts!) and let go. I was surprised at the distance, but I can't argue with the ranging results of my Bushnell rangefinder.

So, I am a proponant of using rifle scopes on Contender handguns. The biggest round I have tried thus far in this configuration has been a 15" 9mm barrel, and recoil was not an issue. I am going to try a 14" 300 Whisper and a 15" 7mm TCU next, using a 6.5-20x Leupold EFR target scope, which has the best eye relief of any rifle scope on the market in this magnification range (The Leupold tend towards this).

I'm glad you brought this up. I have a 308 Striker that wears a Burris 2-7 and I usually rest my elbow on my side and choke up a bunch to steady it, the burris closes of the FOV if not at arms length damn near. This is a BIG pain in the ass if you shoot like I do. I got the pistol from my dad with the scope for cheap so I can't complain. I will replace it with a rifle scope now. I thought it was just me.

I also am glad you brought up this subject! I was just talking to a fellow shooter with whom I want to go to northern PA and shoot some "Whistle Pigs", PA dutch term for groundhogs,with my .17 REM contenders. But the smaller magnification scopes do not cut it for any distance. This has helped solve my dilema as to wether or not to spend the money for a good rifle scope. I know that there were some brand names mentioned above, has anyone else had any preferences that would help me.

One clarification needs to be brought up here - all of these applications are using low recoil calibers. I have a 3-9x mounted on a .22 Match Contender barrel, but I certainly would not want my eyelids that close to a scope on any of my Herret barrels or even the Waters barrel. Blood in the eyes makes for bad day at the range!

hmmmm? reckon it would work on a 6tcu? i started to go out and test it on my 14" .223 barrel today. it's just hard to get motivated when your workin mid-night shift.

???? But what about the big boomers that have more muzzle jump and recoil, IE 44mag, 358jdj, 45-70, 309jdj, 300 wsm, and so on. The rifle scopes are great but is anyone using them on heavy cal? olefish

I would even be careful with a 308, the one I had in a striker without a brake was just as bad as my 358 win for muzzle jump.olefish