Pistol for hunting

[BBQ BOY]

I am a bow hunter and often see deer that are out of my range. For the past several years I have been thinking of getting a scoped pistol. Either a S&W or Ruger. Out of the 2 which is more accurate and reliable? I like the looks of the Ruger more and both seem to fit my hand OK or at least the Super Black Hawk fits better with the grip being more slim but the Super Red Hawk is available with a slim grip as well in a low glare finish.
SA or DA?
caliber?
Barrel length?[/align]

[Rebel Hog]

In the 1970's I had the Black Hawks and thelate 1980's I had the a Scoped Super Red Hawk which I favaored for deer hunting.....

[Edcyclopedia]

I have a super redhawk and love it (.44mag). I love the Ruger revolvers and the Redhawk is a double action verses
the Blackhawk being a single action revolver ( I like the dbl action option). However, the S&W revolvers are very sweet!

When I bought the pistol, I had put a Laser RedDot scope on it and hunted with it on my side for awhile.
It's a simulated laser dot in the scope only, it does not cast the laser beam out.
A few years back I decided I didn't like it and took it off, as it just added weight and I had to remember to turn on the laser.
I'll sell it cheap if you want to try?
$50 and needs a battery, also will kick in the 30mm mount rings. I think I paid like $225 when new 10 years ago.
I've considered putting on a fixed power Leupold scope, but don't want to spend the extra money, as I figure I'm not accurate enough past 60 yards with or without a scope.

I bagged this 8 pointer @ 15 yards and iron sights. He went 2 feet... Straight down.

[Vapodog]

I'm not at all sure there's a difference....both are worthy handguns but I do strongly recommend .41 Mag and larger and 6" minimum barrels.

Look also at the Taurus.....another very fine hunting revolver.

[bronko22000]

First off - can you legally use a handgun during your bow season? Second - if you are looking to fill your freezer and not wanting a deer to slip by you out of bow range either leave your bow at home and use the handgun or become a better bow hunter by increasing your effective range through practice or tune up your stalking skills.
When I archery hunt I only carry my bow. I can expect animals to be seen out of range. Heck when I hunt with the rifle I see my quarry out of range sometimes. I think you see where I am going with this.

[BigJ71]

Both will do the job for you and both are fine guns.Personally, I prefer single actions for hunting so I opt for the Ruger. Last year I used this.......




..........to kill this. (Pistol is on my right hip under the shirt)


This year I'm going to go the "scoped route" with this Ruger Super Black Hawk Hunter in .44mag. While I have nothing against S&W (I have several) I prefer Rugers when it comes to my pistol hunting. Overall they (Rugers) are more reliable especially if you are shooting heavy +P+ loads through them year after year, they are very stout and "over designed" revolvers. I think Smith & Wesson's tend to be slightly more accurate right out of the box depending on the caliber. In 44mag it's about even with the edge going to the S&W due to a better factory trigger. With the .45 Colt the S&W is more accurate out of the box where the Rugers single actions tend to be more picky of what ammo you shoot. This is due to the Cylinder throats being slightly undersized from the factory. If you are shooting a .451 bullet all is good, .452 and you might run into accuracy issues. Now I'm only talking a couple inches down range here not a great deal. In fact most don't shoot well enough to tell the difference but a lot do.

The bright side for all you Ruger loving .45Colt shooting folks is it's an easy inexpensive fix. A proper reamer and about a half an hour and you're good to go! The trigger takes a little more work but it can be smoothed up and lightened up for very accurate shooting.

The reason the Ruger .44mags don't have this problem is their cylinder throats are cutright around.431 to.433 (on average) and the .44mag bullet is actually .429 to .430so you're not "resizing" your bullet as it leaves the cylinder before it even enters the barrel.Barrels are slightly smaller than the bullet diameter so they form a good seal (no burning powder leaking around the bullet causing leading etc...) and so it can engage the rifling good, all this equating to good accuracy.

When the .452 Colt bullets leave the cylinder that are anywhere from .451 to .488! it "swags" the bullet downtoo much, itdoesn't allowthe bulletto seal as good as it enters the barrel and this hurts accuracy as well asadds undue pressureon thecylinder.Again this is hundredths of inches were talking about but it does effect accuracy. Again, it's an easy fix but most don't even realize (or notice) the accuracy difference.

Anyway, that being said, I love my Rugers for hunting....here's this years rig.