How to properly sight in a Blackhawk

[cgturner7]

My question is how to accurately sight in a SBH for hunting. Do I decide on a round I want to use and then adjust the sights around that ammo? Or do I shoot a bunch of different ammo, find out which one shoots best out of my revolver, and use that one? What distance would be best for sighting in?

One last thing- Any advice on a good hunting round would be appreciated. I'll be hunting Texas sized whitetails, with a possibility of axis also.

[Redhawk1]

I suggest you pick a few different loads that are good for hunting, find out which one's give you the best accuracy, then adjust your sights for that load. Sight it in for the distance you plan one hunting, keep it under 75 yards with open sights, or to where your comfort zone is.

I would say any 41 Mag, 44 Mag or the 45 Colt in the Blackhawk would work well. I like hard cast bullets for all the game I shoot with handguns, deer, hogs and black bear.

One last thing, practice, practice, practice. 

[Ole Man Dan]

Redhawk 1 is dead on !  (He's BTDT)
Lets add Two more things to consider.  FIRST,  Sight in the gun then shoot of off a 'Benchrest' to convince yourself it's dead on.  (That's important.   
SECOND,  Loose the bench and practice shooting off hand and from different barricade positions, Shoot off the side of trees or timbers, Shoot off of improvised rest, like you would in the field.
 
***WORK ON GETTING ON TARGET QUICKLY, AND DON'T FIRE UNTILL THE SIGHTS ARE ON TARGET***
(My advise to every hunter...)

If you are convinced your gun is sighted in and you can control the shot, you can make the shot.

[cgturner7]

OK, I did a little shopping the past couple of days.  I bought three boxes of ammo to try.  I have two boxes of Hornady, 240 gr & 300 gr XTP.  One box of Fusion 240 gr.  I've always had good luck with Hornady out of my long guns so I thought I'd try them first.  There were also Winchester white box in 240 gr.  Any one have good luck with these?  The price is sure right.  I won't be able to get to the range until next week, dang it!! 

I also got a box of .44 specials.  I thought I read somewhere that the lead bullets will build up in the throat area and make loading of .44 mag difficult or impossible.  Should I take my cleaning kit with me to the range?

[bilmac]

A box or two of specials in your mag won't gum it up enough to keep you from loading it. Shooting a box of this and a box of that really won't teach you enough to be a proficient handgun hunter, you need to shoot gobs of bullets. You really need to reload to be able to shoot enough to be good.  A handgun is more like archery in that respect, it's all about practice practice practice.

About sighting in, ok start out by getting a zero from the bench, but to be truely sighted in you need to know you are zeroed in the position you will most likely be using in the field. When I was in Law Enforcement, it finally dawned on me that my DA revolver shot way differently depending on the way it was held. A bench zero was quite a ways from an offhand zero. How do you go about finding an offhand zero when you are shooting maybe 4" or 6" groups at 25, depending on how fast you are shooting ect. You shoot lots of bullets, at paper now,(boreing)  you eyeball how the group center lies in relation to the bullseye, and then you tweek the sights. Than you do it again and again. Eventually you have confidence in your zero. But then what happens when you use a tree for a rest. Or my favorite field position, propping my back against something in a sitting position with elbows on knees. Does the gun shoot the same place, if it doesn't a good handgun hunter should know. See what I mean about gobs of bullets?

Luckily, for me anyhow, a SA revolver is far less sensitive to the way it is held than my DA. I can even rest the barrel against a solid object and the old SA just keeps putting them in the same group. Thats why even though I keep the DA for defense, when I am serious about hitting little targets I will use the SA.

[hoggunner]

I dont have a ruger I am one of those poor guys that shoots a raging bull in 44 mag. but the shoot practice is the same, first belive me that 25 yrds is a good starting place. I shoot my gun single action all the time, dont worry about double untill you can do all you want in single action. after you get 4 to 6 in groups at 25 move out to say 35 yrds and so on untill you get out to the max range that you hit the flat part of a paper plate every time. I shoot off of the bench to get on paper then get off the bench and shoot from field positions. I cheated and put a holo site on my revolver and now hit the flat of the plate every time at 100 yrds from my shooting sticks sitting on the ground. shoot shoot and shoot. the hornady 240 and 300 grain xtps both shoot great out of my 8 inch barrel and i have a reload that shoots the same poi. if you get into hand loading it will not save you any money because you will shoot twice as much, but its twice as fun. good luck and shoot shoot shoot shoot and shoot some more. my average day at the range now is about 100 rounds, and its the only gun I use on white tail.
hoggunner

[warrior1]

hogguneer got it pretty much on the head.

 if you get into hand loading it will not save you any money because you will shoot twice as much, but its twice as fun. good luck and shoot shoot shoot shoot and shoot some more. my average day at the range now is about 100 rounds, and its the only gun I use on white tail.

here's an exercise i use once in awhile , i pick an object or a spot on the wall close my eyes and bring the gun up to where i think the target is, open my eyes to see how close i am.

if you are going to use open sights keep working on using two eyes, you may not get it overnight but it will happen and i'm quite sure you'll be happy with the results.

let me know when you want to get rid of that nasty brass once you fired off a few boxes,
i'm sure i can find some use for it.

good luck , good shootin, dan

[MePlat]

Before I proceed let me say that what I am going to say is based on years of watching shooters while being at the range.
Most people, I'd say 95 percent can't tell the difference between a 1.5 inch load st 50 yards and a 3 inch load from FIELD  positions.
Benchrest yes.  Sighting a handun from a rest is a learning experience.  Most will shoot differently from a sandbagged rest than offhand.  Finding a method to make the differences close is the key.  Lightly touching the bag to dampen some of your movement is good.  ALL MOVEMENT does not have to be taken away to sight in.
Ammo,  most will out shoot most people in the field .  Scoped handgun on a sandbagged rest no.  Anyone telling you that  a  half inch better accuracy will help you in the field, woods, etc.. is handing you a long line of horse feathers.  Get them to demonstate what they are saying by shooting in the field with their superdooper accuracy load and just a  factory load shooting with their wrist rested across a limb or kneeling or offhand shooting for maybe 3 shot groups.   Unless they are a phenominal shot they wont prove anything.  We need accuracy for sure but small degrees improvement is not as  important as shooter improvement. 
The last thing is to get a good shooting coach to help you.  One that can actually shoot with his gun and not his mouth.
I am gathering from your question that you are not a handgun shooter due to the inquiry you made.  If I am mistaken please forgive me since your question is more of a beginners question which is good.

[cgturner7]

Thank you for all the helpful advice.  Every little bit helps.  Yes, I am a rookie at handgun hunting (not hard to tell, huh).  I've been a long-gun hunter for years but this will be my first season handgunning.  I had an experience last season where I rattled in a couple of bucks within 20 yards.  Only one did I consider shooting but it got me to thinking about going after one with a handgun.

When I shoot off the bench should I rest the revolver on the sandbags or just my forearms?  This would be used to get zeroed in, yes?  Then proceed to shooting from various positions, right?  Also, I've been reading about hardcast bullets.  Is there any advantage to these over jacketed?

I've ordered Gary Reeder's book on handgun hunting.  I hope it is as informative as y'all.  Thanks again.

[Redhawk1]

Thank you for all the helpful advice.  Every little bit helps.  Yes, I am a rookie at handgun hunting (not hard to tell, huh).  I've been a long-gun hunter for years but this will be my first season handgunning.  I had an experience last season where I rattled in a couple of bucks within 20 yards.  Only one did I consider shooting but it got me to thinking about going after one with a handgun.

When I shoot off the bench should I rest the revolver on the sandbags or just my forearms?  This would be used to get zeroed in, yes?  Then proceed to shooting from various positions, right?  Also, I've been reading about hardcast bullets.  Is there any advantage to these over jacketed?

I've ordered Gary Reeder's book on handgun hunting.  I hope it is as informative as y'all.  Thanks again.

When shooting of the bench, use a rest for the pistol, rest the part in front of the trigger guard on the rest, not the barrel.  Once you get it sighted in, then more to shooting it off hand or field like conditions.
The advantage the hard cast bullets offer is better penetration, that is all I use in my handguns.