Shot my carry pistol at 50 and 100yds.

Makes for good practice. At first you correct for impacts to get on target but after learning where the bullet will land at what ranges you will be able to hit things on the first shot. Being a good guesstimator comes into play.

Taller target type sights make for a longer rainbow so hold over isn't as much. Sights set at 25 will be closer at 50 than those set at 7 or 10. At 100 hold over is needed either way. Old cap and ball revolvers were set up for 50+/- so usually have an impact of around +6 at 25 yards.

I'll sometimes shoot steel out to 70 yards (more often at 20-25) but my preferred handgun target is one of those self healing balls about the size of a grapefruit. By the time it gets out to 35-40 yards I'm lucky to get one hit in 10 shots with my carry pistol. Tall grass adds to the difficulty as well.

Very neat! Both the plates and the orange hoppers are much more fun than bland old paper, thats for sure.

I just learned that I can bring my steel plates and hangers to the outdoor range I belong to. I think my B-27 torso sized plates will be getting some attention the next time I head over there.

Stay safe

Awesome. I love it when the old gray matter does the math and you can drop one in. Regards

longer distances are excellent practice for trigger control and front site concentration. Often surprising to learn the true trajectory of pistols/revolvers.

I've always shot my edc at 100 yards. I did found out that in the beginning I was overcompensating by aiming above the target. Thinking that I was compensating for trajectory on a slow moving .45 amp round out of my 1911. Come to find out one day when we had placed a target in front of a berm I was able to see impacts. Turned out that I just needed to aim at the target around 6 o'clock or just a hair higher. I then was able to get 6 hits out of seven. Thanks for posting the video.

Riomouse911 said:

Very neat! Both the plates and the orange hoppers are much more fun than bland old paper, thats for sure.

I just learned that I can bring my steel plates and hangers to the outdoor range I belong to. I think my B-27 torso sized plates will be getting some attention the next time I head over there.

Stay safe

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Lucky... I got a hard NO about bringing my steel to the club range. The Prez said "the insurance" won't allow it and they ricochet.

Didn't argue it with him but I'm not sure I'm buying the insurance excuse, club is pretty fuddish and I think he just doesn't want it.

GHinNH said:

Lucky... I got a hard NO about bringing my steel to the club range. The Prez said "the insurance" won't allow it and they ricochet.

Didn't argue it with him but I'm not sure I'm buying the insurance excuse, club is pretty fuddish and I think he just doesn't want it.

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I had initially asked about bringing mu dueling tree and was told for centerfire pistols, steel plates must be a minimum of 25 yards from the firing line. This makes hitting the 6” paddles a little tough, so its the steel silhouettes instead.

I can shoot them on the rifle side at 50 or 100 yards as well.

(Rimfire dueling trees are shot at 10 yards I believe. Got one of those, too.)

Stay safe.

Had a ball yrs ago trying to hit clay pigeon in the bank at 100, using a WW2 1911 that rattled badly.
Didnt matter how good you were, that thing shot groups measured in feet.

So bad it was rather comical.

Never hit the clay but scared it a couple of times.

One of the most fun range trips.

Trey Veston said:

I went out to my property to check on stuff and drop off a BPCR turkey steel silhouette target. It was horrible day with lots of wind and rain and a cold front moving in, so wasn't planning on shooting. All I had was my carry pistol; a Sig P365 9mm. But I couldn't resist trying to ring steel.
I got a few hits on the turkey and one on the ram. No idea if that is good or not. I don't think so. But it is fun as heck to try! I'll do it again when the weather is nicer and wind isn't such a huge factor. Anyone else think it's a hoot to shoot pistols at long ranges for fun?

I videoed a bit of it for fun and posted it on my YouTube channel.

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Not only is it a hoot, but I consider it a necessary skillset.

In the old Federal Firearm Instructor day's when they still used .38 Special S&W's, myself and another Instructor used our .38 Special S&W Chief Specials on the 100 yard cardboard rifle targets. By aiming the 158 Grain RN about a foot over the top of the target you could get a satisfactory "thump" pretty regularly although you could just about take a smoke break before the round got there.

At our range we often through some clays on the 50 yard pistol berm. My 45 Ruger Blackhawk helps me to hit them at least some of the time

I have more fun shooting at stuff im likely to miss than shooting at stuff i know i can hit lol.
50yds is a long shot for me with some of my handguns, 100yds isnt unreasonable with others.

This is the set of 4" plates we use at 100 for rifles. Lately weve been using it at 40-60 for freehand .22 and handguns.
Today it was about 65-70yds. Those 4" plates took 2-3 hits per mag.....took some rounds from a 30-30 too....mostly to the frame.
And then Dell shot one of the plates off with my 7mag lol.

I like shooting at golf balls. Start out at 10yards with the pistols, once they get past 50-60 yards (usually after one hit) then its big bore levergun rifle time.

I prefer used tennis balls. Safer than golf balls, and bigger.

I don't shoot my EDC pistols very often at 50 yards and beyond. I shoot my 22lr pistols at 50 -100 yards on a regular basis. I do find it fun to blast call birds at farther distances.

Just out of ballistic curiosity, I've occasionally shot handguns from the bench out to a hundred yards or so. With higher velocity 9mm, .38 Super, etc. ammo I found that not much holdover is required. Shooting .45ACP, drop is much more apparent. Once, shooting a large gong at 200 yards with a .45 ball, I had to hold about 6 or 7 feet up the berm IIRC. My gun was sighted in for 25 yards, and I didn't feel like adjusting the sights just to plink at 200 yards for a few minutes. I don't know if the BoMars would have adjusted that high anyway. I found I could hit the 200 yard gong about a third of the time. The hard part was figuring where to hold on the nondescript berm behind the gong..

Yes. It gets really interesting with a CZ 52 or TT33 and the7.62 Tokarev round. You go from "what were they thinking?" to "OOOOHHH I get it" real quick! I imagine with an artillery model .30 Luger broom handle it would be even more interesting. Makes the 9mms feel silly at about the 100 yard mark, and I'm in .357 long barreled revolver territory out further.

Fun with the 9mm and .38 bumblebees too, but fun in a different way. Guess the holdover and wind!

I don’t often shoot carry guns at 50 yards and beyond. I carry a J frame revolver and regularly shoot it at 35 yards at an 8 by 10 inch steel plate. I’ll hit 3 of 5 on the first cylinder but then can usually hit 5 for 5

Never gone to 100 with any of my handguns. Shoot at 25-50 pretty often.

Concerning trajectory, all guns have 2 zero's.

Because the sights are mounted above the bore we always shoot with the muzzle ever so slightly higher than the breach. The bullet is traveling up at a very slight angle in relation to our line of sight when it leaves the muzzle. Most handguns are zeroed when the bullet crosses the line of sight while going UP. That's usually at 10-20 yards depending on the individual gun and the sights. I usually find that I hit higher than expected from 25-50 yards. Sometimes enough to matter, I have to remember to hold a couple of inches low at some ranges with some guns.

At some point around 50 yards the bullet begins to drop and will again cross the line of sight for the 2nd zero. This will vary a lot depending on the gun, cartridge, the sights, and load. It could be short of 50 or a bit more, but I'm certain it isn't too far past 50 yards. This is why we need less hold over at longer ranges than many of us expect.

The taller the sights are above the barrel the more pronounced this is. Many newer guns are coming with tall sights to be able to see over a suppressor.

Rifles, especially those that are scoped, have the sights much higher than handguns. We normally zero rifles when the bullet crosses line of sight the 2nd time on the way down. The rifle may be zeroed at 25 yards but could be 2-3" high at 100 and 4-6" high at 200 yards then zeroed again at 300 yards. This is exactly the trajectory of old school M16 rifles with iron sights.