My Father, who was a skilled hunter and shooter, NRA certified rifle and pistol instructor, and taught Hunter Safety courses every year, was a fan of the paper plate method. Sort of. His requirement was that you had to be able to hit near/at the CENTER of the plate.
No matter what the range, or weapon, if you could hit near the center of the plate, you could cleanly take deer with a boiler room shot.
HOWEVER, if you could only manage to hit the plate somewhere, then you needed more practice. And I'll stand with that, today. You need to be better than just hitting the plate somewhere, you need to be able to hit it somewhere near the center. If you can do that, then your bullet will be in a vital spot.
Good idea shooting brown targets, deer aren't white, unless its a whitetail and you're going for the "Texas heart shot" (shooing the deer in the rump as it bounds away. Not an easy task, nor are all guns able to penetrate enough for a clean kill)
Expect something a bit different when you go from shooting specials to magnums. Point of impact may change drastically, or it may only change a little, seems to depend on the gun. Drop at range changes a bit too. Depending on the range it might be something you need to adjust for, or it might not.
One gun I got to shoot was one of the SAA clones (its been decades, I forget the maker, but I do remember the performance), in .357Mag. Shooting .38s at 25yds, the gun was highly accurate. shot perfectly to point of aim. Same gun (fixed sights) shooting magnums, EVERY shot was at least a foot low and a foot left. And three different shooters had exactly the same results.
Never could figure out why it did that, there was no reason we could find, but it did do it. I don't expect your S&W to be anywhere near that, but do expect a slight change in point of impact compared to shooting .38s.
Some guns are more accurate with magnums, some aren't. Some shooters are more accurate with one load than the other, though its seldom a beginner is more accurate with magnums, it can happen, I've see that, too.
My Daughter was...
or, perhaps she just felt like showing off a bit.
Her (then) boyfriend wanted us to go shooting. My Daughter is smart (about nearly everything except picking boyfriends ) and hyper competent in some areas, which she hides quite well, most of the time. I taught her to shoot, and how to operate guns, but never insisted she practice, and she very seldom did. She knows how, just not really that interested.
So, we go out to a sand pit, do some plinking, Boyfriend shoots my Model 28 6" with .38s at an old 2x4 sticking out of the bank, range about 15yds...get 4 hits. Happy. Daughter fires a cylinder of .38s, get 3 or 4 hits...
Switch to magnums (my handloads) BF shoots gets 3 or 4 hits, and is excited, daughter isn't really interested, but he insists, "honey, you GOT to try this!!!"
Daughter looks at me, rolls eyes, I just nod...she takes the gun shoots a cylinder of magnums, hits 6 for 6!
Boyfriend just stands there with mouth hanging open...daughter goes to fix picnic lunch...I tell him, "if I were you, I wouldn't do anything to get her really mad at you...." after a bit, he gets his mouth closed, and nods slowly...
There is such a thing as natural talent, and some of the most unlikely people have it, sometimes.
No matter what the range, or weapon, if you could hit near the center of the plate, you could cleanly take deer with a boiler room shot.
HOWEVER, if you could only manage to hit the plate somewhere, then you needed more practice. And I'll stand with that, today. You need to be better than just hitting the plate somewhere, you need to be able to hit it somewhere near the center. If you can do that, then your bullet will be in a vital spot.
Good idea shooting brown targets, deer aren't white, unless its a whitetail and you're going for the "Texas heart shot" (shooing the deer in the rump as it bounds away. Not an easy task, nor are all guns able to penetrate enough for a clean kill)
Expect something a bit different when you go from shooting specials to magnums. Point of impact may change drastically, or it may only change a little, seems to depend on the gun. Drop at range changes a bit too. Depending on the range it might be something you need to adjust for, or it might not.
One gun I got to shoot was one of the SAA clones (its been decades, I forget the maker, but I do remember the performance), in .357Mag. Shooting .38s at 25yds, the gun was highly accurate. shot perfectly to point of aim. Same gun (fixed sights) shooting magnums, EVERY shot was at least a foot low and a foot left. And three different shooters had exactly the same results.
Never could figure out why it did that, there was no reason we could find, but it did do it. I don't expect your S&W to be anywhere near that, but do expect a slight change in point of impact compared to shooting .38s.
Some guns are more accurate with magnums, some aren't. Some shooters are more accurate with one load than the other, though its seldom a beginner is more accurate with magnums, it can happen, I've see that, too.
My Daughter was...
or, perhaps she just felt like showing off a bit.
Her (then) boyfriend wanted us to go shooting. My Daughter is smart (about nearly everything except picking boyfriends ) and hyper competent in some areas, which she hides quite well, most of the time. I taught her to shoot, and how to operate guns, but never insisted she practice, and she very seldom did. She knows how, just not really that interested.
So, we go out to a sand pit, do some plinking, Boyfriend shoots my Model 28 6" with .38s at an old 2x4 sticking out of the bank, range about 15yds...get 4 hits. Happy. Daughter fires a cylinder of .38s, get 3 or 4 hits...
Switch to magnums (my handloads) BF shoots gets 3 or 4 hits, and is excited, daughter isn't really interested, but he insists, "honey, you GOT to try this!!!"
Daughter looks at me, rolls eyes, I just nod...she takes the gun shoots a cylinder of magnums, hits 6 for 6!
Boyfriend just stands there with mouth hanging open...daughter goes to fix picnic lunch...I tell him, "if I were you, I wouldn't do anything to get her really mad at you...." after a bit, he gets his mouth closed, and nods slowly...
There is such a thing as natural talent, and some of the most unlikely people have it, sometimes.