Shooting the mighty .44mag - accuracy at a distance?

[44 AMP]

I would make one comment about this..

elevation: (the top of the front sight exactly level with the rear sight ears).

Assuming "ears" means the rear sight blade, the front sight level with the top of the rear sight is not the sight picture I use for long range shooting.

Close range, yes, but not long range, where I hold the front sight up, above the rear sight, with my target on top of the front sight.

 

[rodfac]

My 6" Model 57, and zero'd for 75 yds, a front post level with the top of the rear sight (ears) does well out to just over 100...and that's my extreme limit on any game I'd be shooting with it. At a chrono'd 1250 fps, that puts the bullet 3" low at 100, 15" low at 150, and 35" low at 200.

My Smith M29 with a 5" bbl. has the same trajectory with a 210 gr JHP at 1340 fps, the best I've been able to come up with, handloading and chronoing my loads. It's 1" flatter shooting at 150 and 200 yds.

For rocks and such on distant hillsides, hold over is obviously necessary, and I use the same method you espouse, AMP. Fun to shoot at those distances at inanimate objects, and easy to see the bullet splash on wheat stubble fields where you can 'walk them' into the target, (an old emptied 20# propane tank).

Best Regards, Rod