Just some advice for ya.

The 44 mag in a handgun will not give you 1000ft lbs at 100 yards. In a rifle yes but not a handgun. Don't worry about that because the 44 mag will kill deer at that range and a bit farther. The only draw back is the person behind the gun. meaning us. We are the limiting factor as far as how far we can take game with the 44 mag or whatever we choose to go afield with. Don't and I mean don't use the 180 grainers for deer. THis is just MY opinion as they just seen to be too litely jacketed for the job. I know others say that they have done it before but far too many problems have been attributed to the lighter bullets in the 44 mag like the 180 gr xtp. Use 240 and up and you should be fine.

You stated that you shoot ok out to 50 yards and you do Ok, well that bothers me a little bit in that you might want to shoot farther like the 100 yards you are inquiring about the ballistics of the 44 mag. If you shoot ok at 50 yards then stay at 50 and no farther. If you put a 8" paper plate up, can you hit it every time at that distance. AND not with just a bench or ransome rest but field positions like useing a pole or just the bench with no rest to resemble a rock or something to give your arms a rest on. Stuff like that. People take handgun hunting as being easy just a shorter range weapon then rifle will its not. I am a much better shot with my bow then my handgun. If you stay or make your personal range to no farther than 50 yards you should do fine. 50 yards is far with a handgun and not something to sneeze at. I myself limit my shots with my handgun to 50 yards as it is now because I am just not confident enough at farther ranges. It takes time and a ton of practice to be able to shoot at 100 yards. It is not easy and anyone that says it is, is full of horse hocky.

Scopes on handguns are great but you need to practice a lot with them to become good enough. It humbles me a lot when I tried with a scope. Its a whole new ball game my friend. I thought it would be easy with a scope on and put up a small target at 100 yards to see what I could do and shot 4 times and guess what I never hit it once.

Trigger control is so important I can't stress it enough to ya. When you look through a scope and you will see how much you move with a scope its very humbleing to say the least. SO a good trigger job is important for good quality shooting.

I would like to stress that this is just my opinion from someone who was bitten by the handgun hunting bugg. SO I do take things to the extreme. You could surly do fine with your gun the way it is but don't shoot farther than you feel confident in placing the bullet every time.

Use good bullets like speer gold dot and unicor disign as they are tremendous performers in the field. If not Federal has some good cast bullets in there line up and would give them a try. I am a heavy for caliber bullet user so just find a bullet that is 240 gr and heavier and if it shoots good great go afield knowing you can harvest a deer with no problem. Just do a lot of practice so you are good enough and have fun.

I got bitten by the bug a while ago and am a little nuts in this catagory. That is why I went full hog on my gun and got a Dan Wesson 445 supermag and scoped it with a burris 2x7. I love this gun and it shoots much better than I do. I can only shoot with the scope out to 50 maybe 75 yards. I am just not good enough yet but I am working on it. I am getting a progressive reloading maching so I can get better by shooting more and more. Good luck and if you have anymore questions just ask because I love handgun hunting. Take care



Brian