Getting ready to drop my money on the Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter.

I went through this very quandary a couple of weeks ago and came to a couple of opinions.

1) Ported guns for hunting are unneeded. This goes for both rifles and handguns. While you may get a bit less muzzle flip, I can honestly say that anytime I have needed a 2nd shot the animal was either a) already down and required a finishing shot or b) had the afterburner lit and was getting out of Dodge in which case the range, direction and lead had changed significantly enough that the extra time to get on target due to muzzle flip was minimal. Not only that, the muzzle blast is deafening.

2) As others have noted, when hunting most of the time you will be shooting single action so I see no advantage to the double action revolvers.

3) The Ruger is simply a strong revolver. All of the Ruger revolvers I have ever owned have been extremely strong and have stood up very well to years of heavy loads with no degredaton in accuracy or function.

4) The Taurus is a really heavy gun. I wanted a barrel a bit longer than 6" so that meant going to an 8 3/8" barrel on the Taurus. This puts the weight of the gun alone at 63 oz. On the other hand the SBH with a 7 1/2" barrel is 52 oz.