Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns How Far Can You Shoot a 357 Magnum REVOLVER?

This is something that has been cooking for several weeks now.
How far can you shoot a 357 Magnum Revolver (not a singleshot), use all six cylinders, and still group 10-12 inches?
I'm talking about a group on a steel target.
What do you think?
Or even better what have you accomplished?

I haven't tried it much past 100, but I'd think it ought to be doable at that distance for me.

I'd only use one cylinder though.

100 yards for sure, offhand with either a 6" GP-100 or a 6 1/2" Blackhawk.

I have a 12x12" steel target that I'll set out at 100 yards and hit it 6 out of 6 with a group around 6 to 8", maybe less on a very calm day. That's very repeatable - I once shot all 50 rounds from a box of handloads at it and missed the target once.

Not sure I could hit just any old target that far as the square steel has an advantage to it. You can line up the front blade with the very top of the square and centered horizontally and that gives a nice repeatable sight picture.

Taking it out to 200 yards things get a bit dicier as you have to either raise the front sight in relation to the rear blade or find an aiming point above the target. If you can find a good aiming point - rock, clump of grass or something - just the right distance above the target you can lay 4 or 5 out of 6 into it pretty consistently, but to do that I have to go to a braced kneeling position.

With a tall target like a welding oxygen tank where you can aim near the top and bullet drop still allows a hit 3-5 out of 6 is certainly doable offhand - that's a repeatable percentage. Once in a great while you can get 6 out of 6 but not all the time unless you shoot off of bags which takes all the fun out of it. Wind becomes your enemy at that range, not trajectory. They used to have such tanks out at our range, actual distance was about 220 yards, and now and then I'd show off by making them ring pretty regularly.

That's kind of fun. One calm day I was hitting those 220 yard tanks very consistently, like 4 out of 6, with a little 4" J-frame Smith Model 34 .22. Sight alignment is the crucial factor with trigger control next, after that it's just repeating the same sight picture.

A good shooter with a scope should be able to do that to at least 5 or 6 hundred yards.

I saw what you did there....

jwp475 knows how I like to shoot!

If that is the way you like to roll, by all means, keep pouring it to it.

500 yards is my personal goal.
Anything else is just gravy.

180 grain Speer flatnose rifle bullet over 15 grains of 296 in Winchester nickel cases grouped into 6 inches @ 200 yards out of my Python.

This is a very weird looking finished round as the ogive of the seated bullet is down past the case mouth.

PM me if interested.

Yeah, changing out those cylinders six times would be quite inconvenient.

I know I can make that requirement at 100. I haven't tried beyond that, but I believe with a bit of practice I could manage it at 200.

Well I saw a guy at the range shooting an old style S&W with an 8 3/4" barrel using a pistol bi-pod with a scope who could do better than 10-12" at a hundred yards. More like 3" and under and he said he could do that or under at 150 yards. He said it is his favorite deer getter.

I have no experience one way or the other.

50 yards would have to be my limit. Haven't tried any further because beyond 50 I've got better tools for the job. Someday though, I'm gonna play around at 100 with both 357's; a Blackhawk and a S&W 686 just for grins and experience.

I know the shape is not to specs but I can do 6 on a pepper popper at 100 fairly routinely. I find my shots tend to vary more vertically than horizontally at distance so the pepper popper is probably easier than the standard you set in the OP.

-Z

200 yards for certain. Lots of guys could do so offhand at IHMSA silhouette shoots. They certainly could have done better with a solid rest.

I will be shooting prone, seated with a tri-pod field rest (Bog-Gear), and or from the bench.
Also, I will be using a scope.
My eyes can't do irons at hat kind of distance and be precise.

I have never played with 357's much but I will guess... 400yds. for that size group. Assuming some 170gr or more keith style bullets.

I knocked a turkey silhouette down @ 240yds with a 4" 29 yesterday. That was off hand with a spotter. 1st shot high, second show low, third shot "diiing."

Now since you've contemplated this, and obviously have some time behind a handgun, what is your goal/guess?



Travis

With irons fired DA? Maybe 50 yards.

Are we talking offhand or shooting it like a rifle?

xphunter will scope the revolver and shoot from a rested postion, as he would with an XP.