Longish Range Handgun

Hi...
I would recommend you shop around for a S&W Silhouette Model revolver. Mine is an L frame 686 with an 8-3/8" barrel. They also made them in .44Magnum on the N frame. They come with adjustable sights front and rear.
No idea what they may cost on the used gun market.

Second choice would be a Dan Wesson revolver. I have them in .22LR, .44Mag, .357Maximum and .375SuperMag.

Ringing steel plates at 100yds is fairly easy once you know where to hold. 200yds is quite doable as well.

Back in the day 25 yards was easy, now at my age 7 is the new 25. I could easily do 200 yards if the target was as big as a bus.

.

Trashyshoots said:

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.

Click to expand...

Just real quick sir the optic's not being made anymore (Nikon) probably get one somewhere (maybe Natchez). Here's a link to midway details-- https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1020507799 It's 3X short made for Crossbows. Not the highest quality optics, but adequate for my uses. Ballistic reticle gets 60ish yds. for crossbow, i.e. 100 MOA, and an advertised 150 in target turret in 1 MOA clicks. There are many low power crossbow style scopes out there but this one has the 1 MOA tgt. turret which sets it apart from the others IMO.

Everything I shoot at 200 yards is with a rifle with a minimum of a 3x9 scope. The only exception are my lever guns which have Williams apertures on them but those calibers are more of a 50/100 yard proposition in the woods where I hunt.

I really like ringing steel targets with my Contender
10" barrel in 44 magnum out to 100 yards

Encore in 454 for hunting 100 yards

Here ya go OP. And of course now that everything came in, my close long distance blm trash heap is closed for fire danger. I was able to get it out once for some distance work. Unfortunately I was limited to factory (read: trash) ammo because I havnt been able to source hardly any components for reloading since I ordered this pig a year ago.

Unless I can make the 2 hour drive to a long range spot that's open all year, it will wear a red dot for summer indoor shooting.

But I was able to make 400+ yard hits on 18x24 inch steel more often than not, while rested. For 100-200 yards I don't even need the moab base.

I guess its too late to recommend a .32-20 revolver?

For longer shots on paper, I've always used a good .38Spl or .32-20WCF with at least a 6" bbl. A longer sight plane helps more than power. For critters, a .32-20 has enough punch with 115gr. WFN bullets. For pigs and bigger, a .357Mag is marginal and a .44Mag is better - IF you can actually hit with it. I guess maybe I should have read all 6 pages of posts and looked for where you say what it is you're shooting at...

As an aside: The shooting club we used to belong to had a bunch of old codgers - septuagenarians and older - who formed their own little odd handguns club - the Sunday Morning Club, or something like that - this was twenty-something years ago. Every week on Sunday mornings they'd get together just past daybreak and shoot Ravens, Jennings, Lorcins... some kind of "Saturday Night Special" .22LR semi-auto at 100 yards on the rifle range and the lowest score bought breakfast for the group. Blew me away the first time I seen somebody turn in a one-ragged-hole B-16 target shooting a Raven .22LR at 100 yards; then to see that they all had cleared the X-ring on 25-yard targets set out to 100 yards?! Well, it made me feel mighty humble, let me tell you. The club board changed the rules so no one could shoot on Sunday mornings before 12 noon to break up the old guy's little club in the club. Some of the board members were feeling a little inadequate, I think. Darn shame, they were a hoot! I left that club shortly after that, too.

9mm,357,10mm are relatively easy to get on target out to 75,100,125,or even 150 yds easy being the operative word
It’s much easier out in the woods without restrictions on home range
A very slight up hill shooting range to walk in visible strikes makes zeroing easier & absolutely spectacular fun to stretch your personal range limits of any handgun with reasonably good sights……also 24 or 30 inch wide cardboard sheets on a wood stake can take a ton of guess work out.

Also…10mm at 125 yds smashing shale rock plates into tiny pieces will give you a true appreciation of the awesome power of a 10mm 180 grain xtp
I my humble opinion of course.

25, 50 yds is not really longish range. When I started in the 70s I had to qualify with a 2" 38 going out to 50 yesterday. That was then this is now.

My pick for your requirement would be a 357. You can do 100 yds with a 4" if you try hard enough.

Not that it displays a tremendous feat of marksmanship but I'd often put on a demonstration for those who believed a 2" J frame is only a "belly gun" only good for 7 yards.

There was a metal IPSC silhouette at the 100 yd line. I would use a 3" 640 shooting wadcutters shooting DA. I would ding that target 5 out 5 most of the time. Worst was 4 out of 5.

Another time, we put clays out at 100 yesterday. Broke mine with the 2nd shot using a 4" Security Six shooting 357 ammo.

How did I achieve this? Practice and a bit of Kentucky Windage to accommodate the fixed sights. 100 yd shooting with a pistol is not a magical art. You need to work on it.

Walther Q5 Match SF 9mm will hit 200 yds. Of course, you have to have the right person behind it, which I am clearly not.

1911s have a great trigger to be able to reach out. And they can easily be accurate enough to do it. 9mm or 10mm would be a great choice for off the shelf. Both those cartridges have more velocity than 45.

Edit: if I can do 70 yards with an air pistol 9mm or 10mm can do 200 easy, but you will be holding over the target at 200

I've seen videos of people shooting the .327 Single Seven out to 400 yards offhand. Dunno how the bigger calibers to at that distance.

Interesting thread. I shot PPC and Bianchi cup "back in the day". Both had 50 yard stages and both were usually shot with mild .38 Special loads. So I agree with folks who say 50 yards maybe doesn't quite qualify as "long distance".

On the other hand, I'm not too sure about 12 inch targets at 200 yards with a revolver, scope or not. It certainly can be done, but I don't know of too many handgun/handgunner combinations that can do it on demand. I figure the "competition revolver" accuracy standard to be about one inch per 25 yards, or 4 MOA. That doesn't give the shooter much leeway. My "service revolver" accuracy standard is about 2.5 inches per 25 yards, or 10 MOA, which means that even the perfect handgunner is going to miss that 200 yard plate on a regular basis. I certainly whang away at such things, but am happy if I can make two out of six hits, and thrilled with four out of six.

I also enjoy "artillery practice" at 400, 500, 600 yards. The .357 has to stay in at this recess unless conditions are perfect. If nothing else, misses with a 158 grain bullet just don't throw up as much dirt as do 250+ grains, and knowing how many feet away from your target your last bullet was is critical for such games. Many years ago I hammered together a sort-of takedown 4' square target for BLM days and shot at it with anything from hot .44 Specials to five-shot .45 Colt loads (which approach .454 Casull territory). When everything was just right it was possible to hit the thing two or three times out of six tries, at 600 yards with iron sights and a backrest position. And checking your hits was great exercise as well!

My son has been pining for a 4934 Talo Limited Edition “Go Wild” 10/22 Charger of his own for some time now, and I found one last month on GunBroker, so it HAD to come home. Since he uses Bushnell DMR II and XRS II optics with G3 reticles on most of his guns, I pulled the DMR II I had on my 4919 Accu-Sport Limited Charger (pictured above) and stuck it on his. I also transplanted the SiCo Warlock II, so we can keep civil conversation while he’s behind his pistol.

Being left without an optic or a muzzle device on my Charger, I pulled a KVP Linear Compensator out of the drawer, and a Burris XTR II 5-25x which I won at a match last season to get my pistol back in action. Not sure how long it’ll remain like this, since the Burris XTR II is ~1/8 LONGER than the Charger itself.

With the Bushnell DMR II (30mils internal) on his pistol, on a 20MOA rail, he can reach out to 400 yards, whereas I used Burris XTR Signature rings mounting my Burris XTR II (26mils internal) to add another 40moa of correction on top of the 20moa rail, so I can reach all the way past 500 with this set up.

Any handgun with adjustable sights and a reasonably well suited cartridge can be fun and accurate at longer distances. The longer the barrel and sight radius the better you'll be.

The recently released Taurus .357 Magnum Raging Hunter can be rechambered for the .360 Dan Wesson. This cartridge was developed specifically for 200 yard shooting in standard length revolver frames and 1.75" cylinders. If you already load the .357 Magnum, you already have everything needed for the .360 DW. The 1.415" brass is available from Starline.

That 360 DW is that about the same thing as a 357 maximum ?

LUCKYDAWG13 said:

That 360 DW is that about the same thing as a 357 maximum ?

Click to expand...

At 1.415", the .360 Dan Wesson sits between the 1.285" Magnum and the 1.605" Maximum cases. Besides the Taurus mentioned, the .360 DW also fits the Ruger Redhawk, the .357 BFR and, I believe, the Freedom Arms .353 revolvers. It will just barely fit in a Taurus M608 but maximum loads should be approached with caution.