Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 44 MAG distance shooting

That is a Great Picture M. Marine!

I like the smoke that is caught in the picture off to the right. Your last sentence is dead on too. I have a little .45 convertible BHawk that shoots very well with the ACP cylinder with factory ball ammo. I need to take it out on my next LR excursion. The front sight is rather tall and is an ideal candidate for a couple gold/brass colored horizontal bars.

Thanks,

I figured discussing the topic and a couple of well known historical shooters who have written about the subject in the past would be better than the usual dog pile that happens when someone says things of similar nature.

Besides, This way if Mikewriter does some research into the subject, and also reads up about Keith and McGivern, he will have a lot of great future material to write about.

BTW,

I have a used Leupold 2x scope that has been sitting in my safe for quite some time now, doing nothing. If you do decide to go the scope route over irons, PM me if you are interested.

I'm not trying to suck MM's dick, but having seen him shoot, that dude knows his way around a handgun.

He's decent with a rifle too... grin.


GFY,
Travis

PS- I was slinging lead at close to 100yds with the red dot yesterday. And I am kinda likin' the red dot setup....





Travis

I like it

9 or 40?

Not much to add, except long range handgunning is great fun. I first did it with a 1917, .45 Auto rims and 230 grain cast bullets going slowwwwww....great fun to watch them splash in to the muddy river bank as we fired at targets of opportunity out there 200-300 yards...surprisingly accurate once you got the trajectory doped out.

It's the fo' oh!


Travis

Mackay, no, I haven't tried shooting a .44 mag handgun at over 100 yards, much less 500. No need to do so. I also don't shoot my rifles much over 200 - not many places in my area with that much open space, in my defense. I do shoot a lot of .44 mag loads at under 100, though. I am very much aware of the killing power of a big, slow bullet - like a 335 gr hard cast .44 mag launched at under 1100fps. At the same time, such a bullet drops very quickly past 75 yards or so. It has too, physics won't let it not drop. I have a Ruger .44 mag carbine, and would not expect to do long range shooting in any serious manner with it, also. If just shooting for the fun of it, I suppose I can see the appeal, and the challenge. We just don't have open prairies and lot of hills and rocks here on the Texas Coast.

I am aware of Elmer Keith's contributions to the sport, but have always taken some of his feats with a grain of salt. The long range mule deer kill does make me wonder if the bullet would retain enough energy to shoot through both sides of the deer at that range, and this is from "researching" ballistics tables.

I love to shoot all sorts of handguns, have several .44 mags, from a SBH to Contenders, to a Contender with a suppressor and shoulder stock used strictly with subsonic rounds for hunting. I like the .44 mag round VERY much, but other than "target" shooting, would not try to use it for a job that a .270 or .300 mag rifle would be better suited for.

Just my opinion, ya'll can keep launching long range .44's, and I probably would, also, given the right terrain and some free time.

If you get the opportunity to try long range sixgunning, it'll open your eyes.

On a deer hunt several years back we were in a cabin on one side of a bay with the other side approximately 400yds distant.

I'd brought a box of plinking ammo for my 480 and would plink across the bay in the evenings. After I figured out the drop I was hitting a rusted out 55 gal drum.

I've seen a shooting buddy place all five shots from an FA 475 linebaugh on a 200 yd ram sillouette, and he was shooting offhand.

If you'd consider a 45 acp to have sufficient power to kill a deer within 50 yds, a 44 mag with a 240 gr cast bullet has the same power at 300yds, and the heavier cast bullets are better yet for extended ranges.

The way I look at it, you can never be too good of a shot. Practicing at extended ranges helps you at every range.

You are sadly mistaken if you believe that a 240 grain 44 mag bullet will not perform exactly as Elmer described at that distance.

I have a friend that dropped a wounded antelope at 600+ yards with a Remington 240 grain jacketed flat point. The guy that wounded the antelope wit a 25/06 would shoot after the pronghorn took off. My friend used a 6 1/2" M-29

I'm guessing you're from Texas?


Travis

mike, once those heavy slugs get moving--CHUG--they are difficult to stop...

some 30+ years ago, scenarshooter and i were firing .44 mags at a stump about 12 inches in diameter--it wasn't long range, only about 45-50 yards distant. being newer to the game, i thought that we were missing the stump (as the audible impacts in the wood at that close range were masked by the sound of firing), but when we went and looked, the pills had effortlessly plowed right on through...

this was a surprise to me back then. i've fired them through 14 inch doug fir logs, and they even went right on through the milk jugs behind the log, and then into the earthen backstop--CHUG X 2.

i don't know if this is factually correct, but years ago i once read that colonel charles askins (an experienced handgun shooter), when hearing of keith shooting big bore revolvers out at 600 yards, had supposedly said, "i'll stand out at 600 yards with a catchers mitt and catch those .44 pills in flight (ouch)...

if this statement is true--that he actually said that--it is truly remarkable, given askin's significant experience and knowledge of handguns. it may however, illustrate that he had little experience with big bores at extended ranges.

it can be fun to play the "long range game" with handguns on targets--just to see what a chap can do with any given rig--although in the field i don't advocate their use on game past about the 75 yard mark, though guys use them successfully at much farther ranges. i've got a shooting bud that can use a handgun out to 200 yards, much like a reasonable fellow will do with a hunting rifle--he has over 30 years of shooting experience in long range handgunning, and 35 years in disciplined bullseye shooting with handgun--the most gifted handgun shooter i've ever seen...

I used to shoot IHMSA at 200 w/ a .44 Mag often. I could hit about 5-7 out of 10 rams in Creedmore position. I wasn't the best at it but could regularly score 30-35 w/ a 4x Leupold. I could clean the chickens and the pigs but those damn turkeys at 150 would kill me.

Although sometimes fashionable among the "cool" kids, doubt Elmer at your own risk.

Less research, more shooting.

Elmer was a been there done that kinda guy who happened to write about his exploits.

Sadly many gun writers are writers who happen to go out and shoot and hunt on occasions.

I've been fortunate to have some shooting buddies who are exceptional shots with handguns so I know what a good handgun is capable of. I just need to put in the regular practice to be able to shoot to my guns ability.

If anyone doubts Elmer Keith (and they shouldn't), then they should take a look at Brian Pearce's article in "Handloader" a few years back where he duplicated Elmer Keith's 600 yard shot on a life-size mule deer target. Pearce used original Remington 44 Magnum factory ammunition and a pair of original, S&W pre-29 44 Magnums the same vintage as the revolver Keith used. Pearce was able to replicate Keith's shot repeatedly with that combination.

Bumping up another informative thread regarding the versatile .44 magnum

Great thread..

From my own experience - in shooting and killing hogs, not rocks - a heavy for caliber hard cast bullet in .44 mag, or .45 Colt, is destructive well beyond what "paper ballistics" indicate it should be. Yes, once those big, heavy bullets get moving, they take some doing to stop! More than once I've shot through and killed two feral hogs with one shot and did not recover the bullet. The .44 mag is far and away my favorite cartridge, but it cannot do EVERYTHING. I did read Elmer's book, Sixguns, and like Deflave said here once, if was not that easy or enjoyable to read. I read it often and closely enough to remember than even Elmer said of his "long range" handgun shooting that it was "stunt" shooting, and he described walking the shots in my holding great distances above the target. I am sure this is fun and challenging, but - again - mostly because of the topography where I live - it is not something I could do on a regular basis. I need to be aware of where my bullets might go, and what they might do when they get there - when shooting anything.

By the way, Elmer also bragged of killing hawks, great horned owls, even horses.

Mike