'Long' range handgun plinking

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Dragon55

New member
Been shooting milk jugs at 100 yds (110 paces).

Shooting an old .44mag 7 1/2" barrel (Virginian Dragoon vintage 1976) found I had very little holdover shooting factory 240gr hp's.

Shooting a PT-100 5" barrel found I had a ridiculous amount of holdover shooting some 150 gr hp's handloaded at differing charges.

Of course the sights are much taller on the .44 but still........

Anybody else play around with long range pistol? (That's not been modified)
 
It's fun if you have the range. I found that a 158gr LRN .38 will go through a stop sign (scrap at an old junkyard / range not stolen) at 100+ yards. Hitting it with a snub was fun. With artillery style holdover I was glad to be able to hit an 8" gong at 200 yards with a MK II Ruger.
 
I like shooting handguns at 100 yards. My nagants especially, since you touch one off, then smoke a ciggy, drink some coffee, go to the can, and finally come back and watch the bullet impact :)

Wildpop..................................pingAlaska TM
 
When I get to go back out I'm gonna borrow my son's Buckmark. 200yds with the Ruger is a heckuva shot. Were you able to repeat after you found the angle?
 
Yeah, a friend and I used to shoot at grapefruit size rocks and dirt clods at the bottom of our backstop about 100 yards away using our 357s. By "walking" the puffs of dust toward the rock you could hit the thing quite a few times. Was a lot of fun and surprising how well you could shoot at that distance, even off hand.
 
I have a Dan Wesson 357 that for about 25 years had a 8" barrel and red dot on it and if you put up 6" targets the 4 " red dot would leave a slight black ring around the edges and it would shoot a 3" ground in the center of the target with 158 grain pmc hp's back in its day. Use it for many years for hogs with a 180hc gr ammo. That DW is now sporting it's 4" barrel and the 8 is take'n a break for a while.
 
Anything over 50 yards to the back of the 200 yard berm (about 204 yards) has been my fun time shooting with every handgun I own from 22 to 44 mag. No special sights or special bullets , I shoot what I can buy from the store or my target reloads. I do it just for the challenge and because I am a handgun hunter. I have restricted myself to shots under 100 yards after one bad experience at 135 yards but still practice long for the exercise. I find the time shooting long distance really helps me when I am shooting 25 and 50 in competition because of the extra concentration I had to develop keeping my eyes on my sights.

Besides the look on my neighbors face when I pop a jug of water at 100 yards with my old 45 is priceless. He doesn't have one but his daddy and his uncle told him how useless they are beyond 25 yards and how the bullet just can't get that far. The look on the prison guards face when I popped a clay pigeon at 200 yards with my first shot using the old 357 Dan Wesson made my day. Emptied the gun and went home, I wasn't going to top that shot and I didn't want to destroy the Dead Eye Dick reputation I had just earned. Most of the time I figure I am doing good if I keep my shots within a foot of the target, that's about the best my old eyes and aging arms will allow me from a one hand shooting stance.
 
Please tell me you fella's are shooting from some kind of a rested position.
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LOL, as a kid I used to do 500 or 600 yard shots with the .22 at a tin hay barn. 32 dergrees upwards, 10 degrees for breeze. Kirrrrr.... Wang.
 
Please tell me you fella's are shooting from some kind of a rested position.
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I often 70 - 100 yard plink at clay pigeons with most of my handguns. Standing, two-hand hold. I do not hit every shot, but a hit or two per/cylinder I feel is not bad. I do it for fun mostly, as it is, a lot of fun.

My best gun is a 5" Taurus Model 17 in 17 HMR.

BTW, it helps to be an ex-13E. :D
 
Please tell me you fella's are shooting from some kind of a rested position.
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Only when I am shooting at deer or bowling pins, otherwise its up on hind legs and alternate between strong hand and weak hand. Shooting at deer I use my walking stick or the nearest tree, fence post, rock etc. What is weird is that with my 22 and 38 spcl I consistently shoot better with my weak hand, (6-8 hits on a metal bucket vs 3-7 hits out of 10, strong hand), at 200 yards. I suspect it's because I am trying so much harder. At 150 and 100 about even, at 50 yards and less strong hand is consistently better. I don't understand it, it just is.
 
What is weird is that with my 22 and 38 spcl I consistently shoot better with my weak hand ... at 200 yards.
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I tend to shoot very well with my weak hand because my vision is noticeably better in that eye even after correction. I realize it's poor form, but when I shoot weak-handed I close my strong-hand eye and shoot with the weak-hand eye.

I enjoy plinking steel targets at long range (75-100 yards) with a handgun. It's easier than it sounds and pretty gratifying.
 
On a range trip with some friends, I managed to get hits at about 270 yards with my Springfield XD Tactical, the 5" model. Admittedly, I was hitting an 8 foot by 8 foot sheet of plywood, but I was honestly surpised that they were reaching out that far. It took me something like 8 or 9 rounds to walk them on, thankfully the range was pretty much a mudbath so the splats showed up well.
I got I think 6 hits out of 12 fired at that range.
 
At 100 yards, I expect to hit a gallon jug most of the time with my BFR in 480 Ruger or my S&W 44 mag. At least more than half the time anyway. And the other shots should be almighty close to it. As for my Taurus Gaucho SAA in 357 mag, the first shot will probably be within 2' of a gallon jug at 100 yards, and then I seem to get the feel of it better so that probably 1 in 3 shots will hit it. With my Taurus Gaucho in 45 Colt, well... LOL :D those rounds are loaded pretty slow and it's not conducive to shooting at 100 yards very well. My .22 mag revolver has a lot of drop past 50 yards, so it takes a few shots to get the holdover right. All those revolvers have at least a 7.5" barrel though, so the sight radius is pretty good. My little 3" S&W 357 mag though, is another story. I have a tough time hitting anything over about 25 yards with it.
 
Watch my 5 part video series on youtube, its on long range revolver shooting with iron sights. (http://www.youtube.com/texasfivegun) Take some liquid paper, a needle, a brass "tooth brush" and a beach chair
if you can find one.

Use the liquid paper on your front sight. Make a line with the needle to use as a reference and brush of the
dried paper with the brass brush to start over if your marks are wrong or when your finished.

keithfrontsight.jpg


The chair I am talking about puts your butt about 4" off the ground and lets you lean back. You pull your legs up
put your hands/wrists between your knees. It works better "much better" for me than a bench rest or any thing else.
I have a Caldwell HAMMR machine rest and I can out shoot it with my chairs.

You must have "0" flinch for this, a good spotter helps and if you can get the sun behind you the bullets are easy to see in flight.

You may run out of front sight with a long barrel, short to medium barrels and tall front sights are easier to work with.

I have never shot a 500 or 460 S&W but we have found with 500 & 475 Linebaughs, 414 & 445 Supermags, 454 Casull, and
44 Remington Magnum. A heavy for caliber cast lead bullet works best. A gas check is easier to see in flight. A high velocity
is not needed. About 1200 FPS is what we use the most.

If I can help PM me and I will give you my phone # and email.

Good Shootin and Good Luck! Chad
 
Good shootin' Five Gun :):):)

Was that last shot 'hotter?... sounded hotter. And yes I could hear the gong...cool!

Unfortunately where I live there is no 900 ft piece of flat land (East TN).

I'm gonna play some more when I get some .44 loaded. The front sight on my .44 already has a striations on the rear. Your idea about the whiteout would work out great. I could take the needle and scrape off the line that fit best. It's just that for that distance (300yd) I'd hafta shoot a little uphill or downhill.

I don't guess I'll fool with .40 anymore. The sights are so short my holdover would likely be part way down the barrel.

Isn't the sound of that gong satisfying??
 
I used an unmodified Dan Wesson .44 Magnum revolver with an 8" heavy ribbed barrel to shoot International Metallic Silhouette steel targets at 50, 100, 150, and 200 yards. The rams were at 200 yards.

It had adjustable rear sights, and while it took a number of clicks of elevation when you moved to the 200 yard range, I could reliably hit that steel ram - it just took awhile for the bullet to get downrange!

It was a lot of fun - sometimes we shot prone and sometimes standing, but I was surprised by how accurate those Dan Wesson revolvers were.
 
Been shooting milk jugs at 100 yds (110 paces).
You're either really tall, or really short: My pace count is 66 paces to 100 yds on the left foot. Or are you counting both feet (making yours 55)
Not trying to pick on you, just seeing how everyone comes out with their distances.
 
Houle.... sure no problem

My stride is 2.74 feet. I know this because I have done some surveying and had to get this figure for when I had to go out and do a 'preliminary' on a property.

The way I got the number is by walking a measured mile and counting my steps. I've did this more than once over the years just to confirm it hadn't changed as I got older and stiffer.

2.74 x 110 steps = 301.4 feet / 3 = 100.47 yards

So..... I feel real good about the 100 yards.
 
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