Your best shot with a handgun intentional or not

Griz22 : What were you doing qualifying at FT. Meade ? I had to qualify there with a 2" Model 10 in 1971 , Also very familiar with the Newark place you mentioned. I did 3 months there as a Federal Agent and quit when I couldn't get a transfer ! Hell was a better place IMHO , I returned from Nam 8 months prior and would have preferred returning to staying in Newark.
Any way , I shot a now federally protected bird out of a tree from where it was decimating dozens of fish a day in trout raceways by stabbing them . It was about 200+ yards away and 100 feet up a hillside in Big Sur when my boss asked me to take the critter , in front of Clint Eastwood in 1974 who was his friend on a visit there . I was using an XP100 Remington with an old Bushnell Phantom 2x scope , and Clint said "damn, I thought Dirty Harry used a big pistol" We left the bird in the tree and it's kind seemed to take a hint !

Alte Schule said:

So what’s your best shot with a handgun?

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When Alliant released BE-86 in canister form (Which had been used in factory JHP for decades), I did load development with different bullets and when I was doing repeat accuracy test while tweaking the 40S&W OAL longer than SAAMI max length, I produced around 2" groups at 25 yards with smallest being around 1.5" - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/rmr-180gr-fmj-rnfp.847523/#post-11050244

The guy shooting in the next lane stopped shooting and asked what I was shooting. I told him I was load developing new powder and new thick plated bullet with factory stock Glock 22. He told me if he didn't see the groups with his own eyes, he would have hard time believing the size of my 25 yard groups. (I didn't tell him I shot several hundred thousand rounds of match reloads for USPSA with two Glock 22s and over 120,000 rounds just with Glock 17 )



When I posted my load testing results/target groups in the H&R category, as anticipated there were some skeptical responses - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ick-plated-bullets.761471/page-4#post-9645513

So I decided to have a fellow THR member witness repeat accuracy testing with the most accurate powder charge/OAL tested and also speak to the range staff who witnessed my previous 25 yard testing groups averaging 2 inches with various 9mm/40S&W/45ACP loads.

When I met up with THR member, I introduced him to range staff who verified my previous 25 yard testing groups and we proceeded to do repeat accuracy test. As usual, I rested my hands on top of a small ice chest I normally bring for refreshments and fired off rounds fairly fast. I was expecting around 2" group, perhaps 1.5" group but the following group was found on the target.

Gordon said:

Griz22 : What were you doing qualifying at FT. Meade ? I had to qualify there with a 2" Model 10 in 1971 , Also very familiar with the Newark place you mentioned. I did 3 months there as a Federal Agent and quit when I couldn't get a transfer ! Hell was a better place IMHO , I returned from Nam 8 months prior and would have preferred returning to staying in Newark.

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Gordon, I worked for a Federal agency in Baltimore and we used the ranges at Ft Meade. I spent 23 years working in Newark, one as a teacher and 22 in Federal LE. Plenty of business in Newark to keep all LE agencies occupied.

Trunk, Entropy, Grizz,

What with bad Met, corollis, temperature variations and lot powder and shell variations, to say nothing of observer error, compass error, and "computer" error , Artillery is an ART.

Says so right in the name.

Only round I ever "lost" was at Sill on the east range with the sunflowers in full bloom. Calling "Lost round" would have cost me points on my over all "shooting score", so that was out. I had called a Mark Center Sector, simply because they were not teaching it to us young 2LTs but I had been taught it as an enlisted Infantryman. At splash nothing happened in the area of the target and a round impacted an improbable distance away (turns out the class targets were all on the right edge of the primary sector) Two other rounds Impacted out there with in seconds of the one I felt was my MCS so I SWAGed that the round closest to splash had been it and ballsed a "Spalsh over" and corrected. One adjustment over 1200 X 700 meters and round in effect.

Not all 2LTs are created equal...especially those being paid as an O1 over 6!

Oh and the shot was a 102A1 105mm from the school battery likely being manned and computed by another group of 2LTs

-kBob 13A00

But this is about pistols.

My luckiest was I had been shooting at our local "police Range" ( just a berm next to the grass strip leg of our little one paved strip airport) and as I was putting away my rifles at 100 meters. Some ya-hoos showed up and proceeded to place bottles of miller's beer with floaters on some of the stands then drive over to my car.

I explained to them that "we" did not shoot glass as the Chief would not be happy. Me not being an LEO and them knowing it they told me where I could go....I tried to explain about the restraining order the Satan had out on me but they didn't get it... so I said no worry as I would simply tell the Chief who had been doing it. This pissed them off. I then said not to worry as I doubted even the guy with the scoped Marlin .30-30 was likely to break one of the bottles.

This seemed to anger them and one suggested I should show them how it was done. I drew my trusty Ruger Standard Model 1 RST4 and one handed a shot all in one fluid motion ending with a bit of front sight high and the trigger bottoming out.

Much to my shock and surprise I violated the Chief's rule as glass and beer 100 meters away flew everywhere.

I calmly reholstered said, "You boys be sure to clean up that one, too" got in my car and drove away.

Two days later I checked and found no glass on the range.

-kBob

I "fanned" the last shot out of my 1858 Remington repro,,,
It was at a murder of crows that was at least 100 yards away.

Believe me, nobody was more surprised than me,,,
When one of them went up in a puff of black feathers.

Aarond

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When the S&W L frame 586 first came out I bought one. First trip to the range and I brought a box of .38Spl wadcutters. Two handed at 50', shot the first 5 rounds, but could only see the first hole, figured I'd missed all the rest.

Pulled the target in to take a look and it was a small 5 sided cloverleaf. Too much pressure, sent the target back out and pulled the 6th round. lol

Haven't matched that since.

I bought that gun because my agency said we could carry a .357 as long as we loaded it with .38Spl. rounds. Later, they changed policy and said we could only carry a revolver chambered in .38Spl, so I sold it, which I regret to this day.

Years ago pheasant hunting with my bro in law we kicked a coyote out of a grassy draw, too far for shotgun. I put my shotgun on the ground and drew my 4” model 66 with .38 semiwaddcutters from the holster and dropped the running coyote with 1 shot at 55 yards.

Whitetail doe at 34 yards, running, 1 shot, .44mag iron sight - through the neck - with a witness standing next to me watching.

I've got 2. One carefully aimed, one was pure instinct (or luck?) Both on snowshoe hare in the winter.

I've been doing some forestry work on my hunting property...surveying, timber inventory, and just a general excuse to walk the winter woods. Although my .22 Ruger would be a more suitable arm for snowshoe hare, I enjoy taking them with a full sized handgun and hard cast bullets. I find the meat damage as such to be quite minimal...less than with .22 high velocity. Sometimes there is a blood trail to follow, but it's pretty easy in the deep snow.

First shot was with my 9mm FN. A hare busted from cover, and I pulled the gun from holster, took a lead and fired as the hare disappeared into the brush at about 40 yards. Walking to the spot, it was miraculously stone dead with a shot through the neck.

Second I spotted at 100 yards or so, and stalked slightly closer. Couldn't pace too well, as I was on snowshoe's also, but it was in one of my shooting lanes and I can reasonably estimate the range at 70-80 yards. This one was with my .357 loaded with 125 hard cast .38 SPL at about 900fps. I held over about a foot and squeezed off a shot. Caught him right behind the shoulder and he was dead with a short blood trail.

6" gong at 75yds with an LCP. Not the smallest target or the farthest away (I plink clays at 100yds with my sbh, and used to plink bowling pins at just under 200 with my buckmark), but probably still the most impressive hit I've made.

LoonWulf said:

6" gong at 75yds with an LCP. Not the smallest target or the farthest away (I plink clays at 100yds with my sbh, and used to plink bowling pins at just under 200 with my buckmark), but probably still the most impressive hit I've made.

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I've only shot one LCP, and a hit on 6" steel at 25 woulda been nearly miraculous for me.

All of my "impossible" shots have been a result of me throwing something at something. Lots of those.

Howland937 said:

I've only shot one LCP, and a hit on 6" steel at 25 woulda been nearly miraculous for me.

All of my "impossible" shots have been a result of me throwing something at something. Lots of those.

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Didn't try it twice.

Now that I've been shooting my keltec p32 for a while, Im positive it was sheer luck. When I'm shooting it well I can cluster a full 7rnd mag in about 5-6" at 25 yds, but the sheer focus required makes shooting it no fun.
I do better shooting my big guns, then taking one of two shots with that little 2 finger menace....it amuses me that I can almost completely conceal it in one hand.

Best shot ever(and it’ll never happen again), 50 yards with a .31 percussion revolver. Dead center on the target.

My lucky shot was about 15 years ago. I was at the range with my buddy. I was shooting my Taurus 617 which is a double action only Snub nose .357 magnum. I spotted a clay pigeon on the backstop about 70 yards out that had not been hit yet. I said see that clay pigeon? He said yeah I see it and there is no way you are going to hit it with that thing. I aimed and squeezed the trigger as best I could with a heavy DAO gun. The gun went off and the clay pigeon busted into pieces. He told me to don't again. I said nope, you have to quit when you are still ahead.

My best (read “luckiest”) shot involved a small jar of Tannerite, my 629 Mountain Gun and some .44 Special handlloads.

A bunch of us were shooting and over of the guys brought a four-pack of the smaller Tannerite jars out. He stuck them at various distances, the furthest about 120 yards our from our shooting line.

Guys had plunked three of the four setting them off, and I was walking to the line with the .44 to shoot the steel silhouettes I’d brought. One of the guys challenged me with a ten dollar bet I couldn’t hit the Tannerite with the revolver. I cocked the gun, took a guess at elevation and sporting my finest Kentucky windage...fired the first shot.

I somehow hit the jar center-mass... breaking it open and spilling most of the mix all over the ground.

I guess the bullet didn’t have the speed to set off the Boom!

I went out and collected all I could, but it was pretty much a waste.

I gave the ten bucks to the guy who brought the Tannerite.... and I’ve never, ever, before or since, pulled off a shot like that.

Stay safe.

Crow on a fence post at 125 paces. Cost me an hour buffing out the powder scorch on my buddies 56 Plymouth convert hood where I rested my hands to make the shot. 1961, Colt SAA 5 1/2", 357446, 13.5 H240.

Hit a coke can at 60 yards with black powder 44 Colt reproduction. Handed the pistol to my friend and said “your shot”.

Always been fascinated with the math for long-range shooting, and especially Elmer Keith's lined front sight system on his pistols. After years studying it off and on, have it completely nulled out now, but it took awhile. A lot of my testing was with an iron sighted Crosman 1377 10 gr. pellet BC ~.03/400 fps mv. Several months ago I was testing front sight windage calcs, and thought to check the math at the end of a prairie dog shoot I was on with a buddy. When we got back to the truck in the afternoon the wind had picked up to about 10 mph. So I got set up sitting in a soft-sided stadium seat with the wind at full value from 3 o'clock. There was a pebble on the edge of the dirt road at 40 yds., and after aiming above the required calcd MOA with the front sight I aimed something like 12 MOA to the right I think it was (1/2 sight width into the wind relative to my sight radius which in this case is front sight to eye from the sitting position--width of front sight calcs out at 12 MOA from sitting). At the shot the pebble went flying. I was ecstatic that it all worked, and that my math was right.

I’ve had some “wow good shots” while plinking and some surprising results during competition (going 10 for 10 on the long steel offhand with a Garand and cleaning the 400 yard torso targets with my iron sighted Vepr during 3 guns) but the one that made ME the most shocked was when I accidentally loaded a 9mm mag into my Glock 22. I was at about 15 yards IIRC and the first shot didn’t cycle the slide (of course) so I cleared it and looked at the ballooned case and cursed my stupidity. Before I checked the bore for an obstruction I looked at the fresh bullseye target and there was a perfectly round 9mm hole in the absolute dead center of the X ring. LOL I’ve never made a better shot with that pistol before or since.

While doing our BBQ and guns day at our hunting property I wasn't having any luck shooting thrown clays with a shotgun and said I could do better with my 45acp M&P, after a LOT of laughter I called "pull" and busted clay, I then holstered it and sat down noticing everyones look, the next day when more people were there and everyone was talking about it I tried it again, busted another clay and then put that gun in the truck and have never returned there with it, those 2 shots are still talked about multiple times a year.

After shooting rifles on our 400yd range I set up a target at about 15yds so a friend & my girl friend could shoot their pistols.
They were banging away at the target & neither one of them had hit the center of the target & I was kidding them about it. So my friend said if you can shoot that good with a pistol go ahead & show us. I used my Kahr CM9, I used one hand & popped off a round dead center of the target & about that time I hear the big gong on the 400yd gong set go BONG. Everyone started laughing & said that was luck & you could never do that again. So I got in the same position & aimed the same way, then pull the trigger again. My shot went right next to the first hole & we heard the gong go BONG. I don't know if there was a wind going my way or a big flat rock that it skipped off of but I can't believe myself that a 9mm could go that far. LOL

Bullseye at 25 yards with my Glock 19, standing, unsupported, original factory sights. First shot of the range trip.

GRIZ22 said:

Shot it way back when from a rest for accuracy. Shot a Ballantine group at 50 yds.

The younger guys will have to look that up.

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@GRIZ22 looked it up; couldn’t find any meaning that made sense. Kindly enlighten us?

My grandson and I were shooting rifles and pistols at the range one afternoon, and after finishing up shooting, I walked down to the 100 yard target berm to retrieve our targets. There was a bowling ball laying on the ground so I put it on top of the target frame. After packing up I loaded my Ruger MK1 6-7/8 inch target pistol, handed to to my grandson and said see if you can hit it . He hit it on the first shot knocking it to the ground, standing with a two hand hold. We had a good laugh and a great shooting session. hdbiker