I am a total novice with handgun hunting but have hunted with rifle for many years and harvested many good deer and hogs. I purchased a super redhawk .44mag with the 9.5" barrel. I am needing to find a reasonable scope at a reasonable price. What should I look for or what scopes would you recommend? I am finding that pistol hunting is totally different from rifle hunting and that I know nothing about what I am doing! Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I have found that the fixed power scopes seem to be much easier to keep a clear field of view. On my 2-6 variable and my 3-12 burris I have a little bit of trouble getting it to clear and be ideal for hunting. I have a bushnell elite 2-6 and it is the easiest to use for me out of what I have. I have a fixed 4 powere simmons and a 2-6 simmons. My 3-12 burris is on a 204 ruger barrel and it is fine for the varmints and long range targets but I wont probably be using it for big game. I also have had very good luck with fixed power weavers. I would not hesitate for the price difference to go with a weaver or bushnell on your gun.

Welcome to the forun & the insanity of handgun hunting dcmorrow!!!!
We can help you better on your choice if you tell us what you will be hunting & what type of country/range, etc.
Personaly I like the red dots on my revolvers.

I would recommend a leupold 2x pistol scope. you can pick one up on ebay for under 150. they are a quality scope with a lifetime warrenty.

I had one on my contender 35 rem. off the bench I got sub 1 inch groups with it at 100 yrds, thought I would like a little more magnification, put a simmons 4x on it and never could get tight groups with it. the leupold now resides on my 45-70 and is holding up just fine.

A Leupold 2X or 4X, depending upon the terrain to be hunted. The 2X is the most versatile for a novice handgunner.

Welcome to the site. I would also recommend starting with a 2x. There is several quality brands; weaver, bushnell, nikon, burris and leupold. If buying new those are probably in order from low to high on price. All will serve you well.

LUEPOLD 4X , You Won't Regret it

The red dot sights are great for fast alignment when pushing through brush.I use red dots on my SRH .454 casull and RH .44 mag. for under 100 yards there great.

Start with a good 2X scope and practice, practice and maybe even more practice. The hardest thing to learn is scope allingment with the eye and traget. With enough practice the muscles will have a memory as to where the guns needs to be to allign for a quick shot. Cheap practice is snap caps and pictures of animals taped to the livinroom walls. Draw the gun into your line of sight to the animal.... never take you eye off the prize. If you can learn to sight with both eyes open, this really helps with target acquisition.

Thanks for the great ideas! Vance, I will mostly be hunting hogs and deer from a blind and stalking them in a canyon/pasture with scrub cedar and mesquite. My last rifle shots on the deer were about 100 yard shots and the hogs have been under 50 yards.

With those ranges in mind, my vote would probably stay with a quality red dot sight.
Whatever you pick, you'll have a ball!!