2 Attachment(s)
Dance with the one you brought
Now, one of my pet peeves, one that always makes my eyes roll, is the wide spread notion that as long as you, and your gun, are reasonably accurate at short range, you are good to go. “There’s no need for me to work at anything more than 21 feet, my (fill in the blank: snubbie, compact, micro etc.), will work to get him off me.” As if we get to choose where and when we will be forced to defend ourselves. It may well be that most shootings take place inside of 7 yards, but consider. It is just over 50 yards from my front porch to the street. If I am sitting out there drinking a cool ice tea and some yahoo decides to conduct a drive by, mistaking my house for somebody else’s, my choice of response is limited to what’s in my holster. I’m too old and slow to run. Likewise, suppose the robber initially confronts you at double arm’s length, but when you whip out your roscoe, he runs across the street, then turns and starts shooting. Again, if you are going to shoot back, what you have is what you’ll use. Consequently, it behooves us to at least occasionally stretch our range, if for no other reason than to see where our gun hits. (More about that in a minute).
Consequently, I set an ANT-4, law enforcement target up at the 50 meter line at our gun club, and I proceeded to run a few rounds down range with my S&W 640. My normal defense load in this gun is the factory Remington 125 grain +p, JHP that was the LAPD issue round for years. I have used it before for qualification and know that my 640 shoots pretty close to center with that, albeit about 4 inches low at 25 yards. But I only have a partial box left, and no way of telling when or if I can get more, so I am loath to expend a bunch of what little I have left in an experiment that might be useless. So I got some 148 grain wad cutter ammo that I had loaded and which I have plenty of, and decided to use that.
Well, I figured it would hit little higher than my JHP +p, but my fuzzy recollection of PPC sight adjustments in years gone by made me aim just at the bottom of the neck on Mr. Bad Guy Target and I carefully fired 5 rounds DA two-handed standing. Imagine my chagrin when all five hit High above my POA by about 6 inches, and left by 10. One was completely off the target. You can see the 4 shots that found paper marked by black pasters. If I had been shooting for reals, I’d have missed him completely.
However, with that information, I proceeded to fire 15 shots, 3 cylinders worth. 14 would have found flesh, though only about 9 would have inflicted seriously dangerous wounds. One would have missed him over his left shoulder. I walked away from this experiment convinced that my primary carry guns need to be tested by me to assure that I can hit something at distance, and to make certain that they hit somewhere close to point of aim with the ammo I am carrying.
My next project after this is to find my 125 grain mold and see if I can develop a practice load that approximates my carry load for this gun.
Attachment 301645
My Smith 640 38 Special
Attachment 301647
Mr. Bad Guy.