1,000yd Shot With A Handgun? Yep, Jerry Mikulek, 9mm - This Is For 44man!

[robertbank]

You got that right. I couldn't see the steel he was shooting at let alone the balloon.

He can fire 6 shots out of his revolver faster than I can get two shots off. He is a machine!

Take Care

Bob

[Cornbread]

A lot of guys on this thread have brought up Elmer and stories about him. Is there a book where you all read these stories of his exploits? I'd like to read it if it is in book form somewhere that I can get a hold of. Thanks in advance for any info.

[MBTcustom]

Robert is right. The impact was not where the balloon was. That takes nothing from the man (whom I have enormous respect for). The fact that he hit the plate at all was an amazing feat. The fact that he said he was going to pop the balloon and did just adds a degree of awesome to it (besides, his exact words were he was going to pop the balloon. He never said he was going to hit it).

I have never taken a shot at 1000 yards with a handgun before. You would have to be a heck of a shot just so that the spotter could see the boolit impact!
I too have seen Jerry's world record with a handgun when I was younger and he inspired many of us to reach further.
Truly one of the greatest shooters of my time, and by all accounts a very humble gentleman to boot (unlike some others that have been mentioned).

One thing is for sure. Anybody who says that pistols cannot be shot accurately are limiting themselves. Nothing is impossible for a man who knows his firearm.

[loaded303]

I'll buy it.

[robertbank]

A lot of guys on this thread have brought up Elmer and stories about him. Is there a book where you all read these stories of his exploits? I'd like to read it if it is in book form somewhere that I can get a hold of. Thanks in advance for any info.

The book is "Hell I was There" by Elmer Keith. I read it last summer. Very good book. I didn't realize he had shot game up in my birth Province - Alberta and had spent time in Edmonton, my home town. The only questionable statement I think that is just not true was he says he shot an Elk through the spine taking out 4" of the spinal cord and the Elk ran 50 yards or so. Sorry that just can't happen. Turn the electricity off to the back legs and they don't run anymore. Otherwise a great read by a man who indeed was there.

Take Care

Bob

[Cornbread]

The book is "Hell I was There" by Elmer Keith. I read it last summer. Very good book. I didn't realize he had shot game up in my birth Province - Alberta and had spent time in Edmonton, my home town. The only questionable statement I think that is just not true was he says he shot an Elk through the spine taking out 4" of the spinal cord and the Elk ran 50 yards or so. Sorry that just can't happen. Turn the electricity off to the back legs and they don't run anymore. Otherwise a great read by a man who indeed was there.

Take Care

Bob

Thanks. I'll check it out. I don't know about 50 yards but two years ago I shot a buck with a .308. Hit it directly in the spine behind the rib cage but before the pelvis. Completely took out a section of the spine and backbone, literally nothing there and it made it a good 30 yards before it was like somebody shut a switch off on its back legs. Second shot put it down for good. One of the few times I have ever had to shoot something more than one time. It was almost like its muscles were still responding to the commands the brain had sent for it to run prior to the bullet strike. That's the only explanation I have for it because it should have lost its back legs on the spot. Anyway here is a pic of the buck and myself, the photo crops out where the first bullet hit because it was a mess, so I know they can go a ways after that happens but I have no good explanation for why or how:

[robertbank]

Very Nice. Shot one years ago through the spine just above the shoulder. Finished with a revolver shot in the ear. Poor thing, I felt bad afterwards. He had crawled about 15 feet from where he was shot. Great on the table though.

Take Care

Bob

[TXGunNut]

Back when I was a comp revolver shooter the thing we talked about was that Miculek's guns were pretty much stock S&W's, even after the folks in Springfield began sponsoring him. I doubt that has changed but quite honestly haven't kept up with him. One of his running buddies is a member where I shoot, will have to ask him.

[JHeath]

I watched it again. The ballon pops . . . then almost a 1.5 second interval . . . then the dent suddenly appears on the steel plate.

It's not an audio-sync issue. Watch it with the sound off.

Explanation?

[Uncle R.]

I watched him shoot many times at Second Chance matches way back in the 80s. He was lightning fast in those days - but I think if the videos are accurate he's even faster now. He would practice on "the back range" just shooting into the dirt and checking his time on the box. Over and over again and again - "Beep. BangBangBangBangBang" and then look at the readout. He was just trying to get his cadence right - he knew how fast he wanted to be and practiced to shoot at that speed.
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It was almost unbelievable watching him shoot pins - he'd hit the fifth pin before the first one cleared the table, or so it seemed. No trickster, no charlatan, he was the real deal. Amazing accuracy and superhuman speed.
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I didn't know him well but I never got the sense that he was too full of himself to mix with the commoners. I believe he is exactly as he appears; an all-around good guy who shoots like a machine.
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A very fast and accurate machine.
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Uncle R.

[jhalcott]

MAYBE ,just maybe the bullet HIT the balloon and was deflected to the plate. It WAS going quite slow by then wasn't it?

[triggerhappy243]

I watched the video on you tube. he pointed to where the bullet struck the plate. lead fragments cut the balloon.

[MBTcustom]

If you search, you can find a video of him shooting a DE 500AE. What is really amazing about that video is that they shoot slow motion shots of him emtying that big gun with extreme prejudice. If you pay attention to his form, it is picture perfect in the slo-mo. In fact, if you didn't know how fast he was actually racking off the shots, you would swear he was just taking his time and shooting.
Amazing.

[JHeath]

I watched the video on you tube. he pointed to where the bullet struck the plate. lead fragments cut the balloon.

Watch the video again.

1) The balloon pops
2) still no dent on the plate
3) a pause of over a second, probably close to 1.5 seconds
4) the dent suddenly appears on the plate.

There is no way fragments cut the balloon BEFORE the bullet hit the plate.

The video doesn't make sense.

[JHeath]

Here's a couple of stills. In the first, the ballon is gone, but there's no dent on the plate. This is at 1:07 on the video.

In the second, the dent appears. This is at 1:08.

How could the balloon pop more than one second before the bullet hits the plate?

[smlekid]

sorry guys but I shoot F class with a dedicated rifle shooting .600 BC bullets at 3000 fps and those things will drift
from a 100y yard zero trajectory is 263 inches (almost 23 feet!!) drift in a 10 mph cross wind is 64 inches the Pistol if it is doing 1000fps with a BC of .212 will require 231 feet from a 100y zero and the drift in a 10 mph wind is 23.5 feet the shooter may be the best pistol shooter in the world but the ballistics just don't add up
still I bet S&W and hornady will sell a lot of products!!!
oh and time of flight for the handgun is 4.3 seconds that's a lot of time for a wind change

[kenyerian]

Anyone interested in long range handgunning should check out 40xmike's post on specialty pistols where he shoots a target one mile away with a 243 WSSM XP-100. There are some very dedicated shooters on that forum.

[PAT303]

To shoot a 1000 yards a BPCR needs a vernier rear sight a few inches high yet a revolver gets buy with a red dot type of sight with almost no muzzle elevation even though the trajectory is 231 feet?. Pat

[Cornbread]

How could the balloon pop more than one second before the bullet hits the plate?

Different video speeds maybe? The one in the sub frame could be slower to show the shot better.....or poor editing when they spliced the frames together they got some out of order. His camera and and editing crews don't exactly seem like they are professionals so there could be any number of reasons why this would happen with cheap video editing software or just inexperienced users of good video editing software. Sure it could be faked but the guy hasn't faked anything before, why would he start now and risk jeopardizing his revenue stream and his credibility etc? It wouldn't make any sense for him to fake it. I think other explanations for the image sequence are a lot more likely.

[dmize]

As a competitive archer that has done some "trick shots" its all about practice and shooting a LOT!!!!
This stuff isn't impossible by any means its just not very many people take the time and effort to do the work.
Somewhere in an old hayfield or canyon or indoor range the next "Jerry" is bustin his *** to get to that point.
And as for the long range/BPCR "calculations". I would be willing to bet Jerry knew all of that too.
And as for videos,Byron Ferguson told me that for his really hard shots video was awesome,he got to shoot when he wanted too, I.E. weather conditions and also because of the all powerful EDIT button that made the 45 misses disappear.
And finally,with all of Jerrys' recorded achievements,not to mention his own good name,reputation and sponsorship. do you really think he would be stupid enough to fake this?