What is the best distance to sight in a .44 mag

[Whiskeyhotel2020]

I have a blackhawk in 44 mag. My great grandpa had the scope milled into the receiver so no iron sight option. What would be the best way to sight this pistol in. I will probably only bring it out to plink with may take out an occasional ground squirrel. I was thinking a fifty yard zero. I've never dealt with a scoped handgun before so any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Captcurt]

I have my 357 zeroed at 50 yards and it has taken deer from 20-45+ yards. Don't know why it wouldn't work for a 44. I have even shot it at 100 yards and can keep all of them on a 8x11" sheet of paper. I do have a red dot on it though.

 

[Whiskeyhotel2020]

I forget what power the bushnell phantom that is mounted on my blackhawk is. I know that the thing is older than I am.

 

[StrawHat]

Do your best to guess what distance you will shoot the most and zero for that. Hold over or under for everything else. Most of my revolvers are set at 50 yards.

Kevin

 

[22250Rem]

I zero my 2x scoped 44 Mag. Redhawk at 50 yards because that would be about the longest shot possible in the area that I handgun hunt. Shot it at 30 yds. on my club's pistol range and it hits just a hair higher than 50 yds. buy it won't make much difference on my intended target of whitetails. So it's good to go.

 

[sparkyv]

50yd for me, open sights for the 50m gongs at my range. Someday I hope to hunt with my M629.

 

[shuvelrider]

If I remember correctly, I sighted my Redhawk at 30 yards with open sights. The shot for this deer was measured at 70 yards, I just compensated a touch high. No matter what distance you sight-in, scope or not, it will require practice at different distances to get proficient.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

I wonder if you could get a little red-dot on it, instead of the scope? I've always thought 50 yards was a good "standard" for .44's and .357's. I took a deer once with my .44mag, open sights at 100 yards, and did not hold high or over. I don't remember if it was sighted for 50, or a tad over at fifty. Probably a tad over. Long time ago. In more recent times, before I declared peace on Coyote, I made two over 100 yard shots on them.

 

[KY DAN]

Well with 44 mag and 357 mag shooting full bore ammo and standard bullet weights i.e. 158 grain 357 and 240 grain 44 mag I recommend 2-3 inches high from point of aim at 50 yards.

You will be covered out to 150 ish yards.

Just shoot at the in between distances to learn how the bullet will travel and where your sights will be.

 

[Gordon]

I sight in for 50 yards IF ou think you are good enough and have open ground add like above 2-3" high to take you out to under 200 without much holdover. The Earliest Phantom was 1.6x power with a 3/4" main tube that was a 60s scope, the later Phantoms I remember were 2.5x and a larger tube 7/8" I think . They were not great but other than the odd Hudson handgun sight that was pretty much all that was available. I had a 2.5 Phantom on my 1971 XP100 I had rechamber to shoot .223 because I was an Army officer and could get ammo . That Phantom let me kill varmints to 200 yards + pretty well which would freak people out at the time.