I've read this here and there and I can't for the life of me figure out how the hell this is done. I can't even clearly and distinctly make out bullseye past 50 yards let alone even get a group there. 50 FEET is my maximum range for effective shooting. So how are people grouping at 300 feet?
100 yard pistol shooting, standard sights?
- Thread starter MJRW
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makdaddy03
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I shoot milk jugs out to about 100yds. With the 44mag. It takes alot of practice.
caz223
Member
First, see if you can hold steady on a pistol with a red dot, and see if you can get a group, or even hit a paper plate at 50 yards.
If you can't, start where you can, and take a few steps back.
It takes a while,and not every gun/ammo/shooter combination can do it consistantly.
If you can, it impresses the heck out of your friends.
BTW, don't be in a hurry, take your time.
Practice, practice, practice.
If you can't, start where you can, and take a few steps back.
It takes a while,and not every gun/ammo/shooter combination can do it consistantly.
If you can, it impresses the heck out of your friends.
BTW, don't be in a hurry, take your time.
Practice, practice, practice.
Since you're focusing on your front sight your target need not be clear. However, it does have to be big enough so that you can align the blur of it with your focused front sight. Try shooting at a large bullseye at long distance, it might help out.
Devonai
Member
I've only tried it once. I set up a 3'x3' piece of plywood at 100 meters and loaded up my Beretta 92FS. It took about five rounds walked up the range to get the proper elevation, which was about fifteen degrees above horizon. The next ten rounds ended up netting me a 40% hit ratio.
If I try it again, I'll shoot from the prone, but I don't hold out much hope of anything over a 24" group
If I try it again, I'll shoot from the prone, but I don't hold out much hope of anything over a 24" group
skippie
Member
I shoot bowling pins with my usp 45 at 100 yards... Just sight like you would normaly and drop the rear sight so that the top of the rear sight is even with the bottom of the white dot on the front sight...blammo
Haycreek
Member
100 Yards ?
Try 200 METERS. The IHMSA marksmen shoot Rams at 200 meters. Turkeys at 150 meters, Pigs at 100 meters and chickens at 50 meters. With a 44 mag Dan Wesson Revolver, STANDING ON YOUR HIND LEGS. Try it you may like it. 10 inch barrel, 48 ounce handgun.
Try 200 METERS. The IHMSA marksmen shoot Rams at 200 meters. Turkeys at 150 meters, Pigs at 100 meters and chickens at 50 meters. With a 44 mag Dan Wesson Revolver, STANDING ON YOUR HIND LEGS. Try it you may like it. 10 inch barrel, 48 ounce handgun.
H
Handy
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The trick is to move your focus from sight to target and back without moving your head or the gun. You don't have to focus on both at the same time.
If you have the facilities to do it, you will be surprised at how quickly you can start hitting stuff at long range with a handgun. I live in the desert and we often shoot at stuff at long ranges. It is very common to be out shooting and someone says, hey you see that beer can out there, and we shoot at it. After you do this a few hundred or a few thousand times, you get an idea how to hold on the target. I was out bird hunting last year when I saw a coyote run down a hill side into a gulley. It went through some brush and stood broadside to me. I put my shotgun between my legs and drew my Ruger P89. I shot and hit the coyote right behind the front shoulder. My buddy had a laser rangefinder and we later determined the range to be just over 90 yards. I don't think that I could impress anyone with my long range shooting. I certainly couldn't put any kind of decent group on paper. But it is fun to play with. I think a lot of it is psycological. If you shoot at long range, at shorter ranges the target appears huge.
10-Ring
Member
I've only tried it once. Shooting 45 super from a 6" STI. All I was after was hitting the paper, not interested in grouping. Out of 8 shots, I hit 3 times...I was happy enough
Subby
Member
You'd be surprised how "easy" it is to hit at long distance with a short gun. If you have a dump/farm/etc nearby, try aiming at 55 gallon drums. Large icicles hanging from cliffs, etc work quite well too during the wintertime. You need a steady hold to make it work. I generally shoot at a 100 yard rifle range. Any leftovers from regular pistol practice go towards rocks out on the berm at 100-125 yards. It's certainly more entertaining than aiming at a black dot at 7 yards.
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Nero Steptoe
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Do a quick search for articles by/about Elmer Keith's long-range sighting methods. You'll be glad you did.
I like shooting Milk Jugs at 100 yards with a high quality, super accurate pistol like my Mauser .30 cal Broomhandle. It is even easier when I shoot it with the should stock attached. The Mauser's high velocity and flat trajectory make hitting the milk jugs a piece of cake.
cratz2
Member
I assure you guys it's possible to shoot things at 100 yards. With a 6" Dan Wesson 22 revolver from a rest, I can usually keep 3 out of 6 shots in the black of a 50 yard small bore rifle target... What's that, 5"
With centerfire, I admit that I don't have a gun that lend's itself exceptionally well to 100 yard shooting. I've tried a couple of 1911s, Taurus PT99 (poor sights), a CZ IPSC Standard and EAA Silver Team and usually get one out of 5 or so in the black of the same target, generally all shots land on the 8.5x11. I used to have a 7.5" Super Blackhawk that was pretty easy to keep on target with.
Sometimes I wonder how 'on' our sights are at shorter distances. Slight problems at 25 yards become big problems at 100 yards. A 185 or 200 Gr 45ACP out of a 5" barrel should only be down about 4" at 100 yards if right on at 25 yards. Point is, with well regulated sights, very little holdover should be needed at 100 yards.
I said on another thread, shooting a normal handgun at 100 yards is a pretty Zen activity. You aren't so much aligning the sights with the target at 100 yards as much as doing pretty much the same as what you do at 25 yards but further out. If you know what to do at 25 yards, just do the exact same thing at 100 yards and you should be close. Larger reactive targets are the easiest and most reqarding. There's a reason so many people have a gong out there.
With centerfire, I admit that I don't have a gun that lend's itself exceptionally well to 100 yard shooting. I've tried a couple of 1911s, Taurus PT99 (poor sights), a CZ IPSC Standard and EAA Silver Team and usually get one out of 5 or so in the black of the same target, generally all shots land on the 8.5x11. I used to have a 7.5" Super Blackhawk that was pretty easy to keep on target with.
Sometimes I wonder how 'on' our sights are at shorter distances. Slight problems at 25 yards become big problems at 100 yards. A 185 or 200 Gr 45ACP out of a 5" barrel should only be down about 4" at 100 yards if right on at 25 yards. Point is, with well regulated sights, very little holdover should be needed at 100 yards.
I said on another thread, shooting a normal handgun at 100 yards is a pretty Zen activity. You aren't so much aligning the sights with the target at 100 yards as much as doing pretty much the same as what you do at 25 yards but further out. If you know what to do at 25 yards, just do the exact same thing at 100 yards and you should be close. Larger reactive targets are the easiest and most reqarding. There's a reason so many people have a gong out there.
Speaking of .22s at long range: When I was growing up, my best friend an I spent a lot of time at the local sportsman's club since our dads were members. They had a handgun silhouette range and beyond the ram targets there was a mastodon target. Now I don't remember how far it was, but it was over 200 meters. Since we were there all the time, we both knew exactly where to hold to hit this target everytime with our .22 pistols. I had a Ruger Standard Model autoloader, and he had a Ruger Single Six. I could get down into what I believe is called the modified creedmore position (on your back with the barrel of the pistol on your strong side leg) and fire the whole mag before the first round hit the target. Then ring, ring, ring........ all ten rounds would clang the target. We would take guys from high school out there to shoot and this was our "shock and awe" campaign. They would be amazed, but in reality, we just shot at it until we learned where to hold.
In centerfire handguns, revolvers are usually the way to go for long range shooting. The have a much larger front sight.
In centerfire handguns, revolvers are usually the way to go for long range shooting. The have a much larger front sight.
As the others have said, it's pretty much familiarity. But the garden variety shooter who has trouble hitting paper consistently at 50 feet is shocked and awed when you start plinking beverage cans at 100 yards. A good S&W target model revo has perfect sights for this activity. 22 caliber is the most economical and about as fun as any. Handy said it's about aligning the sights and switching your vision between sights and target without moving anything. Good insight. You can also do it DA much easier than people would believe. I find the DA pull helps steady the gun more than cocking it and trying to squeeze off the shot SA. YMMV
Also a good way to get your DA up to speed as you will probably be using muscles that you don't normally.
Also a good way to get your DA up to speed as you will probably be using muscles that you don't normally.
P95Carry
Moderator Emeritus
Outa interest ....... I used to shoot long range pistol competition, back in early and mid 80's. Used my Redhawk, std iron sights. We did tho use what was affectionately called a ''flying machine'' .... a usually home made sorta low seat with a support table at front, on which to use a sandbag. So .... aim was steady.
The targets i shot at were 100 yds and 300 yds ... forget size right now but at 300 I expect it was about 8 feet x 6 feet ... pretty big ...... but at that range it sure wasn't lookin much!
Many guys used super hot loads .. for example one of my buddies stoked his 357 Blackhawk with 180 grn bullets on top of a fully compressed Blue Dot charge!! Interestingly .. grouping was not that impressive, tho of course trajectory flatter.
I went other way .... found that a sorta ''44 spl'' type reload worked best. 8.5 grns Red Dot shovin my hard cast Keith 250 grn SWC. .... meant I had to ''lob'' my shots a lot but, surprisingly, the grouping was very acceptable. Never won a first place but beat some of the guys with what seemed better gear.
Sight picture was actually no harder to utilize than with closer ranges .... just meant a lot of eye discipline and a very steady release. I still shoot milk jugs at 100 with .357 and 44 ...... just for hell of it!!
This pic was taken in '84 IIRC.
The targets i shot at were 100 yds and 300 yds ... forget size right now but at 300 I expect it was about 8 feet x 6 feet ... pretty big ...... but at that range it sure wasn't lookin much!
Many guys used super hot loads .. for example one of my buddies stoked his 357 Blackhawk with 180 grn bullets on top of a fully compressed Blue Dot charge!! Interestingly .. grouping was not that impressive, tho of course trajectory flatter.
I went other way .... found that a sorta ''44 spl'' type reload worked best. 8.5 grns Red Dot shovin my hard cast Keith 250 grn SWC. .... meant I had to ''lob'' my shots a lot but, surprisingly, the grouping was very acceptable. Never won a first place but beat some of the guys with what seemed better gear.
Sight picture was actually no harder to utilize than with closer ranges .... just meant a lot of eye discipline and a very steady release. I still shoot milk jugs at 100 with .357 and 44 ...... just for hell of it!!
This pic was taken in '84 IIRC.
P95Carry
Moderator Emeritus
444 - almost all were home made!!! Mine was based on 1 1/2" thin wall steel tube frame - one length for the upright with ''table'' on it ..... and a sorta spreading ''V'' from front to back to accept seat ...... I did some welding and also made it fairly collapsible for carrying .... seat and back was just plywood.
There were many designs ..... each was probably unique!!
P95Carry
Moderator Emeritus
In good weather 444, yep, great fun and hell of a challenge. cery satisfying too. Only once did I have weather probs ..... and that made for some very tricky shooting ... but then of course everryone had same deal.
I also used 44 cap and ball at 100 yds ... now THAT was tricky in the wet .... despite great care, invariably had at least one cyl that would not ignite!
I also used 44 cap and ball at 100 yds ... now THAT was tricky in the wet .... despite great care, invariably had at least one cyl that would not ignite!
griz
Member
I used to shoot some silhouette with 22 LR. At 100 meters you shoot a ram with, IIRC, a body that was about the size of a sheet of typing paper. The good guys were using Anshutz (SP?) bolt action pistols and they seldom missed, shooting reclined with the gun braced against their leg. Some used ordinary 22’s, Ruger MKII for instance, and could still hit most of them.
At ranges with a 100 yard dirt backstop it’s a lot of fun to shoot clay pigeons. The bigger calibers allow you to see the hits better so you can walk the rounds in. 45’s are great for this. Once you figure out how much front sight to hold over the rear blade you can hit often enough to make it fun.
At ranges with a 100 yard dirt backstop it’s a lot of fun to shoot clay pigeons. The bigger calibers allow you to see the hits better so you can walk the rounds in. 45’s are great for this. Once you figure out how much front sight to hold over the rear blade you can hit often enough to make it fun.
cratz2
Member
If you have a place you can do it safely, I think that shooting clays against a dirt backstop is the very best way to start shooting at 100 yards. You get to see where the bullet is going and shooting while aiming for the exact same spot several times shows how much variation you're having as opposed to worrying about how much holdover to use.
fatboyclone
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I kill balloons at 100 yds with my Mark23.
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