which handgun cartridge best for long range shooting

[tackstrp]

which handgun cartridge best for long range shooting. have a 8 inch barrel 357 and the glock 17L with 6 inch barrel, not reall sure on glock barrel length. I would guess the 357. . I load my own bullets

To old to be interested in bigger bore handguns, see the monster killers in gun case at Cabelas. pretty to look at.

 

[lloveless]

What application? Hunting or target work? I had a 4 inch Ruger GP-100 .357 mag. that I could stay on target at 100 yds; 6 inch groups with open sights. I shot some 158 gr and some 125 gr. cartridges. It was a blast! Good luck.
ll

 

[tackstrp]

paper

 

[forindooruseonly]

If you've already got an 8 inch .357, that's probably as good a place to start as any. Work up a load with some heavier bullets and practice with it. It'll do the job, especially on paper. If you were wanting to hunt, I'd look into other factors, though the .357 could be adequate.

 

[PO2Hammer]

My best long range shooting (200 yards max) was done with a 6" Python .357.
.357 had all the advantages for long range shooting over a Glock. Longer, heavier bullets to maintain velocity and resist wind drift, a fixed barrel for accuracy, probably a much better trigger in single action.

I had a 17L, very nice gun, but they don't hold a candle to a good .357 at long range.

The only other type of gun that would be in the same class accuracy wise would be a single shot like a Contender in a small rifle caliber like .22 Hornet.

 

[9mmepiphany]

At long range...beyond 100 yards...the bullet weight, of similar diameter slugs, tend to tip the scales in favor of the .357Mag. Given that they are about the same caliber .355 vs. .358, I'm pretty sure a 158gr (or even a 180gr) slug from a .357Mag will shoot more consistently than the 147gr slug from a 9mm.

However weight isn't everything. When I was at a range a while back that had some steel targets across a canyon, it was much easier to make hits at ~270 yards with a 115gr 9mm slug than a 230gr .45 ACP slug. These were both shot out of duty sized guns (Sig 226 & 220). With the 9mm, you could just rise the front blade in the rear notch. With the .45, you had to actually rise your aligned sights about the target

 

[tackstrp]

thanks for all the comments . very helpful. i like my revolvers . kill a lot of paper, smoked to many cigarettes to be hiking around the boondocks. Sold all my long guns some time ago, my caliber of choice was the 338 winchester mag. Miss those riffles. but time goes on.

 

[Japle]

If you’re talking about conventional revolvers and auto pistols, I’ve gotten the best results with Dan Wesson revolvers. Since CZUSA bought them, the product line has been reduced to the 715 .357 with a 6” vent/heavy barrel. Others are still available and CZ still supports the line.

I had one of these - http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=259649421 – and it was capable of shooting 6” groups at 200 meters in Metallic Silhouette competition. Gunbroker has a lot of DWs. The best, IMHO, was the .357 Maximum with a 10” barrel. Mine would shoot even better than the .44 listed above.

Freedom Arms is also a terrific gun if you like single actions.

The most accurate, though, are single shot guns like the TCs. My 10” Contender in 7TCU would group on a soda can at 200 meters.

 

[BCRider]

There's not many handguns chambered for it but for longer range shooting the 7.62x25 Tokarev ammo sizzles along at around 1600 to 1700fps. That's faster than the vast majority of other traditional hangun ammo I know of. The only revolver round I can find which matches it is a 110gn bullet from a .357Magnum running at full pressure which gives 1630fps according to my Lyman book.


Then that's that whole handgun silhouette deal where you're basically pretty much using rifles without shoulder stocks. Truly the only thing "handgun" about them is that they are held in the hand to shoot them. But for the longer range shots they are always braced either against the shooter's body or with some other sort of rest. To me that sort of puts them in limbo between a regular rifle and a regular handgun.

 

[tackstrp]

bc rider . good point about bracing the gun for long range shots
.

i do like my revolvers but my Glock 29 in 10 mm is a humdinger of a power house. Dont know why, but just seems to work for me. May get the Model 20, just to have the longer barrel. Had a 1911 in 45 auto and could not hit a barn door. Did a little better with a S&W 44 mag.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

As most of the others I would use the 8" .357 Magnum. I like shooting 180gr Hard Cast bullets out to 100 yards.

 

[DWFan]

BCRider, check an older Accurate Arms manual. You'll find the 110gr XTP can be loaded to over 1800 fps from a 6" barrel S&W M27 using AA#9. Buffalo Bore's 125gr load cranks out 1700+ fps from a 6" GP-100.
tackstrp, the .357 Magnum is a better choice for that kind of shooting. Silhouette loads with a 180gr cast bullet, truncated cone since you're shooting paper, will probably work best. The wide meplat hunting bullets lose a lot of velocity past 100 yards. You might give the Hornady 140gr FTX a try since the polymer tip was meant to provide a better ballistic profile. The Lyman #358429 SWC might be a good choice if you can get the velocity without leading....and it will fit in your cylinder.

 

[pendennis]

Regardless your decision, a bullet designed for a handgun can't be a truly long range cartridge. There just isn't enough bearing surface to allow a handgun bullet to stabilize over the longer distance. Heavier bullets are necessarily longer, so you'll need to find a caliber that allows the longest bullet relative to bore size.

Any choice will be a compromise along the road.

As the knight in "Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade" movie said, "Choose wisely!"

 

[Maple_City_Woodsman]

There are some awesome wildcats based on 357mag and 44mag brass that would make awesome long rang target rounds from an Encore.

Take .401 GNR for example - 44mag necked down to take 40 S&W bullets.

I believe Reeder Custom also offers 44mag based wildcats necked down to take 357 and even 30 caliber bullets. - talk about flat shooting!

 

[Loosedhorse]

I would say something between .17 WMR and .460 S&W, inclusive. Depending on what you're trying to hit, how far away it is, and how hard you want to hit it.



Don't own this one, but it sure looks like a LR pistol!

(Since you're going for paper and fun, your choices are wide-open. Mind the expense, though! Good luck.)

 

[gym]

What is the purpose of the 460 magnum, I have seen the popularity growing, a few guys I know casually have them, and a woman was shooting one last week on one of the new gun TV shows. I understand that it is a good hunting round, "I guess" but do we really need something between a 44 mag and a 50. It seems the ammo is around $2.00 a round at least, I guess I am asking why did they make it?
When a pistol is that large heavy and expensive to shoot. You limit your buyers. I would have concentrated on a 10 mm. At least you can carry it to some extent and it packs a wallop. The other one the 460, is costing as much as a decent rifle. a thousand for the gun, a thousand for the scope, and 10 dollars to fire a cylinder. I know it's cool, but will it sell or just die out? I don't see it catching on.

 

[BCRider]

Well, I don't know about hunting with them since up this way handgun hunting just doesn't happen because of the firearms laws. Besides which I'm not a hunter either.

But a few rounds of .460 with a nice "flashy" powder charge sure does do a nice job of finishing up a fun time at the range. Gives a guy a real hankering for some blue rare beef for dinner too....

DWfan, I hear you on the difference in test information found in the various manuals. That's why I like to quote the book I'm using. As you suggest the length of the test barrels used for each set of results matters so much that such figures are useless for anything other than direct comparisons within one book's data table and even just for one caliber at that. As such I only consider the loading table velocity numbers as guidelines for comparison within the one book. And in fact I broke my own rule because I used a Wiki source for the 7.62x25 ammo velocity to compare to the .357 data from my Lyman book. My bad....

As I understand such things the handgun bullets drop off faster due to the typically terrible ballistics coefficient found with handgun bullets. They are ALL just way too short and stubby to achieve a good BC value.

Now if someone were to mess around with a wildcat cartrige to use for long range handgun shooting and feels that the vast plethora of such things out there already aren't quite enough then taking something like a .44Mag and necking it down to accept a .308 spitzer rifle round would be the way to go. With the necking dimension from .429 to .308 and if the neck was tapered as shallowly as possible it SHOULD work with a revolver chamber.

But then this is where the TRUE long range handguns shine since they use bolt or break actions which can easily contain the most radically necked ammo to be found.

Now none of this should prevent us casual plinkers from enjoying the challenge of hitting gongs at 100 or 200 yards with our regular handguns. It just means we need to "rainbow" them in with lots of holdover. But when we manage to get 6 hits in a row we can stand tall and brag until our shooting buddy's want to tie and gag us and leave us in a dark corner....

 

[jerkface11]

My best handgun for long range shooting is a .30-30.

 

[murf]

imop, the best cartridge is the 357mag. the best bullet is the 125gn xtp loaded as fast as it will go. used to get them out the barrel at 1600fps. can't do that any more since sammi reduced the pressure levels. you should be able to get 1400, though.

murf

 

[flomofo]

S&W

S&W 460 with 8 1/4 barrell or longer...

 

[BCRider]

imop, the best cartridge is the 357mag. the best bullet is the 125gn xtp loaded as fast as it will go. used to get them out the barrel at 1600fps. can't do that any more since sammi reduced the pressure levels. you should be able to get 1400, though.

murf

Load 'em up in an old school Mod27 or Mod28 or a Blackhawk and they'd shoot as good as they ever did. Might have to find an older loading manual with the recipes for velocities of that sort though.

The current online Hodgdon reloading data has 5 loads for .357Mag that are over 1500 fps. And three of them are over 1600. Two of THOSE are up over 1900fps with 125's. Mind you they peak out at a bit over 41,000 CUP according to their data. My Lyman book for a little less powder for one of the loads says 42K at 1830 fps with the same powder. Again a noticable variation in data between sources.

Still it does confirm that you can easily hit 1600fps+ with a 125gn .357Magnum..... Which indeed confirms that I'd want to be holding the grips of a nice stout N frame or heavier Blackhawk....

 

[murf]

bcrider, your post got me to looking in my manuals for 1600fps. i found it in the accurate arms manual. aa#9 will get over 1600fps out of a 6" pressure barrel. good times are here, again! oh, and thanks dwfan. just reread your post.

murf