Hi all, new member from Australia here. I have been shooting rimfire silhouette for a couple of years now and enjoy it a lot. I would like to have a go at hand gun silhouette, I currently own a Smith and Wesson 586 .357 Magnum with a 6 inch barrel, it has the standard fixed front sight and the adjustable rear sight. Would this setup be useful for handgun silhouette? I'm not really concerned about high scores but also don't want to feel like I am wasting my time. I currently reload with commercial cast bullets, are these suitable and what projectile weight and velocity is preferred? Finally what would be the preferred zero and/or aiming points be for each animal? Thanks for your time and any replies will be much appreciated.

Pedro.

If you enjoy shooting it, can come up with a load that is accurate and have good sight settings for all 4 distances then yes.

One of my shooters has shot forever and used to use a pair of S&W revolvers (I'm ignorant of the model).
One in 22 and the other in 32H&R Mag. Both have full barrel under lug, finger grooved grips and VERY
sweet triggers. He uses contenders now because his eyes wont let him shoot open sights.

If it falls into the sanctioning bodies rules you shoot under, have at it....

Here is my two cents worth. You did not say which silhouette sport you wanted to shoot the 357 in IHMSA or NRA silhouette.

NRA
As my sources tell me the NRA version has become known as the 22 hornet shoot, with 22 hornet being the most popular caliber. But there are many other good calibers since the distance is only 100 yard. 357 or even 38 will work fine if you can find an accurate load.

IHMSA
357 was never extremely popular here because the rams are full size and placed at 200 yards. Yes it will take full size rams at 200 but you will also ring a few. 44 Mag was always the "minimum". There were some experiments with 357 maximum but this round tended to eat the forcing cone with in a few 1000 rounds.


One final not S&W revolvers have not had a good reputation in silhouette for a number of reasons, lock times, how string the frames are, etc. But all that being said, I like smith revolvers and it should be a great firearm to get you started to see if you like the sport.

Greg

Sorry I came late to this conversation.
But, my first silhouette shooter was a Smith 686 with a 6" barrel. Worked just fine. Then I bought something else, then something else again...but I'd still have the 686 if it weren't for a break-in a few years ago. Yes, the 586 will work fine. Yes, Colts have faster lock time, and if you can find a Python Silhouette model buy it...cause they didn't make many and they are are expen$ive.

And, don't think you have to load hot 'n fast - accuracy is more important than knock-over power in the beginning. Find a hold point for the pigs and adjust from there (and yes, a 180gr will take down a ram if you hit them well).

M