Four Easy and Fast Upgrades For Your Hunting Handgun

If there’s someone to blame for my interest in handgun hunting it’s Paul Pluff. A member of Ruger’s marketing team, Paul is also a competitive revolver shooter and experienced handgun hunter, and it was at Paul’s suggestion that I first hunted whitetails with a handgun. He warned me that it would become addictive, and he was correct.

I enjoy handgun hunting immensely, but it’s not for everyone. Getting close enough to game to make a shot with a handgun can be tough, and it’s oftentimes far more difficult to get into a stable firing position when shooting a handgun. You’ll inevitably miss some opportunities at game you might have harvested with a rifle. However, with patience and lots of practice a handgun is an effective tool for big game hunting.

There are some simple steps you can take, however, to improve your performance with a handgun. Here are four fast and easy upgrades that will help you succeed while hunting with a handgun.

Improved Optics

I started handgun hunting with a revolver that had iron sights, but it didn’t take me long to realize that I could dramatically improve my accuracy with upgraded optics. Hunters have been adding scopes to their big bore revolvers for generations, and Ruger machines scope bases directly into the frame of some Super Redhawk revolver models which makes adding an optic very easy. However, many revolver brands like Taurus, Nighthawk (Korth), and Smith & Wesson offer included rails that make mounting a scope or red dot very fast, simple, and secure.

Once upon a time optics on semiautos were rare, but today more than half of semiauto pistols are cut for red dot optics. 10mm Auto is far and away the most popular option for autoloading hunting handguns, and guns like Glock’s G40 MOS and SIG’s P320 come with optics cuts which make it easy to add and red dot or green dot sight. There are so many sight options available today that it only makes sense to add an optic to your hunting handgun.

New Springs or Triggers

Adding springs or upgrading the trigger in your hunting handgun is one of the easiest and least expensive upgrades to improve accuracy. I swap out the factory springs on my Ruger revolvers for either Wolff or Wilson Combat springs, an upgrade that costs about ten bucks and vastly improves the trigger pull on my revolvers. I haven’t had an occasion to swap the springs on my Smith & Wesson guns, but the process of changing the springs on my Rugers takes about ten minutes. The Wilson Combat springs in my Super Redhawk cut single-action trigger pull weight from almost six pounds to just three-and a half, and double-action pull weight dropped from over twelve pounds to about eight-and-a-half. That improvement substantially increases accuracy potential so long as the springs are not too light for the primers in the load you are using.

Swapping out the trigger of a semiauto can range from simple to painfully complex, and if you have any misgivings about changing triggers (or springs) you should consult a qualified gunsmith. However, there are companies like Timney, ZEV Technologies, and other that offer semiauto trigger upgrades. Smooth, crisp, light triggers are a great addition to your semiauto or revolver, but you must still spend plenty of time shooting the gun so that you are familiar with the feel of the trigger before heading to the field.

Ergonomic Grips

An engineer from a major firearms brand recently told me how difficult it was for the design team to agree on the texture and shape of a new pistol grip that the company began to poll customers, and that too failed to conclude anything other than this: very few shooters agree on grip design. None of my revolvers wear the same grips that were sold with the gun, and most of my revolvers have been through at least two different sets of grips. Picky? Sure, and expensive, but I want to make certain that my hand settles comfortably into the grip of the gun so I can focus entirely on the trigger press. The good news is that there are lots of aftermarket grips for most major firearms brands. I’ve used Badger, Altamont, and Hogue (both their polymer and wood grips) and have found that certain grips serve well in certain roles. I love the Badger grips on my SP101 trail gun, but I prefer the wooden Hogue grips on my hunting revolver.

A word of warning: all new grips need to be range-tested before you head to the field. Generally, once the grip is installed you will know whether you like it, but I’ve had some issues with aftermarket grips that didn’t manifest until I was in the field. The screw that held the halves of a two-piece grip loosened on a large-caliber handgun with which I was hunting, and after about four shots the two halves would be misaligned and uncomfortable to shoot. A few more shots and the grips would shift to a point where they simply wouldn’t work at all. Needless to say, those “budget” grips made their way directly to the garbage bin.

The Right Holster

Hunting handguns are hefty, and my favorite scoped Super Redhawk weighs in at around four pounds. That’s quite a burden to carry all day, so a holster is an essential piece of equipment. However, with a large, scoped hunting handgun not just any holster will do.

I don’t like carrying hunting handguns in belt holsters, but I find that chest holsters work very well. My GunfightersINC Kenai chest holster works well for my 10mm Rock Island Armory with iron sights, and the Kenai is available for large scoped revolvers as well. My Ruger rides most comfortably in my Galco Kodiak shoulder holster, and even the large and heavy  Ruger .44 Magnum doesn’t cause a lot of strain in this shoulder holster.

Chest holsters not only distribute weight evenly and reduce fatigue but they also keep your hands free, and that makes life much easier when you’re scrambling up a steep incline toward your tree stand or digging through snow as you follow a pack of lion hounds over uneven terrain. I find it much easier to maneuver through the woods when I don’t have a rifle barrel projecting above my head, and a chest rig frees me up to carry my shooting rest which generally doubles as a trekking pole. Generic one-size-fits-all shoulder holsters work (and are often cheaper), but I prefer chest rigs that are designed specifically for your firearm.

Putting it All Together

There isn’t a single solution that works for all handgun hunters, and I’d suggest you play with optics, holsters, grips, and spring weights/triggers until you find exactly what you want. It has taken me time, but I believe I have found a system that works most effectively for me. Will I make changes to my gear and gun in the future? Almost certainly. However, I believe that these four upgrades will substantially improve the performance potential of your hunting handgun.

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