Favorite barrel length for a hunting sixgun?

[Bill in Oregon]

Just wondering what the sixgunners here prefer to pack when specifically handgun hunting for antelope, deer, hogs, "bars" and mebbe elk. I go back and forth between the packability of the 5 1/2 and the sight radius (I can use all the help I can get) of the 7 1/2. Love to hear your thoughts, fellas.

[Walt]

I think 5 1/2" barrels offer the best compromise between portability and velocity. Also, I wobble a lot in my old age and the longer barrels seem to amplify that. Most of my handguns have barrel lengths shorter than 7 1/2".

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks Walt!

[Paladin]

I think 5 1/2" barrels offer the best compromise between portability and velocity. Also, I wobble a lot in my old age and the longer barrels seem to amplify that. Most of my handguns have barrel lengths shorter than 7 1/2".

I agree, and 6 inch is as long as I want to carry. My 5 1/2 in hunters.
.44 Mag

5in 629 Classic.jpg

.45 Colt/.45ACP

45 colt.jpg

[Walt]

Despite Taffin's definition of a "Perfect Packin Pistol", he mentioned that his favorite hunting handgun was a 7 1/2" Colt New Frontier in .45 Colt. Ross Seyfried, on the other hand, wrote that his choice of hunting handguns had to have no longer than 6" barrels, with 5 1/2" being ideal.

[Scott Tschirhart]

I’ve killed more game with a 4 3/4 or 4 5/8 simply because I happened to be carrying them at the time.

But I can shoot better at 50 yards with. 7 1/2 inch Freedom Arms 83.

So, if I was hunting purposely with a handgun only, I would probably take the 7 1/2 inch.

But I don’t really know if it matters too much. I’ll continue to wear a 4 3/4 inch sixgun because I favor it for everyday carry.

[earlmck]

For hunting -- no question: 7.5" bbl on the Ruger Redhawk is so perfect I bought a second one in case I wore out the first one. I pack it in a shoulder holster and it comes right out when game is suspected.

For concealed carry of course I'd have a whole different set-up. But for hunting there's not really a question for me. 7.5"= perfection.

[JimT]

I prefer the longer barrels for hunting. My shortest hunting gun is 6 1/2". My old favorite .45 Colt is 8".

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks fellas. Jim, where did you find an 8-inch barrel? Carry it in an X-15?

[Twodot]

iron sights, red dot or scoped?

not having any scoped revolvers myself, I would think a scoped 7-1/2" is no harder to pack than a shorter barrel.
..

[JimT]

Thanks fellas. Jim, where did you find an 8-inch barrel? Carry it in an X-15?

John Linebaugh got it from an old gunsmith in Montrose, Colorado who bored and rifled barrels. He was fairly famous years ago for his barrels but I don't remember his name anymore. It was hand-cut and hand-lapped. The bore tapered slightly from breech to muzzle.

I carried it in a Bianchi X15.

[JimT]

iron sights, red dot or scoped?

not having any scoped revolvers myself, I would think a scoped 7-1/2" is no harder to pack than a shorter barrel.
..

Iron sights

[Streetstar]

single action - 7.5"

have used an 8" Dan Wesson before as well


chest rig keeps it manageable

[Scott Tschirhart]

For hunting -- no question: 7.5" bbl on the Ruger Redhawk is so perfect I bought a second one in case I wore out the first one.

Wearing out a Redhawk is quite an accomplishment!!!!

[AmBraCol]

Thanks fellas. Jim, where did you find an 8-inch barrel? Carry it in an X-15?

John Linebaugh got it from an old gunsmith in Montrose, Colorado who bored and rifled barrels. He was fairly famous years ago for his barrels but I don't remember his name anymore. It was hand-cut and hand-lapped. The bore tapered slightly from breech to muzzle.

I carried it in a Bianchi X15.

Would that have been Rich Hoch? He had some amazing Farquharson (sp?) type singleshots he built himself, including barrels. I always wanted one of his nose pour molds but to this day have managed to not acquire any. I'd have loved to have one of his rifles as well, of course.

[JimT]

Yessir ... I believe it was! Thank you.

[AmBraCol]

Yessir ... I believe it was! Thank you.

Youŕ're welcome. I still have a couple rifles he gifted me for the boys. A Haenel 10 meter pellet rifle he'd cut down for his kids and a Winchester 67 he'd done the same to. He was a meticulous workman.

[Lastmohecken]

I think best all-around for me would be 5.5" and 6 to 7.5" for actual hunting. But 4" and 4-5/8" and the 5.5" is my most used.

[jeepnik]

Never been a dedicated handgun hunter, except for rabbits and such. By far most of the jacks I have taken have been with a Mk I Target with a 6 7/8" barrel. But I have over the years taken critters up to the size of deer with a handgun for various reasons. Since I typically carry handguns with between a 4" and 5" barrel, that is what I used. I have some 6" revolvers, and a couple of even longer barreled Smiths. But those are mostly range guns.

What I have noticed is in that switching to dot sights the barrel length isn't really a factor on accuracy it was with iron sights. So, other than improved ballistics I can't see any advantage of an 8" barrel over a 4" barrel these days.

[Bearskinner]

I hunt only with a handgun, and mostly with revolvers, many scoped. As a primary weapon, I prefer 7 1/2-10”. With a quality scope, it extends my range to 200, with high confidence, as the accuracy is there. BUT, that is not a comfortable walking around revolver size. A 4” DA or 5.5” SA rides in a comfortable holster out in the field, as general carry.
A 10” FA with scope, balances well and shoots wonderfully off hand or leaning on a tree.

[piller]

For hunting, I have used a 6 inch Ruger GP 100 in .357 Mag, and a 7½ inch Super Blackhawk in .44 Mag. I have also used a Super Redhawk in .480 Ruger. For me, the longer barrels in a crossdraw holster are more accurate. A regular strong side hip holster makes the draw a bit trickier with long barrels.

[Sarge]

Single actions, 4 3/4" and not longer than 5 1/2". I carried and hunted with a 4" Model 29 for 12+ years and that is my preference in a DA revolver. If a handgun won't carry easily it day in and day out, it won't last long here.

[marlinman93]

Although I much prefer shorter 4.75"-5.5" barreled handguns, when I went out deer hunting I took my 8 3/8" barreled S&W Model 25 in .45 Colt simply because I felt the long barrel, and longer sighting radius was far more accurate, so I could take longer shots. I used it for doe season here in Oregon as I'd already taken a buck that year, and wanted the challenge of getting closeup for a handgun shot. I ended up taking my doe at around 55 yds. and the 250 gr. cast slug did it well. So I'd always take my long barreled S&W if it was hunting deer sized game.

[Walt]

Vall, the most recent Handloader magazine features an article on a 6" model 25-5. Makes my mouth water....it's a beauty.

I have a 6" model 25-15, the Classsic model with a thin barrel. I'd sure prefer the heavy barrel version.

[Griff]

In answer to the spirit of the question... I've never hunted with a handgun. But, I read all the responses with appreciation. The only sixgun I have carried while hunting has been a 45 Colt SAA with a 4-¾" bbl. But, has never been out of its holster while so engaged.

[Bill in Oregon]

I've actually hunted four seasons with a handgun that I can recall -- one of those seasons for black bear. My first year was back about 1980 or 81 with a Blackhawk, .41 Magnum, 4 5/8 barrel, with some sort of Speer bullet over Blue Dot, which developed a bad reputation in .41 Magnum about then. I briefly had an opportunity at a forked-horn blacktail in the lodgepole thickets between Diamond Lake and Crater Lake in the Southern Oregon Cascades. The buck vanished like a ghost before I could collect my wits, which have always been scattered anyway.
The next time I hunted was for mule deer in the Malheur unit near Juntura in far eastern Oregon probably about 1984 or 85. My pistol was a T/C Contender in .30 Herrett with Leupold EER M8-2X scope and the Sierra 125-grain .308 spitzer, just like Bob Milek wrote about. It was accurate, but we didn't even see a doe that trip. I carried the Contender in the comfortable bandelier holster that TC sold in those days.
Third time was with a Leupold-scoped Super Blackhawk with 10 1/2-inch barrel with a 300-grain JHP load over a bunch of 296. I had had the butt drilled and tapped for a sling stud and used an Uncle Mike's split ring out front. Mighty handy way to carry that shooter, but was very quickly disabused of the practicality of a scoped, slung sixgun when a muley buck erupted in an aspen thicket about 70 yards away. I had the Ruger up and cocked, but it would have been slim odds to find that buck in the scope and lead him properly. Turned out the buck exited the opposite side of the thicket where my brother dropped it with a sportered 1896 Swede Mauser. This was in the Beulah Unit in eastern Oregon.
In those days, if you wanted to handgun hunt deer, you had to take your tag in and have it stamped by the ODFW saying "Handgun Hunting Only." So stamped, you could not rifle hunt with that tag.
Last hunt was with another iron-sighted SBH with the 10 1/2-inch barrel carried in a belt holster I had made for it -- for black bears in the southern Oregon Siskiyou Mountains. I finally cut a fresh bear on a logging road at about 5,000 feet, but it disappeared in a tangle of manzanita that you would have had to see to believe. I got to thinking that drawing that loooong barrel out of a belt holster in dense brush amounted to what would have been a funny Red Skelton comedy sketch.
Considering all those lessons, I don't know why hunting with an iron-sighted sixgun is still such an attraction, but I can't put it out of my mind.

[JimT]

I don't know why hunting with an iron-sighted sixgun is still such an attraction, but I can't put it out of my mind.

Part of it is the same reason some try doing it with pointed sticks and others with spears. You have to hunt! You cannot snipe from long distance. I always enjoyed shooting game at distances measured in feet instead of yards. If I remember correctly the longest handgun shot I have ever made was not more than 125 yards and that was pushing the the envelope. I had a good solid rest and the deer wasn't moving. A lot of the game I took was inside 50 feet.

[Bill in Oregon]

Thanks for the encouragement Jim. At 73, I better see to this sooner than later!

[Scott Tschirhart]

Being out where the game is helps a lot. I don’t feel competent to shoot at 60 plus yards.

This deer was shot in the South Texas brush at maybe 30-35 yards. The shot wasn’t perfect but a .45 cuts a big hole and I just followed the blood trail.

[JB]

I carried a 7 1/2" 44 for several years, but find 6" to be bit more comfortable to carry. I have one 5" 686+ and it seems to be a good compromise between the handiness of a 4" and the better sight radius of a 6".

[Eddie Southgate]

5" Smith & Wesson 4 5/8 Ruger .357 and I think my Flattop .44 Special is a 6" but I wont swear to it .

[JimT]

Being out where the game is helps a lot. I don’t feel competent to shoot at 60 plus yards.

This deer was shot in the South Texas brush at maybe 30-35 yards. The shot wasn’t perfect but a .45 cuts a big hole and I just followed the blood trail.

That is a factor not usually considered by those who prefer small calibers in pistols. I don't care what you do with the bullet, a small diameter handgun bullet cannot compete in through and through damage with a larger one.

[AJMD429]

For hunting -- no question: 7.5" bbl on the Ruger Redhawk is so perfect I bought a second one in case I wore out the first one. I pack it in a shoulder holster and it comes right out when game is suspected.

For concealed carry of course I'd have a whole different set-up. But for hunting there's not really a question for me. 7.5"= perfection.

I'm right there with you on the Redhawk. In high school my well-off friend bought himself a Smith and Wesson Model 29, and at the time 'poor' me bought a Super Blackhawk. I shot both and preferred the Super Blackhawk although I liked the looks of the Model 29 better. But when the Redhawk came out I was glad I spent the money on the Smith and Wesson because the Redhawk had a very similar profile and seemed so much sturdier. My late friend Joe Miller (same name as our esteemed forum member) gifted me a Redhawk when I graduated Medical School. So now I have two 44 Mag Redhawks.

I carried the Super Blackhawk in a Bianchi X-15 shoulder holster around the homestead as a teenager (Same place I live now ), and in pharmacy school when I had to work in ghetto pharmacies at night I carried it concealed under my little white pharmacist coat. (...if I would have ever had to pull that out it would have been a mess legally since CCW was not recognized then in Ohio where I was a student, academically because I probably would have been expelled from school, and medically for the recipient, even though I 'only' carried 44 Special Silvertips in it.) At the time it was the only center fire handgun I had so I took the risk. Fortunately I never had to get it out.

I've not hunted much with handguns, but I have taken a whitetail with one of the Redhawks and the Super Blackhawk. Someday hope to with my Contender in 357 Maximum. Hunted rabbits once with my Ruger Mk2 when I had a scope on it. So my vote doesn't count for much in this thread, but IF I were to have to harvest deer it would undoubtedly be with one of the 7-1/2" 44 Magnums - either the SA or DA version.

Personally I'm a lousy enough shot with a revolver that I wouldn't try for anything that required less than about 20 MOA accuracy (both handgun-whitetails were under 30 yards).

I'd probably hunt rabbits (or squirrels with a safe backstop if possible) with the scoped 22LR barrel on my Contender, or coyote-sized critters with the scoped 223 Rem barrel on it, but those aren't "sixguns".