Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 44 MAG distance shooting

What other cartridges have y'all used for long long plinking. Just curious.

Now that is pretty neat, good job on it! The day I boo-booed, there was some guys practicing with Contender pistols on gongs at 200 yds. They were bracing by placing them against thier leg. Not thinking, I laid down and did the same thing. I bled like a stuck hog from a cut about 2" long as clean as a scalpel would make. Jeans had a matching slice in them. My first thought was I had somehow shot myself. Valuable lesson learned (the hardway as usual. )

I just had .41s with me:
4" 57
6" FA 654
4.25" FA 97
5.5" Gary Reeder
5.5" USFA Clements .41 Special

At 800 I only shot the 57 and FA. The loads from the 57 4" were only going 950 fps....when they arrived at 800 only around 550 fps. Had to hold 1/2 the barrel up into the rear sight notch to hit at that range. Midrange trajectory is about 50'.

I've only seen Mackay shoot his 4" and 5" 29s and the Glock 21 that one day...

.38 Special the 40 S&W and of course the e'speciale.

To the 250 anyway.




Travis

W-W...none of my bullets had any problem staying stable out at 800 yards... I only used three at 800 which were:

255 LBT at 1450

240 Lyman Round Nose at 1450

210 Berry's plated at 950.

Also have shot Keiths out to 500.

As to how low a velocity one can go with a given bullet, twist rate and gun...not really sure... Just have to try it and find out.

A football goes a long way if it is initially stabilized...my belief is if a handgun bullet is stable and accurate at 50 it will make it out as far as practical.

I've seen Flave shoot and I can only say I wish I was as rock solid as Iceman...

He put three or four out of six on a gallon jug DA with my .41 S&W Mountain Gun...at 100 yards...standing.

That was sober.

You should see me when I've been drinking.




Clark

I would agree with this.




Dave

I like moderate loads for distance shooting in the 44's and 45's. Lower recoil helps when it takes a cylinder or two to get on target

For under 300 meters my favorite is the .357 Maximum. Flat trajectory, moderate recoil and great accuracy in my Ruger Blackhawk. The 200gr bullets I load fall off past 300, and don't raise as much dust as the heavier 44 and 45 slugs, so spotting hits from dust blooms is more difficult.

A bit more about this.

Keith lived in an area with a significant wild horse population. For the urbanite-non westerners this sounds wonderful, and all John Wayne-ish. For a rancher/farmer it was (and still is) a problem.

People invest years, even decades building up a breed line and remuda/herd. They have an incredible amount of money, time and effort invested. Feral mustangs get into these herds and breed with mares and can destroy that hard work. They also can introduce disease and sickness into a domestic herd.

Plus they interfere with rangeland management practices. People don't realize this these days, but at one point there were well over a MILLION wild horses running loose. It was a very common practice during the era, to put them down, rather than have them destroy people's livelihoods.

Today, in the same county that Keith lived in and often wrote about, there is a rather large herd of wild mustangs. They are a very short distance from my cabin.

That's certainly helpful, thanks. My go-to cartridge is 357 and I've been eyeing the 160 or 180 WFN at 1200-ish fps as an all around load for varmints, deer, and just having fun plinking at 100 - 300 yards. There are some who say the meplat is too large for stability at long ranges.

In regards to the F.O. front sight. Yes, they are less than ideal for long range. That was simply the sight I had on the M29 that day. It has an interchangeable front sight, so swapping is easy. The preferred setup is a tall sight with horizontal bars. RJM has an ideal one of one of his Freedom Arms guns. I took one of my spare S&W blades and filed notches in it, then added orange paint, to approximate the same effect.

It is not pretty aesthetically but it works. When I find a pic, I will post it.

Where the fiber optic works great is shooting quickly, and in failing light, as well as snow. It really seems to gather what remaining light there is and draws your eye to it. I really like them for general purposes, but not for the long range game.

"Where the fiber optic works great is shooting quickly, and in failing light, as well as snow. It really seems to gather what remaining light there is and draws your eye to it. I really like them for general purposes, but not for the long range game."....Jack Rabbits don't like them either....



Custom Long Range blade by David Clements...




Right: US Firearms Flat Top Target
Left: US Firearms Clements Custom








Clements .41 Special with matching .22/.22 Magnum

I was contemplating this topic this morning while driving, and the fact that many thought Keith was full of crap.

Without seeing the pics, and corroborations in this thread, I doubt your average person, in fact I doubt most people would believe a single word if a person said the following:

" I watched a friend make numerous hits on a target at 780 yards with an iron sighted handgun."

I once shot a target with my Glock at 780 yards."


Sounds pretty far fetched, right?


These days phones and pocket digital cameras abound and pictures are easy to share. Not so in Mr. Keith's day.


It is kind of like this:

I was coyote hunting one time with a buddy, and came back to the truck after an unsuccessful set. While standing there I saw a Jackrabbit out in the brush a ways. I told my buddy "I am going to shoot that Jack in the head".

I pulled out my .45 Glock (with target sights), held between his ears and popped him. We walked out, found him and used my LRF to laser back to the truck. 63 yards, and a head shot. I knew this was a lucky shot, so I took a pic.






I also made a point of not shooting at anything with a handgun the rest of the day, so as not to jinx myself.

The fact is that most would not believe me if I did not have a witness and a picture. It does not mean that it is not true though.

The shooting that Keith, McGivern and his kind did was extraordinary during their time period, and still is today, though more and more are giving it a go.

..Mackay..it wasn't that you were lucky...the Jack having four rabbits feet was just unlucky...for that matter ANY rabbit standing within sight of you is going to be unlucky...

I primarily am a .44 Mag guy, though enjoy playing with the .45 ACP, and to a lesser extent the .45 Colt.

The .45 Colt and .44 Mag being so close performance wise, for long range stuff I just normally stick with one.

Provided that you get a .45 Colt that is properly sized/throated, it really is hard to beat, and equally capable in its flexibility (from mellow plinking loads to elk/dinosauer stompers).

This thread instilled a strong desire to do some shark shooting.

I would set up a large target board, with a reference on the board that you can easily see at long distance, and use to consistently place your front sight on, then give your loads a try.

I have heard the same things about WFNs too, but experience has shown that such things are not absolute.

OOOF those are NICE!

I have had a lot of fun shooting .44Mag out of Ruger Super Blackhawk, 629, and a Old Vaquero. Shooting in the dry dusty environment, as mentioned, will aid in walking bullet strikes on target. Shooting into the setting sun, when done at very long distances, 300-400 yards, may allow you to watch the bullet flight with the v rings.

It is amazing what you can hit at distances of say 100-250 yards or at least come close to when you take the time to practice.

The best thing about shooting these longer distances is that it teaches you all about trigger control. A flinch when shooting at 150 yards will cause a miss of 15-20 yards and the hoots of your buddies. I like to shoot ALL of my handguns for some practice time at the 100-200 yard distance to see how my form is holding up. A Glock 27 at 200 yards can shame you quickly.