Longish Range Handgun

xphunter said:

Chris Rhodes/Bayside Custom Gunworks out of Newcastle, WY

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Excellent, thank you.

Trashyshoots said:

Excellent, thank you.

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I have also heard very good things about Chris Rhodes! Good Luck in your endeavor! memtb

I have a T/C encore pistol 12 inch in 44 mag. .430 bullets are expensive hard to get. Got a 223 Rem 15 inch barrel recoil is light easy on the hand very accurate @ 200 yds. I Also have a 15 inch 308 win. Is very accurate @ 200 yds.I've killed more hogs with 44 mag.
it's not as cumbersome with open sights.

@DMW1116

A 357 is a dandy cartridge for 150+ yard shooting. Get whatever 357 you fancy with a 4 inch or longer barrel.

Semi auto cartridges will drop a lot faster than a 357, even out of a 4 inch barrel. I would check ballistics by the inch, and if the difference is tiny, maybe look into a reddot on a 4 incher. you dont need a longer unwieldy barrel for the sight radius, with a red dot.

http://www.ballisticsbytheinch.com/357mag.html

I mean, really, imho, you're overthinking it. Especially out to 150-200.

As I said earlier in the thread you really only need a gun with a nice trigger. I was drilling propane tanks (the bbq sized ones) at my local blm trash heap, at 200+ yards, with a volquartsen scorpion, earlier this week.
200 yards? Nasty cross winds? .22lr?
Didnt matter, still was making hits, plinkin and grinnin.

If you're going for hits on steel, and not groups inside of 200 you're really overthinking.

I haven’t been visiting the handguns side of THR much lately, but I’m sad I’ve overlooked this thread for a few months.

For revolvers, a 357mag is the easy button, I’m partial to Rugers, but readily acknowledge they will need sear work done to feel the way they should for proper king range work.

I personally do most of my long range wheelgunning with a rebuilt original 6 shot Ruger Redhawk 357magnum, reamed to 357/44 B&D (44mag case necked down to .357” bullets). Laying on the gas, or H110 rather, I can get a drawn 180grn Speer rifle bullet up to 1900fps in the 7.5” barrel, and getting out to 250-300yrds from a support is bread and butter. Leupold VX-3 2-8x on top most of the time, but occasionally a riflescope.



For sublime enjoyment, a Ruger 10/22 Charger is hard to beat. 6” falling plates in 10-15 seconds at 50yrds is literally child’s play, and hitting 3” wide prairie dogs at 200yrds is the game. It holds about 8” at 325yrds with cheap, bulk box ammo. Notably better with Eley Club.

Shown here a couple years ago with a Nikon Buckmaster 3-18x on top, since replaced, shooting 8” and 10” gongs at 325yrds.



A few weeks ago on Easter Sunday, my 7yr old son warmed up for longer range work with relays on the 6” falling plate rack at 50yrds - clearing in under 15sec par time. Now sporting a SiCo Warlock and a Bushnell DMR II 3.5-21x rifle scope. He spent the rest of the day practicing wind holds at 200 and 300yrds on 3” wide prairie dogs, 5” square, and 66% IPSC’s (12x18”) in 20-24mph wind.

Excellent to you and your son VT!

DMW1116 said:

I’m mostly interested in keeping on a 12” target out to 200 yards. Obviously an 8” or 6” target would be better, but I haven’t tried any handgun that far yet, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

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With a scoped 357 Magnum Contender this would be easy-Prone or off the bench.
Prone or off the bench with a good scoped 357 magnum revolver this would be easy too...Not as easy as the TC though IMO.
With rifle cartridges out of a scoped Contender, Encore or other specialty pistol it becomes child's play.
It all depends on how you want to skin the cat

DMW1116 said:

I’m mostly interested in keeping on a 12” target out to 200 yards. Obviously an 8” or 6” target would be better, but I haven’t tried any handgun that far yet, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

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The 22LR Charger I posted above hangs onto an 8” plate past 300 even with rot-gut ammo and a sad Nikon Buckmaster scope. Any more power above that with a centerfire just gets easier.

A 17WSM Contender would be a hoot.

But honestly, every time I have bought a pistol/revolver cartridge barrel for a specialty pistol, I end up selling it pretty quickly. It’s just too easy to get them chambered in a bottleneck/rifle cartridge and REALLY reach out there. Costs more and barks louder, but man, it’s a hoot stretching the legs on a specialty pistol, way out there where most guys don’t reach with a rifle.

Here’s my newest project: expecting the stock next week or so, as the old stock doesn’t fit the new FAT contour. Proof Research Competition Contour 1:7” 6 creed, cut at 15”, with only one job!

Slap a red dot on that and 200 yards onto a 12x12 plate will be easy money.

Copied from another site, but thought some may be interested in this if you're using front sight for elevation adjustments "Elmer Keith style" for longer ranges...and windage. IMO this is where it really gets fun--

A number of years ago there was an article written by Ed Wosika entitled "How to Shoot Your Pistols Accurately at Extremely Long Range". Roger Clouser also wrote about it years ago in Precision Shooting publications. They were detailing the front sight applications for long range shooting like Elmer Keith used. When I read this stuff I was fascinated with the math behind it. I don't believe either writer detailed the math nor believed in first shot applications using it, but i started researching it years ago, and what a fun ride it's been. I don't shoot the semi's in straight-walled cartridges at all, but have used it with 3 air pistols and a Ruger Mk III 22 with amazing results. One of the airguns i've used is the diminutive Crosman 1377 pumper shooting a .03 BC pellet at 400 fps mv. What I did was paint a small white box section in the middle of the front sight to be able to establish a 3-unit system of subtension basically. I measured each unit with calipers, and the sight radius of the pistol's iron sights. The equation for MOA is front sight measurement x 3438 / sight radius. For milliradian use 1000 for the second variable instead of 3438 (i round off to 3400 since that margin of error is very insignificant with iron sights and it's much easier to remember). Once measured and calcd. I had 3 units that added up to right at 80 MOA trajectory compensation. I had to try it out so I set a 12" pie plate at 80 yds. once which was right at the bottom of the front sight (assuming a 20-yd. top of front sight even with top of rear sight zero). Had a 10 mphish 3 oclock wind that day which surprised the heckoutame that I could hit the plate several times after i aimed several feet into the wind at that distance.

Another time I was at Randy Engels airgun fun shoot he has every year not far from my home. I thought to pull out the gun to test it at 50 yds. on a 10" buffalo silhouette steel tgt. and after running the ballistics it called for ~1.4 units down for whatever the MOA correction called for at the range (been awhile now). At the first shot i heard a "tink" and about fell off my chair. I think i hit it maybe 3 out of 5 shots. It was great my ballistics were matching the MOA calcs I'd made.

One last time I thought to calc windage too, but this time I used a sight radius to my eye from a sitting position, and was able to hit a pebble on the side of a road bed at 40 yds. by aiming the calcd vertical and horizontal correction with the front sight according to the ballistic programs calcs. I was ELATED it worked so well. Love this stuff and the math behind it.

If you use the Keith aiming system though (put target on top of the front sight) you have to use a sight radius to your eye like windage. Try it sometime it might just blow your mind like it did mine

VT--I use a 5.5" Ruger Mk III with a bipod attachment for a walking prairie dogger these days mostly. I put the 3X Nikon Crossbow scope on it mounted in shimmed Burris Pos-Align rings, and mounted as it is now I can use most of the 250 MOA of trajectory compensation that optic has in it reticle+turret. It can literally reference shots out to 8-900ish yds. Never tried it yet at those sort of ranges but this setup would allow for it. When I 1st saw this optic I just had to have it!

@sscoyote - sheesh, that’s a WHOLE LOTTA ELEVATION! I borrowed a Charlie Tarac briefly to shoot 800 with a 22LR, and I’m lusting over one of my own soon, for several reasons - rimfire ELR being one of them.

Varminterror said:

@sscoyote - sheesh, that’s a WHOLE LOTTA ELEVATION! I borrowed a Charlie Tarac briefly to shoot 800 with a 22LR, and I’m lusting over one of my own soon, for several reasons - rimfire ELR being one of them.

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I don't have a Charlie TARAC either...It has been on my mind though....

Oh, and I have never shot past 500 yards with my 22lr clone Charger specialty pistols-You are ahead of me!

I have a takedown charger with a 1.5 x4 Leupold AR mod 1 with a 25 moa droop mount rings
It,s a shooter

I keep hearing Model 686, which is a fine gun. But don’t forget the N frames. I just traded for a Mod 28, and with that heavy frame I can load mild to wild. I can find that ‘sweet spot’ load that hits at 100 yards.

WestKentucky said:

357 is probably your best bet. The longer barrels are easier to hit with. I would not even consider a 4” and would merely settle for a 6” double action. The single actions can be had with longer barrels but a lot of folks don’t like single actions for some reason. With practice though a .357 is not terribly hard to get hits with at a hundred yards. I once sunk a white domestic duck on a pond at over 300 on the 3rd shot with a lowly Taurus.

As much as I dislike his videos, you might want to check out Hickok45 on YouTube. His backyard range is unbelievable and he always puts shots on the plates at longer range just to prove it can be done. It doesn’t take anything special, I just takes a well practiced trigger finger and a steady hand. Hickok can give you ideas on the guns to get. My vote would be (in this order of preference)
Blackhawk 357
686
Super Blackhawk 44
Super Redhawk 44
Gp100 357
Witness match 10mm
Witness match 9mm
Rock ultra 10mm
Taurus PT99
Taurus PT100

Throw a couple Colt revolvers in for good measure. I don’t like the new ones much but it’s for a reason even I find silly and I’m the one who harbors hatred for Colt because of the silliness.

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Well just for, if Wild Bill could, could I, I set up a 12x18 silhouette shoot and see target at 75 yards. Using a two hand hold standing with my arm braced on a roof support up right I could hold all six on the man shaped silhouette. This with a Colt 1851 Navy with 22 grains of 3F and a .375 round ball.
Western fans will get the WildBill connection.
Group was large to say the least but all were potentially lethal.

DMW1116 said:

Say I were to consider an Encore/Contender style handgun, in say 30-30. What would that allow me to do? 100, even 150 or 200 yards?

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I've got a T/C in 3030 and it's my go to deer gun, I've taken deer out to 150+ yds from a rest and can bang a gong at 200 yds consistently...

Dirt around the target area can help you "walk it in". I still make a buck now and then betting I can either move or break a clay bird out on the hundred yard berm with one cylinder full. From prone or a rest, 6" 29-2

sscoyote said:

VT--I use a 5.5" Ruger Mk III with a bipod attachment for a walking prairie dogger these days mostly. I put the 3X Nikon Crossbow scope on it mounted in shimmed Burris Pos-Align rings, and mounted as it is now I can use most of the 250 MOA of trajectory compensation that optic has in it reticle+turret. It can literally reference shots out to 8-900ish yds. Never tried it yet at those sort of ranges but this setup would allow for it. When I 1st saw this optic I just had to have it!

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Please, tell me more about this scope if so inclined. Perhaps in a pm to not topic steer this thread. Very intriguing for a build I have in the mail at the moment.