100 yd Handgun Shooting

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Like many hobbies I've been involved with, I think there is a certain thought where, "THIS is what I'm interested in. THIS is what's important to ME!"

I think we would all do well if those short-sighted (no offense intended) shooters try their hand at really reaching out there and touching something. AND, if those "wood and steel" enthusiasts actually pick up something with an adjustable stock once or twice.

It's better to be a community than to be :fire::cuss::banghead: at each other. Think of it like a breath mint, if somebody offers it to you, TAKE IT! :D

Good on you David!
 
100

Here's a pic on the subject. Before leaving the range one day.....a rifle day....I took the Glock 36 out and shot the magazine out at the 100 yard backer. Six shots....Wish that I could find the sixth but five of them are here.

57ironsights100yds.jpg

Here's another. Same gun, though I took ten shots. I apologize for the crummy photo of a much shot target. The eight holes that are visible in the black, not taped over, are all from the G36.
Glock36at100yards.jpg
 
When I shot IHMSA eons ago my personal best was 9 turkeys at 150 yards (and I knew I missed the last on as soon as I sent it.) Ruger 44SBH, iron sights. On occasion I'd tag rams at 200 yards.
The first time I shot IHMSA I used a 4" M-19 and tagged a few pigs at 100 yards.
 
There is a book out there called "Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting"by Ed McGivern ,where he was shooting man-sized targets at 500 yards with a .357 and hitting the target somewhere about 75% of the time .
All of his shooting was documented by law enforcement or military people.

This book is a great read for all handgun shooters.
 
There is a book out there called "Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting"by Ed McGivern ,where he was shooting man-sized targets at 500 yards with a .357 and hitting the target somewhere about 75% of the time .
All of his shooting was documented by law enforcement or military people.

This book is a great read for all handgun shooters.
Somewhere in that book is a quote from McGivern that goes something like ...with a 357 I would feel comfortable going against a rifleman out to 500 yards and be sure of getting on target first... Not bad!
 
No, true enough. Only .25 I ever had was an RG. Couldn't hit squat past handshake range, but it was a little POS. I can hit quite consistently with my snubby .38 at 100 yards on a 14" gong target. We used to have an old blind flange hanging out on the 100 yard range, but it got all shot up by rifles eventually. I just like to plink, shoot and hear something go "clang" when I score. I never thought of it as serious practice.

I always used the Elmer Keith method to hold over.
 
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I have a pocket .22 that doesn't stabilize the projectiles, so I really can "curve the bullet" with that little gem.
 
I had a .25 that was good to about 60 yards with a 2" barrel on it. It freaked some people completely including me at first.

I've seen people tell me I was an idiot for trying to shoot 25 yards with a handgun. First time I went to my gun range and asked if I could move the target back some because they were all shooting at 7 yards (yep - 7). I got a bunch of chuckles and some joker mouthing off about wasting ammo but he did it when I had my back turned.

They weren't laughing so much when I dinged the steel time after time after time. Heck I even drew a crowd which really freaked me out. I wondered what the heck was wrong with the shooters there to be honest. They even rounded up the range master to do an informal shoot against me and we were pretty evenly matched at 25 yards with both of us rarely missing. I just wonder what they would think if we went to the rifle range and I shot 175 yards and hit a target just a little bigger than the one we were shooting at.

Sometimes people get a mental block because they "think" it can't be done. When someone shows them it can suddenly they start shooting much better too. Guns are simple things really. If you mind the basics you can hit what you aim at.
 
From a practical standpoint: How does one aim for this? Above the target? How high? I don't want to go to the range and shoot over the berm or something dangerous.
 
From a practical standpoint: How does one aim for this? Above the target? How high? I don't want to go to the range and shoot over the berm or something dangerous.

It depends on the gun and caliber.

As I said previously, it really helps a lot if you can spot your misses.

I was surprised that the little .25 didn't require much holdover, I just aimed for the upper 1/3 of the target.

If possible, work the target back, say, 25 yds at a time, holding dead center, noting where the group forms. Adjust your hold accordingly.
 
As I said previously, it really helps a lot if you can spot your misses.

If possible, work the target back, say, 25 yds at a time, holding dead center, noting where the group forms. Adjust your hold accordingly.

What he said. It's just a matter of working it out for every gun at every range with every type of ammo you're using. With practice you can work out the hold over with a single shot. You aim at dead center and see how far your bullet drops. Then you just aim that much higher on the second shot. It's that simple. Of course getting really good with a particular gun requires that you practice enough to know what the hold over should be at about every distance. You may not get it perfect but you can sure get close on the first shot if you've put in the time to know how much your bullet is going to drop at a given distance. I like to limit how many guns I shoot a lot because I want to be able to remember details like these. It's harder when you start trying to remember a whole bunch of guns and how they shoot. ou also need to learn how the wind affects a particular bullet too if you're shooting very far at all. I try to limit myself to a couple of handguns to shoot at longer distances. I generally shoot my Sig P220 for 50 yard groups and past that I shoot my S&W 629 with the 8 3/8" barrel. That thing will reach out there pretty far before the bullets start to stray a lot. I can get about 175 yards from it but others may have a better load they use that will give them even more distance. I still haven't found that magic bullet for 200 yards with that revolver. I shoot 240 gr. Hornady LEVERevolution to get out to 175 yards. The spitzer bullet shape seems to give me a little more distance but there could be better ammo out there for long distance shooting. I'm no expert on the subject.
 
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It's also better to hold the front sight on the target and lower rear sight to expose more of the front. Find a point on the front sight to gauge the rear on. This way you won't be holding in space above the target, but will have the front sight on the target with the rear lowered.
This is a more consistent way to shoot long distance. I held my 9mm near the top of a bowling pin at 100 yards and got a hit.
The steel plate at 200 yards I hold just over half way down the front sight with my glock 26 and 34.
 
It's also better to hold the front sight on the target and lower rear sight to expose more of the front.

Good advice but I learned to do it the wrong way and I've stuck with it for whatever reason. I have seen people hold their revolvers upside down so they can get a better view of the holdover too. It seems to work very well if you can hang on to the gun.
 
I use long range handgun shooting to force myself to maintain fundamentals. I'm not likely to need a .45 at 100 yards, but it sure makes hitting closer a lot easier.
 
Yep

I use long range handgun shooting to force myself to maintain fundamentals. I'm not likely to need a .45 at 100 yards, but it sure makes hitting closer a lot easier.
+1 about that. The closest that I ever get to a target during practice (except for the .25 and the .32) is indoors at 50 ft. My feeling for that is as above. If I can hit what I am aiming at at 17 yards, 25, 50, 100 yards.....then I can hit it at three or seven.
I surely do have more off the paper at 100 than at three.
Pete
 
One of my favorite things is shooting small size handguns at steel, at a little distance, mostly 52 yards. Standing, two hands.
I like using the small guns, like S&W 38 J Frames.
Just yesterday I was shooting a Ruger SR22.

My range is 115 yards but that's a little far for such guns as the Micro Desert Eagle.:)
MDEat50yards.gif
 
I've been shooting my handguns @ 100 yds. for years, including my old Colt Woodsman.
 
In the Eastwood classic, "For a Few Dollars More," Clint and Lee Van Cleef have it out in the street at High Midnight. Clint shoots Lee's hat off his head, sending it down the street. Each time Lee tries to pick it up, Clint shoots it again, sending the hat further away each time. Until it's about 6 feet too far for Clint's bullets to hit. Never mind the loud ricochet sound effect indicating the bullet still had plenty of velocity to spare.

I was just watching that movie and I noticed that even when he was shooting at the hat while it was high in the air it still richoched!!!! Must have been a really hard hat!
 
Had to give this another try today, with a regular .40 1911. With some concentration it wasn't difficult to hit IPSC target @110 yards, offhand. Sighted in for 25 yards I was about 14" low at 110, group was about a foot in diameter with 15+15 shots, two shots were off the target. Much easier than I remembered.
 
Must have been a really hard hat!

It's an OSHA thing. They take safety seriously. ;)

As for the purpose of shooting long distances for me it's about "aim small, miss small" mostly. If you know what a gun feels like when you're aiming a handgun at something over 100 yards away you will know how it feels when you're aimed at something 5 yards away really well. It makes point shooting almost automatic but almost isn't good enough. I still practice point shooting sometimes. I do it with a laser mounted on a pistol for getting in a lot of repetitions. But I still practice with the real thing fairly often. You want that SD shot to be automatically on target almost.

But there's also the fact I might need to hunt food with a pistol in some far fetched scenario. It does happen although not often. I rarely get way out in the boondocks these days but a few years ago I was doing it almost daily on my ATV. I rode alone (yeah I know but I was careful and I'm still alive) so if I broke down I was on my own. The difference between going hungry and having coon on a spit is significant. Rabbit is even better but I would take what I could get after a day or two of going hungry. And yes I got that far out on an ATV. Some places would have required a week's hike to get out in fact. 30-40 miles out in the mountains is no easy thing. If I can nail something to eat you can bet I'm gonna do just that. I kept survival gear with me all the time including water (you can carry a lot of stuff on an ATV) and part of that gear was a handgun I could use for getting lunch. I generally had one that had to double as a SD weapon too and long guns are hard to carry on an ATV without filling them with mud at least where I come from anyway. So I ended up with a large caliber (.45 usually) handgun that was accurate enough at 50 yards to nail a rabbit. Sure there may not be a lot of rabbit left after being shot by a .45 ACP but every little bit helps.
 
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