A fellow IHMSA shooter and good buddy let me shoot his Comp Hunter last year and the "want" set in. You all know what I'm talking about. The kind of want that just keeps nagging at you until you cave in and just buy the darned thing! I was never a fan of the glass bead finish but I looked beyond that. I kept my eyes open for one at that right price (ain't like they're rare) and came upon this one.
It's a sweetheart at the range. Very crisp trigger in single action. And, like any gun it's going to take a minute to get good and acquainted with it but I don't think it's going to be long.
The eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be so I'm trying to decide on which red dot to put on it. I've had good luck with the Burris FastFire III but I'm leaning towards the Matchdot II for a change. Any thoughts would be welcome. NOT an Aimpoint, just ain't going to spend that much.
Anywho, here's a few pics. Thanks for letting me share.









Making sure it works!!





Side by side with it's cousin, the Black Comp Hunter.



Thanks for looking folks.

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Now that's one I've been eyeballing!

I think it's the lightest? 7.5" available new? All others being at around 54oz.? Something like that.

It may be the only 7.5" my back will let me fire standing. If my 6.5" full lug leaves my back sore after 200 rounds.

Do you just shoot magnums? Or do you ever mix specials? Just as I found a good load for specials- I've run out of a hard to get powder. What loads did you shoot?

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I can't help you much with picking a reddot, as I've yet to find one with which I'm completely satisfied. At least if you want to adjust it "on the fly", whilst changing distances! Including two Ultradot Matchdots, one with the bigger objective, forget the model name variations.

If you get a good 75 yard zero, and hold under for 25 and 50 and over at 100, then most decent reddots will do. Won't do for 50-200m work, though!

If 100yds is as far as you want to go, then I'd start with one of the lighter units. (Shot some good scores with a 75yd zero for the .45Colt 625PP, until I swapped out the Trijicon RMR for another one. Need to revisit that combo at some point, I think it's now wearing one of the Matchdots!)

BTW, IIRC, for ~1000fps 200gr SWC .45 cast bullet with a 75 yd center hold, held on or just above Chicken foot, about on belly line for Pigs, and roughly "hole in horn" elevation on Rams. Would suspect CB .44 loads to be not terribly different.

Here's mine with my PC Hunter. They're both fun to shoot and accurate. I haven't tried mine with any full power loads yet so I can't tell how much effect the comp has. I put some Pachmayr Diamond Pro grips on it and they are a lot more comfortable for me than the wood grips.

I have shot the PC Hunter with a Vortex Razor with good results but my range buddy who knows more about red dots says the Razor is more appropriate for an AR rifle. All I noticed was it takes me a while to pick up the red dot since I am not used to them.

I never saw the Black Comp Hunter before. That's a real nice looking gun.

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Accuracy supercedes Speed

I have debated getting one of those instead of the "Hunter" I've had my eye on. Looks good.

Cory

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Cory
SWCA #3015 SWHF #465

75Vette, don't you have a "Hunter" also in addition to these?

Cory

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Cory
SWCA #3015 SWHF #465

Nice grab man! That is a great looking set you got!

Congratulations!

Very sweet! How does it shoot?

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I bet that will make the steel ring . Are you going to put optics on it?

Thanks Lou. I'm just getting back on after "the crash". I do shoot specials and magnums, mostly mild magnum loads with either 8.5gr CFE-P or 9.9gr HS-6. They both seem to produce accurate loads and you can shoot em all day.

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Thanks as always for your advice J. It's a continuous work in progress!

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Thanks Ridgewalker. The pachs on your two look like ALL business!!

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Cory, yes I do. My first PC gun was the 44 Magnum Hunter.

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Thanks! I've only had it to the range once but it shows promise. I'm liking it!!

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I'm leaning towards the MatchDot II. I have FastFire 3s on two other guns and think the MD will be better suited for the rail on this gun.

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pls delete. Double post

First of these guns l have seen with a MIM trigger.

Others had the forged ones.. Also called

a Light Hunter...Nice guns.. ALL of them

Nice guns, I really like the PC. Can you shoot specials first and then run mags? Doesn't seem to work well for me

You could but I don't. I save the specials to "cool" down towards the end of the range time.

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When I was looking, it came down to the comp hunter or stealth hunter. Went with the comp hunter strictly because of weight. I liked the stealth hunter but it had some ounces on the comp hunter. Primary purpose is whitetail. Load of choice is the Hornady 200 XTP pushing around 1400. Recoil is very manageable, good accuracy, and great action. No complaints other than a canted barrel which will be fixed at some time.

I purchased one of these revolvers in December of last year and mounted a Leupold 2X scope on it and will use it for deer hunting here in Illinois.

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Cladd, Looks good! What rings are you using?

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Burris Signature with plastic inserts which prevent ring marks.

I also have a 2X Leupold on my Light Hunter.. My factory mount

and rings differ slightly tho. Making my Leupold sit slightly lower.

Were l limited to ONE optic for ALL handgun shooting it would be

the Leupold 2X EER scope.. There are NO equals. Regardless of $

Man that Hunter looks good

Cory

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Cory
SWCA #3015 SWHF #465

After a little hunting around and several questions I picked a reliable optic for the Comp Hunter. I tossed the red dot idea (even though I've had pretty good luck with them) and chose a Leupold M8 2X EER pistol scope. I get a clearer sight picture at distance with the crosshairs compared to the dot but it sure does show up your wobble!! The extra weight plays in too but I'll get accustomed to it. I took it to my indoor range today and zeroed it in at 25 yards. I'll be stretching it out soon. Here's today's results.




Bagged (with my cheesy bags) when I felt I got close enough to zero.



Free Standing



And if you're wondering, the PBR was reward for AFTER shooting!!

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That's awesome! I gotta tell ya, your threads do a good job of illustrating the potential of optics on some of these guns. I do believe you have helped me spend some money once again with this thread

Always glad to help!!!

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Looking good, but Kdiver58 (and I, as well in tests) was getting some vertical stringing with his .357s using HS6 until he upped the charge weight some. Has been working well since.

As is, looks good enough to massacre a flock of steel Chickens! (Might be making some "dance" with hits in the feet...)

I have been playing with the HS6 the last month or so and did up the powder level slightly. With no chrono all I can go by is the Lyman Data and it's telling me I'm throwing the lead at appx 975 fps. I am getting a small amount of unburned powder on the bench and did notice a slight vertical stringing. That's the last thing I need since that's been my biggest struggle trying to knock down the steel critters. I was hesitant to go much faster after the bullet shredding I experienced last season so I'll probably go back to the CFE-P for now.

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I only chrono loads very occasionally any more. Mostly because I don't care how fast the bullets fly, just that they all arrive at the same spot on the target, more or less. And don't beat me up too much! Interestingly enough, when I was using .44 loads from the books, they pretty much did as advertised, anyway. Doesn't work that well with rifles, usually!

Kdiver58 had his chrono out so some of the IMR4198 swaged lead bullet loads were run through not long ago. 1000 fps, ES in the single digits! Not economical, nor free from unburned powder (and how!), but haven't had to clean a bore in a couple of years and the accuracy is better than anything else I've tried using non-jacketed projectiles. Misses are either operator or maybe dinged bullet bases. (Generally I regulate to the "2nds" box about 15-20% of the swaged bullets (more cast!) I buy. It's that "go-no go" selection that haunts. "Is this one good enough???"....)

At any rate, finding what works at 100 or 200 yards is the big drama. 25 yards is good for culling out the terrible loads but often not much more.

Check and see what the parallax is for the scope. A large percentage are set at 100 yards, which really isn't the best for the average distance most revolvers tend to be used at. There are a few that are set at 50 yards, but not many. From my experience, FOV is critical when mounting a scope on a handgun. The more the better. Helps acquire, and get on, a target quicker.

Red dots are for different purposes than most scopes even if we're talking 2X scopes. Red dots are supposed to make it easier to pick up a target in a hurry. Shooting tiny groups isn't what they do. But I have a couple of red dots on guns (including my M&P Sport) and I like both of them. One has a 50,000 battery life so basically you can leave it turned on for 5 years or so. And I didn't pay a fortune for it either. It was around $175. It's a Primary Arms Advanced. I also have a Vortex which is on my AR.

BTW does anyone have good experience comparing the PC models with the regular S&W revolvers? My 629-2 shoots pretty good. I saw a guy shooting a 629 really well once. I can hit a gallon jug at about 175 yards most of the time. That's with the iron sights and rested to the side against a pole. At least I could when I was shooting a lot more. I haven't had a good place to shoot for about 5 years now.

I can't tell the difference. So much so that none of my various PC .44s are currently used for competition. Currently running a 629-6 Classic 8 3/8" (post DX production), with another getting prepped and a third used as a test mule. (It's been Magna Ported, so out of spec, rules-wise.) Also, running two 10 5/8" 29-3s, but they need quite a lot of special loading "magic" to shoot well.

The MIM gutted revolvers generally have the better trigger pulls, BTW. Certainly better throat dimensions, and smaller chambered than many of my older .44s. So much so, I have to be wary about shooting my competition loads in other guns, lest they have dramas after being reloaded and brought back into the 629-6 shooting complement. (And that's even using TWO Lee FCDs. One at the initial sizing operation (with crimping portion removed) and another for crimping duties.

J, love the new avatar!! As far as the differences between the PCs and standard production there's no real difference besides the rails, magnaporting, compensators & snazzy looks. Anything 629-4 and later will have the tighter cylinder throats and as you mentioned, the mim triggers are plenty smooth. I believe the 44 Magnum Hunter has the Walther rifling which sure can't hurt in accuracy. If someone wanted an accurate shooter and didn't want to pay for the extra doo dahs, the newer 629s would more than serve their purpose.

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Amazing groups like that would give you a score of at least

''FORTY-TWO'' first Saturday in June