Anyone Here Shoot Long Range with Their Revolvers?

[35 Whelen]

I had brought my 200 yd. target into the shop to weld up the craters from my buddies shooting their AR's at it. After I painted and re-hung it, I began feeling guilty for neglecting my NM Blackhawk .44 Special for several months, so I loaded some 429421's from my NOE mould over Elmer's load of 17.0 grs. of AL2400. (Before anyone gets excited, this is actual published data (http://www.goodrichfamilyassoc.org/44_Special_Articles/Brian%20Pearce%20on%20the%2044%20Special.pdf))

93897



As pure luck would have it, the very first shot landed square in the 3" center ring, but the remainder scattered. In all 7 of 10 shots hit the 22" target, but I was having to guess how much to allow for the 10 mph~ wind quartering from about 45°.

Anyone here shoot at longer ranges on a regular basis? If so, how do you deal with the wind? I'm open for any and all suggestions as to technique, etc.!

35W

[NSB]

I shot silhouette for about ten years. Big bore silhouette shoots 50, 100, 150, and 200 meters. I don't remember the exact size of the ram at 200 but it seems like it was around 14" belly to back if I recall. There are a lot of people still shooting it but it's not as popular as it was twenty years ago. Google IHMSA (International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association). As far as dealing with the wind, you just have to dope the shot as best you can. You shoot ten shots at each distance on a "regular" match. After shooting the first of a ten shot string you correct by as much as you drifted on the first shot. You get pretty good at doping the wind with regular practice. The best I've done at long range was at a big shoot where it was an 80 shot match. I shot 77x80 with a revolver. It's a lot of fun.

[cbrick]

The IHMSA and NRA big bore ram is 12 inches belly to back and 18 inches chest to rump.

If your not accustomed to shooting revolver long range that's actually a decent group. As an educated guess from the shape of the group I would think that if you worked on improving grip consistency the group would shrink even more. Doesn't look like the wind got you much but very slight inconsistency of grip will give that much & more of the vertical spread.

Rick

EDIT TO ADD: Most silhouette shooters use a spotter, the shooter makes his best guess on windage based on where he was shooting at 150 meters & adds what may be needed to the rear sight for the additional 50 meters. After the first shot the spotter will tell him where the shot was and then make any further windage adjustments as needed.

[white eagle]

that is pretty impressive
I am still having difficulty shooting close range

[35 Whelen]

Thanks fellers, but the group was fired from the bench. I should've mentioned that. :oops:

Some of the inconsistency may be due to the fact that I was holding into the wind slightly. For me it's more difficult to maintain consistent sight picture trying to allow for wind than it is to just aim at the center. There could too be issues with grip consistency as I haven't shot the BH in months having instead perpetuated my love affair with my little Uberti .44 Special.

35W

[Guesser]

Long range shooting at targets placed at random ranges are a lot of fun. Clay pigeons at 100 yds plus with 32 S&W can be challenging. Takes a couple of ranging shots and then fire for effect. Milk jugs of frozen water makes great targets at 2-3 hunnert yards for the bigger cartridges. Long range is a lot of fun. Also damages fewer targets, but I still get to shoot just as much.

[bedbugbilly]

On some days . . . anything over 10 feet seems like "long range"! :-) LOL

Some nice shooting . . . sort of makes a person want to stretch their targets further out! Good post and good shooting!

[AZ-JIM]

I think the 200yd plates at our local range are around 14"x18", Ive hit them a time or 3 :grin:
6", SW 629, 429421 over 19g of 2400......I love that gun and load!

az-jim

[felix]

Rick and Jim (44Man) are our long range pistol shooters. What they say, and others like them unknown to me here, are big time "to-do" (and not to-do) folks. ... felix

[bhn22]

You might put up wind flags every fifty yards or so so you can gauge the wind a little easier. A consistent grip really helps a lot, and it'll take some experimentation to get the grip that works best for you. I always had trouble with single-action grips with the hard kickers, and finally quit buying them because DA grip frames fit me better. Without finger grooves, of course.

[35 Whelen]

You might put up wind flags every fifty yards or so so you can gauge the wind a little easier. A consistent grip really helps a lot, and it'll take some experimentation to get the grip that works best for you. I always had trouble with single-action grips with the hard kickers, and finally quit buying them because DA grip frames fit me better. Without finger grooves, of course.

That's an awesome idea. When shooting at my 200 yd. target the bullet passes through a couple of draws so there's a period or two there where the bullet isn't affect by wind.

[fecmech]

As you are just having a good time and not competing I would suggest maintaining the most perfect sight alignment you can attain while breaking your shot and see if you and see where they land. Then simply hold off that distance at the target while maintaining good sight alignment. People think heavy bullets don't drift but pistol bullets drift a lot in a crosswind!

[GP100man]

When I was younger kin used to come down to visit & we`d break out the handguns & shoot at a 24"truck rim across the feild (stepped off 265 paces,range finder says 231yds.)

It was alot of fun seeing poi as we walked em to the wheel & any flinching showed up big time !!!
We missed more than hit ,but it was alot of fun & some of my fondest memories of my kinfolk !

GP

[Larry Gibson]

"Back in the day" long range with a handgun was 500 - 600 yards at an outhouse.........for those who remember.........

I still am known to shoot rocks at 200 - 600 yards with several revolvers......mostly my .44 Magnum Ruger FTBH.

Larry Gibson

[35 Whelen]

Good stuff here, guys. What about shooting positions for long range? I don't much care for shooting from a bench unless I'm doing load development. I shoot my 50 & 100 yd. targets leaned back against one of the legs of my shooting bench with my wrists sort of clamped between my knees. Are there any other good methods for shooting/steadying a handgun?


"Back in the day" long range with a handgun was 500 - 600 yards at an outhouse.........for those who remember.........

I still am known to shoot rocks at 200 - 600 yards with several revolvers......mostly my .44 Magnum Ruger FTBH.

Larry Gibson

Hmm....I actually have set up north of the house a 600 yd. steel target scaled to the size of a 600 yd. High Power repair center. I think maybe after I rotate the cattle out in a few weeks I'll have to fling a few at it!!

35W

[**oneshot**]

I love shooting long range with my 41mag and 357mag. There is no rule I follow, more of a feel as to how much the wind will move it left to right.

[Scharfschuetze]

My best ever long range revolver was a 6" Model 57 S&W .41 Magnum. I rue the day that I was talked out of it. It was almost child's play to hit B-27 or metal E-type silhouettes at 200 yards with it and plastic gallon milk jugs at 100 yards were in serious jeopardy from just about any position.

[bhn22]

Shooting positions? Try YouTube and search for "long distance Revolver" and you'll find a lot.
There are also YouTubers for IHMSA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qACYzdbj68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR4KAvG4L_E

Then there's Elmers favorite:
93938 93939

[jonp]

I've shot over 300yrds off the deck at my hunting camp across the pond at a rock with my 357Mag. Hit it but the hold over was at the top of the pine trees which were very tall. Interesting shooting to say the least.

[cbrick]

What about shooting positions for long range? Are there any other good methods for shooting/steadying a handgun? 35W

I googled Creedmore and came up with this picture.

93940

This isn't an accurate picture because his knees aren't together but will give you the idea. Very stable.

It's a bit awkward to get accustomed to but once you do you could lay around watching TV like that. For revolver be VERY, VERY sure to wear an upper leg guard, forgetting it is something I can assure you that you will only do once.

Rick

[bhn22]

It does spoil ones concentration.

[HawkCreek]

Once I took my .454 out and set up a target at around 500 or 600 yards (reading Keith at the time probably). It was a fun way to blast off about 50 rounds and certainly a lesson in external ballistics. That's about all the experience I got though.

[44man]

Yes, when I belonged to my club we shot 400 yards (Turkey line) to 500 meters (547 yards) with revolvers. We actually did better then rifle shooters. Lots of drop so we needed to aim at a tree branch way over.
We shot Creedmore. 200 meters got real easy and it was nothing to hit 5 chickens for shoot offs at 200.
The wind was easy to read and a shooter would aim into it first shot and adjust after the spotter seen the hit. Some days had me aiming at another ram to hit mine. Soon we could adjust hold off from the feel of the wind. I never fooled with my sights windage.

[osteodoc08]

Shooting long distance with lead boolits is very very fun. A 5 gallon bucket at 300 yds is quite a challenge. Fun to shoot the pistol caliber lever guns like that too.

I took my father in law shooting the other day and our power line on the deer club is clear cut and a V shape. Bottom is approx 600 yds and will collect water. He didn't quite understand that you need YARDS of drop to get a 255gr slug to reach it when it's leaving the muzzle at 830 FPS. It was fun to see the splashes when it hit. And about 2 seconds later a thwack reminiscent of a beaver slapping his tail. Did it with the revolvers too.

[bhn22]

Some guys do it the comfortable way, by sitting in a low beach chair. Then they can more comfortably do Elmer Keiths favored sitting position. Not legal for competition, but not everybody is into competition.

93974

[375supermag]

Hi...

I shoot most of my revolvers at a 10-12" steel gong on the 200yd rifle range at my gun club.
Do pretty well off of the bench...4-6 on steel depending on the wind and shooter error.
Some revolvers and loads are more intrinsically accurate than others. My S&W 686 Silhouette Model and Dan Wesson .44Mag are the most consistently accurate at that range...depending on what load I am shooting that day.

Later in the shooting season, I tend to shoot much better at 200yds with a handgun. Early in the season, I am still re-acquainting myself with long-range shooting and the lack of practice over the winter shows.

I have had a few discussions with some gun club members revolving around whether I should even be shooting revolvers on the rifle range. They generally walk away after a few rounds start hitting the 200yd gong.

Then again, I have had some members complain about the decibel level of some of my handloads even though I never exceed published maximum loads...ever.

Range nazis...

[BABore]

Yes, but only offhand. Shooting from the bench is boring and laying down makes me sleepy.:roll:

[JWFilips]

Thanks guys for running this thread. I shoot on a public range & It is divided into a pistol range and a 100 & 200yd rifle range. As you can imagine on a normal day the pistol range is near full and the 100 rifle range pretty close to full.....however the 200 yd rife range is seldom used.
This gives me a great idea! We can't shoot metal but even shooting paper at that distance can be a fun day! i will have to try it soon!

[Artful]

JWFilips - it's best if you can see a reaction on target if using paper - black doesn't show holes unless the sun's right - so either white
or other bright color - and put up wind flags
http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff291/incorrigible1/Galaxy1695_zpsbc840897.jpg

at 200 you can see pistol size holes well with a good scope but when you range out further a wireless CCTV system helps a lot

[JWFilips]

I'm learning something Every day I'm here .....Thanks

[Teddy (punchie)]

Poor silhouette I'm not much for shooting at them,Anyway . But was at range a shooting good, sighted-in three deer rifles on 5 shots. Other one 7 shots. Last was 300 Imp 40 deg. , 300 Ackley. No more Silhouette for that gun, not sure what it was made of was 4-5 inches wide a 6-7 inch long well one shot and it was half gone, oops!! O sh@@, never walked out to see what it was at 200 Yds. didn't move very muchjust broke.

What type of steel are you all using for silhouettes ?

[btroj]

Some guys do it the comfortable way, by sitting in a low beach chair. Then they can more comfortably do Elmer Keiths favored sitting position. Not legal for competition, but not everybody is into competition.

93974

I gotta join your club.....

[rlb]

That chair needs a holder for my tea.

[GaryN]

I googled Creedmore and came up with this picture.

93940



This isn't an accurate picture because his knees aren't together but will give you the idea. Very stable.

It's a bit awkward to get accustomed to but once you do you could lay around watching TV like that. For revolver be VERY, VERY sure to wear an upper leg guard, forgetting it is something I can assure you that you will only do once.

Rick

The first time I ever tried to shoot the Creedmore position I didn't have a leg guard. I have never shot competition. I learned real fast about the leg guard.

[30calflash]

For shooting at paper you can try another color besides black. Dark blue shows up well on a lighter background and you can see your results thru the spotting scope fairly well. Other darker colors like red or green should do the same. YMMV.

[jonp]

For shooting at paper you can try another color besides black. Dark blue shows up well on a lighter background and you can see your results thru the spotting scope fairly well. Other darker colors like red or green should do the same. YMMV.

The black targets that turn into nice little green holes to show your strikes, Birchwood Casey makes some I think, work well for this.

[ubetcha]

I googled Creedmore and came up with this picture.

93940

This isn't an accurate picture because his knees aren't together but will give you the idea. Very stable.

It's a bit awkward to get accustomed to but once you do you could lay around watching TV like that. For revolver be VERY, VERY sure to wear an upper leg guard, forgetting it is something I can assure you that you will only do once.

Rick

Absolutley where leg protection when shooting a revolver in the creedmore position. In the picture of the guy shooting creedmore, the leg protection shown is more to keep his pant leg away from the muzzle. With a revolver, the protection should be in the area of the cylinder gap/leg area. More at the hip if that is where the gap is. Once that position is learned, it is quite stable.

[Old School Big Bore]

I shot 'real' IHMSA silhouette with Keith boolits over 11.0 of Unique (just enough to take a ram over) til our range dropped IHMSA and went to that sissy hunter silhouette. I shot the freestyle class using the supine position almost as shown in the Elmer Keith pix above. I rolled to the right slightly and rested my wrist on one kneecap to keep the cylinder gap far enough away from my leg. I also had to tuck my feet back, because IHMSA rules prohibited any part of your person from being downrange of the muzzle. I cranked the back sight for each distance and cranked wind as well, but then I was a school trained sniper & high-power shooter, so cranking instead of holding off came naturally to me. If the wind was gusty, I would favor into it, but for a steady wind I made adjustments. Kept a log book and everything. Long range pistol shooting will teach you steady hold, concentration on sight alignment, trigger control and follow-through more intensely than any other shooting I know...the wind part is not as twitchy as shooting long range rifle but it's close.

[35 Whelen]

I shot 'real' IHMSA silhouette with Keith boolits over 11.0 of Unique (just enough to take a ram over) til our range dropped IHMSA and went to that sissy hunter silhouette. I shot the freestyle class using the supine position almost as shown in the Elmer Keith pix above. I rolled to the right slightly and rested my wrist on one kneecap to keep the cylinder gap far enough away from my leg. I also had to tuck my feet back, because IHMSA rules prohibited any part of your person from being downrange of the muzzle. I cranked the back sight for each distance and cranked wind as well, but then I was a school trained sniper & high-power shooter, so cranking instead of holding off came naturally to me. If the wind was gusty, I would favor into it, but for a steady wind I made adjustments. Kept a log book and everything. Long range pistol shooting will teach you steady hold, concentration on sight alignment, trigger control and follow-through more intensely than any other shooting I know...the wind part is not as twitchy as shooting long range rifle but it's close.

That's a really interesting post. Thanks for the info. I shot a little again this morning. This time the wind was at about a 20° angle from head-on. First three of ten shots are numbered. Then I lost track. Same as the other day, seven hits 3 misses.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h6/308Scout/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/200yds-1edit_zps22b22f40.jpg (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/308Scout/media/Ruger%20Flat%20Top%20Blackhawk/200yds-1edit_zps22b22f40.jpg.html)

I did forget to mention in the OP that I scribe a line across the front sight to use for 200 yds. I put the line at the top of the rear sight, then the top of the front sight in the center of the target. I may piddle with actually adjusting the sights so I don't have to add elevation.

Then I tried 5 sitting, leaned against the leg of the bench. Not a single hit. A few months ago I regulated the sights of a couple of my Colt reproduction single actions from the bench and found out later that when I shoot sitting my POI is quite a bit higher at 50 yds. So, that may explain why I missed the 200 yd. target from a sitting position. Think I'll try again this afternoon and hold low.

35W

[cbrick]

Yep, long range revolver will teach ya in a hurry that sight settings will be different with each shooting position. The reason is that with each different position your holding the gun differently causing different recoil. Barrel time is slow enough that if recoil is altered before the boolit exits the point of impact is changed. The same reason grip is so critical, the muzzle must rise exactly the same from shot to shot, anything that changes where the muzzle is when the boolit exits changes where it goes. Just squeeze slightly more with the fingers on the next shot from the previous shot and you shoot low, loosen the grip slightly on the next shot and you shot high. Not only how much finger pressure on the grip but also the grip must be in your hand in exactly the place on every shot and your hand in exactly the same place on the grip. As with any shooting the further the range the more obvious this becomes. With 200 meter revolver it really shows up.

Rick

[35 Whelen]

Thanks, Bill. The wind really kicked up and I finally got aggravated and called it a day.

35W

[35 shooter]

35whelen thanks for the thread... brought back a lot of memories. I used to read Elmer Keith's articles on long range shooting with his revolvers and then go to a gravel pit or two that was close by and practice. It got to a point where i had lines filed across the front sight at different levels for different ranges and then had a jeweler scribe gold paint into the lines.
I got that idea from one of Elmer's articles where he had done that to one of his Colt 45 Flattops. It worked great, as i would hold up the appropriate line for the distance above the rear sight, then set the target on top of the front sight (6 o'clock hold). If i remember right 550 yards was right at the bottom of the front sight and for 600 you had to get about 1/8" of the bbl. in sight and still try and keep the left and right. This was with a 4'' bbl. mod. 29.
Not saying i was an Elmer Keith but it sure was fun trying. Now you've made me wish i had maybe a Ruger Hunter model in 44 mag. as the mod. 29 is long gone now....well....we'll see. Thanks for the thread!

[David LaPell]

I used to with my Smith Outdoorsman but I haven't had the chance to play around any with my .357 Blackhawk and long range targets but I plan on it this spring and summer more. I was shooting well out to the 65 yard line with just a set of sticks with the .38-44 (the range where I shoot behind the house is only about 70-75 yards.) I know next year I want to play around at the local range which is a lot farther with the Ruger.

[enfieldphile]

I have shot my .45 Colt caliber S&W Mountain Gun @ 220 yards and took down an iron Ram. Getting hits w/o the take down were fairly easy.

[johnson1942]

my son and i have shot prairie dogs for several years out to 300 yards with a .22 long rifle. we hold very steady and after the first shot you walk it in like artillery. it works good that way and usually before the clip or cylinder is out you nail the one you were comming in on. they arent disturbed by the report at longer ranges and dont seem to notice the puffs of dust getting closer. its easy to get a eye for it as trejectory is predictable. my high standard supermatic trophy was best for this.

[DLCTEX]

I impressed a couple friends by hitting gypsum rocks the size of football/basketball at a lasered 175 yds. With my scoped Tarus 480 Ruger Raging Bull from a large flat rate box on the tool box of my truck for a rest.Lee 400 gr. Boolit over 21 gr. H-110.

[contender1]

I own a range, but my distance is limited to 100 yds. But I do enjoy shooting at that range a lot with different handguns. Loads of fun!

[Good Cheer]

Used to shoot 100yards on the police range east out of Salt Lake. 34 years ago. Don't think I'm that good with a 4" Security Six any more!:roll:

[HawkCreek]

Not a revolver but I was sighting in a new rifle last friday and decided to see what the new Glock 20 would do at 100 yards. Once I found out I was shooting way to high (sights are nearly dead on at 100 yards) I was rewarded with a 6 round group that was within 8 inches. Not match grade stuff but I was pleased for a so far stock gun and off the shelf ammo. I'd get better sights but I am going to put a 6" barrel and slide on and don't want to pay for sights twice.