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Thanks Capt. I was kind of surprised considering how long it had been since I tried. I've been mostly shooting my carry guns or using my single action .22 to play cowboy.

The last half dozen years I've only hunted with a bow myself. In Indiana you have to buy a separate deer license for each type of weapon, a firearm license, archery license, black powder license. Kind of stupid if you ask me and firearm is limited to slugs or handgun and a fairly short season. Couldn't see buying all those. Enjoy bow more so that what I did. I limit my range to about 25 yards but then I shoot only recurve or longbow. No sites. While I can often hit out to 40 or so yards there is no where enough certainty for me to chance it. I know what you are saying about string jump. Most people don't realize just how fast a deer can move.

BTW, for those who think many laws make no sense here is one for you. During firearms season you can't use rifles, except they do now allow those firing pistol calibers. You can however use a TC Contender firing any caliber available, even those easily capable of bring a deer down at better than 500 yards, which some shooters can do. Yet I couldn't even use my old .30-30!

After making claims in my last post I decided to see if I could still do it as it has been almost 10 years since I've done any real precision type shooting. In fact about 3 years ago old age tremors set in so bad I had trouble using a screw driver one handed. Medication has help. At any rate here is my attempt.

First the gun, a Ruger .22/45, one of the originals, with a Volquartsen trigger. I use to use this for bullseye but was never very good at it. The ammo used was Winchester T22 target ammo and is about 10 years old, which is when I stopped shooting bullseye. I hadn't used it because I hate to use quality ammo for plinking. Does make a great squirrel gun.



May range set up.
Shooting station


Targets


The results. The orange dot is 1 inch in diameter and at 25 yds I called one flyer when I flinched.



I think I can still hit shotgun shells at 50 yds but not over half the time, however I would have no qualms of using a scoped TC Contender or a good revolver for deer at 50 yds.

It would seem that a lot of folks spend all their practice shooting at close defense distances. I agree that you should limit your shot distances to what you can reliably hit but limit the distance to 25 yards!!! Shooting a self defense type handgun probably but with a bit of practice anyone should be able to hit the kill zone on a deer, I've repeatedly read that it is 6", not 3", at 50 yards from a braced position, specially if using a scope.

If you take a decent revolver or single shot handgun, sit down with something to lean against bringing feet up so your knees are about eye level, brace your hands and wrists between your legs; I think you might be surprised how accurate you can shoot. As shaky as I've gotten I'd be lucky to hit a 2 L coke bottle at 50 yards offhand but sitting like this I can use my .22/45, which is the only scoped handgun I have, and with good ammo hit coke cans almost every time and 12 gauge hulls at 50 yards better than half the time. The super Blackhawk I use to have was almost as accurate.

A good handgun, scope, and ammo combination can easily be as accurate as a lever action .30-30 and I don't think anyone would recommend only using those at 25 yards. All it takes is a bit of practice and the use of a good stable shooting position.