Rifle Scope on Handgun?

[WunderDog]

I am currently shooting an HS Precision in 300 WSM. It is an awesome gun and phenomenally accurate but I am not happy with my scope selection. I went with the Burris 3-12 handgun scope for the combination of magnification and eye relief. I am not thrilled with this scope though as I would like to find something with a little more durability and optical clarity. I have read that some guys are putting rifle scopes on their long range handgun rigs. This would obviously open the door to nearly unlimited options but I am not sure exactly how this works with the limited eye relief of rifle scopes. Any help to point me in the right direction here would be greatly appreciated.

Ryan

 

[Ernie]

Ryan,
Does your H-S have a brake?
the key to using rifle scopes on SP's is to pull back and not see a full field of view. How much you see is dependent upon the weight of your SP/load/style of hold/brake.
Be cautious when you start using a rifle scope, but I am moving to more rifle scopes on my SP's.

 

[Len Backus]

My braked 6.5/270 WSM weighs 11# with its rifle scope. This gun weight makes a huge difference in dealing with eye relief.

 

[hunlee]

With 375 Windchester contender hunlee wood not dare to shoot with rifle scope.Black eye for sure and hunlee not look good with black eye

hunlee

 

[WunderDog]

Yes, my HS certainly does have a brake! While I do not consider myself recoil shy, I think that might be a little much. I suppose I will try mounting one of my rifle scopes on it for a bit and see if I can get used to the reduced field of view. With a rest, I might be able to shoot with my elbows bent a little more to bring the gun closer but I will have to play with it.

Thanks

 

[Ernie]

Leupy's and NF's will typically have the longest eye reliefs in rifle scopes.

 

[J E Custom]

Under hunting conditions I prefer the intermediate eye relief
scopes because I can normaly find a good shooting position
( tree limb,side of tree,bolder, or my knees if I can sit down )

But with a rifle scope I have to use a bypod or sandbags . Plus
with the hard kickers I have and no muzzel brakes I worry about
saying hello to my little frend (the scope).

One of the kickers is a 444 mar Contender loaded with 300gr bullets @
1900ft/sec with a recoil energy of 57.4 ft/lbs and a recoil velocity
of 32.5 ft/sec.

I know that a lot of people do very well with rifle scopes on pistols
but as everone said you should install a break before you use a rifle
scope .

I use 2x scopes on revolvers,4x scopes on longer range pistols 200
and 300yrd and 2x7 scopes on my bolt action pistols for 400yrd to
600yrd big game hunting.

Any thing larger than 7 or 8 power seems to much unless you have
a prefect rest and conditions .

The only way I seem to be able to shoot with a rifle scope is off
a bench. like hunting P Dogs. "It may be my age"

J E CUSTOM

 

[hunlee]

444 caliber on Contender wood make hard recoilin on your hand and head if you not have good hold of her.All this time hunlee was thinking the 375 Windchester was very big for Contender andyou have 444.Hunlee impressed

hunlee

 

[J E Custom]

444 caliber on Contender wood make hard recoilin on your hand and head if you not have good hold of her.All this time hunlee was thinking the 375 Windchester was very big for Contender andyou have 444.Hunlee impressed

hunlee

Hunlee

JD Jones built the barrel for me back in the 80s and after all these
years I am still impressed every time I kill anything with it.

It was built to be hog medicine and I was not disappointed the first time
it knocked a 300+lb hog off his feet using a 265gr flat nose bullet and he
never got up.

It has killed many deer with the same results .

But all this comes at a cost ( Recoil ) and I tryed loading the 240gr
bullets but fond them to explosive on game even though recoil was
reduced. But it still requires a 4 ring scope base setup to survive and
after trashing ever brand of scope I found a scope that would take
the recoil ( A 4x Burris EER ) and after approximately 600 rounds
fired the Burris has not changed its zero.

So it was back to the 300 grainers at 1900ft/sec ( I loaded some up to
2000ft/sec but felt they were to hard on the contender frame "Not to
mention the shooter " so I backed off 100 ft/sec.

Only recently did a hand gun reach this kind of energy ( the 500 smith
and wesson Mag) but it weighs a couple of pounds more, which should
help with recoil.

I intend to build one on a heaver barreled TC Encore in the future.

At a recent gun show I saw a Encore pistol in 416 Rigby and I said to
the owner (You gotta be kidding me) and his reply was "It ain't bad".

J E CUSTOM

 

[hunlee]

Wow hunlee is impressed about hearing of 444 Contender.Recoil wood be so high hunlee woodnot even have enough curage to pull the trigger on that thing.Burris scope are very good like you say,Hunlee own two of them on rifle and they work very good.Problem now for hunlee is money.Looking for a new long ranger for Contender and that mean new scope too,so hunlee allso thinking about new Burris 3-12x power for the new long ranger barrel,both of these together will cost hunlee some change.Tkankyou for telling about 444 Contender,hunlee impressed

hunlee

 

[Ernie]

JE,
I would not recommend a rifle scope for all cartridges. Some, especially if it is a lighter weight SP with a big bore, i would surely use a LER scope, and a fixed power at that..

 

[gravedigger]

I guess I am going to play the devils advocate here, why in the world do you buy an ultra expensive rifle scope and can't use the whole field of view. To me personally that is defeating the purpose of buying the rifle scope to begin with, I am not knocking anybody who does this just never understood the thinking behind it. Just my 2 cents worth, later.

 

[Ernie]

I guess I am going to play the devils advocate here, why in the world do you buy an ultra expensive rifle scope and can't use the whole field of view. To me personally that is defeating the purpose of buying the rifle scope to begin with, I am not knocking anybody who does this just never understood the thinking behind it. Just my 2 cents worth, later.

It is a good question.
You will use your full field of view at any power when locating the target in question which is quite a bit more than a LER.
Second, some SP's with the right brake will allow you to see a full FOV or close to it and still be safe.
Third, for LR shooting most LER's do not have enough internal MOA adjustment.
Fourth, you get more magnification for target or varmint shooting and you get too see all of what you are shooting at even though you are looking through a partial FOV in the worst case scenario's.
Fifth, you will have better low-light capability than with a LER.

 

[hshunter]

rifle scopes

Hey wonderdog, how is the HS shooting.? I am in the process of putting Leupolds on my WSM HS's as well. I am getting the 4.5x14x50mm tactical. With the HS brake it should work out OK. but will still have to be careful on the eye relief, I too was not pleased with the low light ability of the burris or the clarity.
If you decide that the 300 is to big a kicker, i know where it could find a new home!!!!
good luck with your scopes
nmhunter