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triggerhappy2006
Long Range Handgunning
So as far as long range, accurate handgunning goes, practicality stops at about 150 yards with hunting and long before that for self defense or tactical applications, but lets play a game.
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I submit that the range at which shooting is practical depends upon the shooter more so than the handgun and cartridge. Therefore, what is a practical limit for hunting is dependent upon the individual's skill.
You who have not read any writings of Elmer Keith might enjoy his work. At first you might be a bit doubtful as to his veracity, but all who knew him vouch for his accuracy in his shooting and his writing.
Keith wrote of his killing a deer at 600 yards in his book "Hell, I was there". "I can remember killing one mule deer at 600 yards before about 30 people at Gibbonsville, on a bet. I didn't want to shoot at that distance, but they kidded me until I showed them it could be done." (Page 302, copyright 1979). He does not say whether he was using a handgun or a rifle.
On the same page he also writes "I do not believe that the average person has any business shooting over 300 yards at big game unless he is a trained expert rifleman with a background such as I have had of a lifetime of shooting, and then only from a rest of a prone position."
In his book "Sixguns" Keith relates a time where he shot a coyote. "I missed him the first three or four shots, although getting close, and plunked the last slug through him at around 400 yards. I trailed him over the ridge and found him dead on the other side with that .44 Special Ideal 250 grain slug through his lungs." (Pg. 110-111)
In one of these two books is he relates where he shot a deer at 600 yards with a .44.
My personal assessment of my handgun hunting skill means that I limit myself to 50 yards for deer, shooting off of a rest.