Long Range Handgunning

In terms of sheer marksmanship, I put hitting a beer can at 100 yards with a handgun as difficult as hitting the same beer can at 1000 yards with a scoped rifle.
Click to expand...

Come now, bit of a stretch maybe? For most shooters a 100 yard shot with any reasonably made handgun is a chip shot compared to a 1000 yard rifle shot. Heck, the best long range rifle shooters in the world can have trouble with 1000 yard beer can shots.

All gun formats aside your talkin drop and drift measured in inches at 100, talkin measured in FEET at 1000. 1mph difference in wind won't make a dang bit a difference on beer cans at 100, that same 1 mph can cause a miss on a bus at 1000.
 
Long Range

Before my eyes betrayed me, long-range handgunning was one of my favorite pastimes. A casual afternoon of picking out a distant target at unknown ranges...sometimes with a side bet betwixt friends...is the source of many pleasant memories. I've made some hits at ridiculous ranges, and... once I got the hang of a particular target...could hit it repeatedly.

Hunting? As Squintin' Clint noted: "A man's got to know his limitations."

Back when I hunted like it was a second religion, I set limits for myself with handgun or rifle. My goal was a quick, humane kill...not establishing bragging rights as to how far away I killed an animal...or crippled it, as the case may be. If I wasn't 98% sure within my own mind that I could anchor that deer with one shot, I passed up the shot. That habit has probably cost me more than a few nice bucks, but I can say that I've never had one run off to parts unknown to die in agony.

Just the way I rolled. YMMV
 
triggerhappy2006

Long Range Handgunning
So as far as long range, accurate handgunning goes, practicality stops at about 150 yards with hunting and long before that for self defense or tactical applications, but lets play a game.
Click to expand...

I submit that the range at which shooting is practical depends upon the shooter more so than the handgun and cartridge. Therefore, what is a practical limit for hunting is dependent upon the individual's skill.

You who have not read any writings of Elmer Keith might enjoy his work. At first you might be a bit doubtful as to his veracity, but all who knew him vouch for his accuracy in his shooting and his writing.

Keith wrote of his killing a deer at 600 yards in his book "Hell, I was there". "I can remember killing one mule deer at 600 yards before about 30 people at Gibbonsville, on a bet. I didn't want to shoot at that distance, but they kidded me until I showed them it could be done." (Page 302, copyright 1979). He does not say whether he was using a handgun or a rifle.
On the same page he also writes "I do not believe that the average person has any business shooting over 300 yards at big game unless he is a trained expert rifleman with a background such as I have had of a lifetime of shooting, and then only from a rest of a prone position."

In his book "Sixguns" Keith relates a time where he shot a coyote. "I missed him the first three or four shots, although getting close, and plunked the last slug through him at around 400 yards. I trailed him over the ridge and found him dead on the other side with that .44 Special Ideal 250 grain slug through his lungs." (Pg. 110-111)

In one of these two books is he relates where he shot a deer at 600 yards with a .44.

My personal assessment of my handgun hunting skill means that I limit myself to 50 yards for deer, shooting off of a rest.
 
As much as I love reading Keith, and respect the devolpments he made regarding handguns, he took many shots that I feel were unethical. Sure, you take enough shots like that you're bound to get lucky a few times. You're just as likely to gut shoot or maim.
 
There's a lot of misinformation about Keith's long range shooting and the shots he made on critters in particular. For the record, Keith's 600yd shot on a mule deer was a wounded animal and the hunter he was guiding had run his rifle dry. So there was nothing unethical about it. It was either try or lose the animal. He tried and I believe the deer twice out of six shots with a 6½" pre-29 .44Mag.

Further, he believed heavy sixguns were best for targets of opportunity and didn't really believe in dedicated handgun hunting.
 
Elmer Keith was an interesting fella to be sure. He walked his long range handgun shots to the target in many cases. I also tend to agree that an average shooter/hunter should never take more than a 300 yd shot with a rifle. He used his handgun for targets of opportunity, not as a dedicated hunting piece. But he and a few others, opened a whole new hunting world to many shooters.
 
Back when I shot more metallic than shotgun, I used a Remington XP-100 in 7mmBR. This gun (when I did MY part), would put three shots from a sand bag into 1/2" @ 100 and 2"@ 250 - which I felt was the maximum I would use it for hunting antelope and mule deer. It is a single shot bolt action, (which if you get tired of a pistol makes an awesome target rifle action) and has one of the best triggers I have ever used, better than many aftermarket BR triggers
 
Let me know what everyone thinks about these options, remember I'm not disputing the silliness or plausibility of needing a 100yard plus handgun, just the best option for one. Reason X=zombies, I'm Jason Bourne, deer hunting, shooting water jugs, I'm James Bond, pick a reason you like
Click to expand...
Every handgun I own is a 100+ yard gun from my 22's to my 44 mag. None of them are specialty guns, none are scoped and all but the black powder pistols have been used for plinking offhand shots into a 5 gallon bucket at 200 meters. First deer I ever shot was at 135 yards with a .357 mag revolver with a 6" barrel. For 26 years my deer gun was a Dan Wesson .357 magnum sporting a 4" barrel. Then my eyeballs went and got old on me and I had to go to a long gun for shots over 150 yards. Ain't the gun its the shooter and any shooter can do it if he knows basic marksmanship and puts in the trigger time. Keep your specialty guns, I bet most of my students can outshoot you and your 5.7 at 100 yards with a 22 caliber revolver or pistol shooting any brand of 22lr ammo you want them to shoot, it doesn't have to be match ammo. Only caveat is all shooting must be done standing on your hindlegs with one hand, no support. Anybody can do it from the bench. :D
 
Okie has a good point. Sure a handgun will fire a bullet to long ranges. But at much over 100 yards, the energy of even powerful handguns will be so low that such shots are not humane. Long range shooting at dirt clods or gongs or whatever is one thing, shooting at game is another.

Jim
 
I disagree. The limitation is not the ability of the cartridge, as evidenced by Keith's 600yd mule deer and the lethality of a good cast bullet at even low velocities. The limitation is the rainbow trajectory and the shooter's ability to master it and the art of range estimation. A good cast bullet will kill WAAAY beyond the average shooter's ability to accurately place it.
 
Okie has a good point. Sure a handgun will fire a bullet to long ranges. But at much over 100 yards, the energy of even powerful handguns will be so low that such shots are not humane. Long range shooting at dirt clods or gongs or whatever is one thing, shooting at game is another.
Click to expand...

Even my 45 pistol using ball ammo will penetrate a 2x4 at 200 yards and I don't hunt big game with a 45. I love to do that demonstration after somebody tells me authoritatively that a 45 is useless after about 50' and you might as well just throw the gun at him. 5 rounds of 22, 5 rounds 38 spcl and 5 rounds 45 hardball at a 50 yard slow fire target posted at the 100 yard line. Then I sit back and relax while the nay sayer goes to get the target. More than once they have come back talking to themselves and only then will they listen to what the coach has been trying to tell them. It's my version of hitting a mule between the eyes with a 2x4...first you gotta get their attention and convince them that the bullet will not get tired and quit after 'X' number of feet.
 
I thought I'd been fortunate to see most of the best shooters on this planet compete with handguns. I mean the best of the best. Not only the best long range handgunners (one won two world championships...standing shooting). However, now I'm humbled. It appears that there are much better shooters on here than those gentlemen are. I mean it must be true. You can't lie on the internet can you? I know for a fact they'd be humbled to see the feats posted on here.
 
I thought I'd been fortunate to see most of the best shooters on this planet compete with handguns. I mean the best of the best. Not only the best long range handgunners (one won two world championships...standing shooting). However, now I'm humbled. It appears that there are much better shooters on here than those gentlemen are. I mean it must be true. You can't lie on the internet can you? I know for a fact they'd be humbled to see the feats posted on here.
Click to expand...
It really isn't that big of a deal if you put in the trigger time. Most people don't shoot long range because they think of anything past 25 yards as astronomical units of distance. What beats them is the computer between the ears.
 
So, this OP looks like spam, but I'll bite!

I will first say that your DE suggestion and Mag Research suggestions sound fine getting started.

I have killed deer at 125 yards with a 10.5" 44 mag. I have also killed deer at ~200 yds with a T/C Contender in 375 JDJ. Both worked well.

I can shoot 1" groups at 100 yds with the 375, so getting to 300 is not impossible.

I'm working on something to reach to 500 yards. Probably a new barrel in 6mm Donaldson Wasp. Mine will be set up for flat base bullets, but if set up for BT's, 600+ is possible off a decent rest.

If I were serious, I would build up a custom XP style gun.

The only advice I have is don't get carried away on all the precision accuracy stuff because the huge limitation is the inability to rest a handgun.

No reason to have a benchrest barrel on a gun which cannot exceed .75" at 100 yards regularly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top