Long Range Pistol Shooting

[Germster]

Elmer Keith often wrote about shooting is Colt at long range. He'd sit down and place his elbows inside his knees and blast away. He'd also place his gun had against the outside of his knee the muzzle over his boot. I read the stories and today I enjoy shooting my pistols at 100 to 200 yds. It's fun. After you establish your grip and figure out how to view the sights you will be astounded how good you become. You'll bounce a beer can at a 100 yds. I'm pretty good at it.

Then practice off hand. It's easier for me to shoot a pistol from my off hand and off eyed rather than a rifle. .22's are cheap. Work on it. You'll have to close your strong eye tightly, but otherwise it's about the same after some practice. Then work on it one handed.

Then when you go to the range with another guy you can say, "See that white rock on the berm?"

"Yeah"

"I'll hit it off hand, one handed".

"That's got to be 150 yards!"

"I'll hit it in two shots".

"Betchya can't". (Now you've got him.)

Since you've been practicing it's not too hard to do. Might take you three shots. After the guy leaves the range you will have become, in his eyes, a deadeye with a pistol.

You see, almost no one shoots pistols are long range, but it can be done.

 

[CraigC]

Most shooters do all their shooting at indoor ranges with service pistols. Which gives birth to the notion that handguns are only good to 15yds.

 

[Tallinar]

I'm hoping to get some serious practice in with some 50 to 100 yd .44 magnum shooting before winter. I haven't historically done much more than off-hand shooting with pistols.

I've done just enough to realize that I don't know the proper way to shoot revolver from benchrest. I'd like to learn more about that, but mostly am interesting in trying some sitting positions.

 

[jhudock]

There's some cool youtube footage I saw recently of someone shooting an 18" metal target at 200 yds with a Ruger MkIII. Only missed once.

 

[Pyro]

Just takes practice.
I can hit a 50 yard target with my little .25 auto offhand.
This thing ain't a tackdriver by a long stretch, but I was hitting it.

 

[M2 Carbine]

My range is only 115 yards.
I like 100 yard handgun shooting but haven't done any for a while.


I do often shoot compact and small handguns at 52 yards, while standing.
I feel that sitting is cheating, so I seldom ever shoot handguns sitting down.

A friends young daughter. First time she shot at 50 yards. Her target is the foot square white steel plate. She did miss a few times.



New Ruger LC9. I missed the steel plate a couple times.



Polish P-64. Didn't miss the steel but did miss the silhouette a couple times.



The micro Desert Eagle does surprisingly well at 52 yards. Two rounds just missed the bottom of the target because I wasn't allowing enough for bullet drop.

 

[BCRider]

A while back at one of our monthly Speed Steel matches the guy doing the stages set up an 18x24 plate to be shot out at 50 yards. Now that isn't all that hard to hit be keep in mind that it was a speed match so it looked pretty darn small to the eyes.

At the end of the match I was goofing around and shot my .38Spl revolver at it weak hand and got 5 hits out of 6 shots. My main revolver shooting buddy in my group tried it as well and got the same results. We both agreed to a tie as we were both a bit surprised but both happy to hit the target weak hand only and do it 5 out of 6 times.

It got me thinking that I'd like to try for longer distances with some higher speed Magnums or similar.

 

[RussB]

IHMSA

http://www.ihmsa.org/

Those folks can hit a target 200 meters away

 

[gbran]

Srh 454

Here's my long range shooter.

[/IMG]

 

[Rollis R. Karvellis]

It is impossible to hit a target pass 7 yards. I know this is true, I, read it on the internet.

 

[22lr]

My S&W model 10 was good for dinner plates at 100 yards all day long.

I can also land rounds with my Beretta 21a in 22lr in a 2' square at that range. Long range handgun shooting is fun, because no one believes you when you say you just took a Beretta 21a out to a hundred yards.

 

[RNB65]

I do a lot of 50yd shooting with my Buckmark .22 and a red dot sight. It's one of my favorite forms of shooting.

 

[flipajig]

I shoot a Thompson Contender and a Encore I have shot 100 yds several times
The first time that I tried to shoot 300 I was verry impressed 4 rds and all 4 on
Paper. I have been able to shoot 1/2" at 100 4 times this just donsnt happen
Every day you have to do every thing right and talk about walking on water that is
The way I felt that day I was able to do it for the first time.

 

[Lawdawg45]

Every Deer season a Ruger old model Vaquero (7 1/2 inch) is on my hip!

LD

 

[Fatelvis]

IHMSA

Spend a little time seriously shooting at a couple matches, and the whole feeling of impossability goes away. It's amazing what distances a handgun can be used at.

 

[scramasax]

Made a lot of money one summer shooting a 1911 at a 16' 200 yard gong. Sighted off the crease inside my elbow. Could turn and look at the mark before the slug hit.

Cheers,

ts

 

[303tom]

I have killed Whitetail at over 200 yds. with mine.

 

[mbopp]

+2 on IHMSA, I used to shoot it with a Ruger SBH. I shot my first IHMSA match with a 4" K-frame, and actually hit the pigs at 100 yards.
The 218 Bee barrel on my Contender will go well under an inch at 100 yards, and the 357 Herrett barrel isn't far behind.

 

[45_auto]

Made a lot of money one summer shooting a 1911 at a 16' 200 yard gong.

They didn't believe you could hit a 16 foot gong at 200 yards? What was it, the side of a steel barn?

 

[M2 Carbine]

People are sometimes surprised at what they can do.

Two weeks ago a fairly new (senior) lady shooter was shooting my 22LR Henry Mare's Leg.


She was shooting at a 24 inch steel plate (the black one in the above pictures).
Every ten shots I had her back up 8-10 yards. Before long she was standing at 52 yards having a lot of fun ringing that steel plate.

 

[Zak Smith]

My friend wrote this
http://survival.outdoorlife.com/pho...06/sight-alignment-long-range-pistol-shooting
Long-Range Pistol Shooting: Find the Right Sight Alignment

 

[Ironman]

I always shoot my pistol at 100m right before I leave. Like you said it's fun. I have a AR500 2/3 size steel IDPA target I use when shooting my rifles long range. Before I pack up I'll see how many hits I can get in 50 rounds. Best I ever did was 32 with a suppressed HKusp45T. Good times.

Edit: and that was standing off hand. In the snow, uphill both ways...lololol ok ok just standing offhand.

 

[usmccpl]

Many times I would ring a 3 inch plate at 150 yards with my dads 7 1/2 inch Redhawk. No one was more suprised than me the first time I did it cuz I couldn't hit a 12 inch target at 25 yards with the same gun.

 

[Germster]

I'm glad that so many folks are shooting their pistols at long range. I enjoy, and I'm often amazed how often I can hit a gong a long way off. I used to shoot my Smith Model 36 at a hundred yds too, and did pretty well with the little shooter.

Most people can't hit the broad side of a barn with a pistol at any range. It's just not as natural as rifle shooting. I was a pistol instructor in the Army for years and most basic trainees, who had never shot a pistol before (most of them) had a difficult time at first.

Concentrate on both sights! The target should be a blurr. I also instruct shooters to let the gun recoil, but to keep a firm grip.

 

[303tom]

I have killed Whitetail at over 200 yds. with mine.

Sorry I meant with this.