I don't have experience with an 8" tube, but I have taken a number of Texas White tail and hogs with my 10" .41 magnum. With sandbags on a blind window 100 yards isn't unreasonable. I find that any barrel longer than 10" feels unwieldy to me unless I have a really solid shooting platform. Be careful though, contender barrels have an odd way of multiplying. One day you'll open your safe and find half a dozen perfectly good deer hunting barrels and not be able to decide which one makes it to the blind.