75 years old now, been reading Keith since I was a kid. Back in the late fifties, early sixties dad, my brother and I used to try out some of the stuff we read about. We had access to an old quarry which had a road running straight down the middle for several hundred yards. We would use the old gallon antifreeze cans and thirty gallon grease drums as targets. I learned early that the hold "lean back against the tire and hold the hands between the knees" was a recipe for disaster on a good pair of Levis. As Keith said, you could learn to "walk the rounds" up on a target by watching for the dust to fly and holding up more and more front sight. We used several guns, including a 7 1/2" New Frontier in 45 Colt, a 5 1/2" SAA 357, and my favorite, a 7 1/2" SAA in 44 special. Hits were far fewer than misses but we learned a lot.
Fast forward to about 1980 and dad is gone but little brother and I got together annually either at his place or mine for a day long set of matches. Two targets each with a series of guns, starting with rimfires, then varmint caliber, deer, and bigbore (him 444, me 44-70) all at 100 yards and the first for group, second for score. At the end of the day, we'd each pull out the two handguns we enjoyed most, his being a six inch 66 and a three screw Super Blackhawk, , mine a stainless 1976 Blackhawk 357 and a newer Super.
We had just finished the last targets and were packing up when another shooter drove in to put up targets. We went down together and he remarked at ours having "really big holes, must be big bore rifles, right?" We told him handguns. He said b.s. We put up a new target each (50 yard slowfire pistol) and he put up his paper plate.
Back to the bench. Brother and I each shot five rounds of 44 (my load, 429421, 20 grains H2400, his 429215 gc and 22 grains of H2400). Other guy shot five with his 7 mag. I still have our targets, both with five shots under 5". Not outstanding but normal and quite jarring to the 7mm guy who missed the plate with one round.
At the end of the day, brother and I would get set up at the kitchen table with the targets, calipers, pencil, beers and a pile of quarters and measure, argue and laugh for hours. He is gone, my eyesight is almost, but the memories last. As does the knowledge that handguns can shoot waaaay better than the average person will believe.
I love showing targets from my Contender and my Tracker 17HMR down at the shop with close to MOA groups.
We used to shoot on Monday nights at Hebard's in Knoxville IL, for a while. Old Gil kndw what a handgun could do.