Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 44 MAG distance shooting

Yessir, they do, even at 1100 from the Smith, you twos long range handgun shooting would cause me to face plant a rock bank via an aneurysm trying to math windage and elevation!

Mackay Sagebrush

Back in the mid 1980's my father spent a short two weeks in a nursing home before he passed away and I would visit him during my lunch hour and after work. One day after talking to Dad for a while I took a stroll down the hall of that nursing home and noticed that one room with the door open had trophies hanging all over the walls. I came to the open door and looked in to see Elmer Keith sitting in his chair. I knocked on the door frame and he motioned me in and had a chance to have a short talk with him for a while.

He was doing poorly and his conversion would wonder off occasionally or end abruptly and after about 4-5 minutes I could tell that he was tired and I took my leave.

My Dad passed away as mentioned after about 7-9 days there and the last time I walked down the hall to get to my car I noticed that Elmer's room had been cleaned out with an older lady now in it. Glad I had the chance to see and talk to a part of him before he passed.

Red,

That place was off of Ustick Road. I remember exactly where it was.

His son Ted lived a short distance from us, on Shamrock, and my sister took horse riding lessons there. His grandson Greg and I (IIRC Greg was a year behind me) went to the same schools.

Nice to see this thread come back.

When you think about it, a 44 or 45 sixgun launching ~300 gr cast bullet @ 1200-1300 fps has similar ballistics to a civil war era target rifle. Not surprising that such bullets are capable of penetrating man or beast at extended ranges.

Great reading!! Thanks for the info..

This has been a super-informative thread. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions and thanks for the great front sight pics.

Snicker!


How did I miss this?

An interesting perspective, and one I had not thought of. Thanks!

Exactly, its on the SW corner of Ustick and McMillen and last time I drove by it the building still looks like it is in operation.

Heck I remember the little tiny store called the "Ustick Merc"

In the 70s that place was like a throwback to the 1800s.

Years ago (okay more like a decade and change) I remember reading an article about the 458-400 express, essentially a shortened necked down 45-70 (easier ways to get there with todays commercial 480 brass) The stated goal of the round was to match the black powder 45-70: 400 grs @ 1200 fps.

Don't know why I didn't make the connection sooner, but really the 44 mag and 45 colt with 300-330 gr cast bullets @ 1200-1300 fps aren't far off that mark. I don't have a ballistics calculator, but would expect those heavy bullets would still be traveling 700 fps way out there. And I have no doubt at that sedate velocity they'd still be capable of significant penetration.

One of these days I need to get into long range handgun shooting. There's a decent spot less than an hour from home on the silt flats that would allow me to shoot to extended ranges. And the wet silt would provide some means of measuring penetration at extended ranges.

And that IS a fact Jack.

It is pretty impressive to watch first round (or even second round) hits on gopher mounds out to 800 yds from any one of Bob's several SA or DA 41 mags.

I had a lot of fun trying to keep up, but it was a feeble attempt.

Bob,

Would that be the one which now lives in Id? Or in NH?

I've sunk my share of mooring buoys in AK. Shooting over the water is good fun and makes it easy to 'walk' them in. We'd shoot all kinds of stuff at them at 750 yards from handguns to 35 Remingtons, all with open sights.

It ain't hard hitting a 3 foot mooring buoy at 750 yards with open sights, once you get the sight picture figured out.

Bump this up for an entertaining read

Thanks.

Right after the Model 629 was introduced, I latched on to one of the first 4" guns to arrive in Oklahoma. When deer season came, I dumped a little whitetail doe with it at just shy of 150 yards. The bullet entered one shoulder and exited through the other flank.

But I didn't just get a wild hair and pop a cap at a deer on the far side of a pasture. I had shot that revolver all summer with 10 grains of Unique under a machine-cast 240-grain BB SWC. I had also been on the Oklahoma National Guard pistol team for a couple of years by then. They had issued me a match-tuned 1911, a 7.5" S&W M-41, plus all the ammo I could carry, and I was putting in overtime trying to wear them out. I had put a lot of small game on the table with the M-41, which I'm pretty sure is still the only target pistol in the OKARNG inventory with holster wear.

I wouldn't try a shot like that today, but I had moved through my Elmer Keith phase and was late in my Ed McGivern phase so I was pretty sure it could be done.


Okie John

Thanks. Enjoyed the thread. Not sure how I missed it originally (maybe I didn't sometimes afflicted with a bad case of CRS).

Paul

Red,

I was (still am) a big fan of Elmer’s! I was on vacation with my family and was passing through Salmon. Knowing that Elmer was in the nursing home, I wanted to attempt to visit him. The family wasn’t at all happy at the prospect…..so I never got the chance. It likely wouldn’t have happened, but a guy can dream!

I would’ve loved to have spent a little time with him! memtb

Great read! I've watched Bob shoot Ground Squirrels Double Action with a couple of my S&W's that were waaay out there & it never impressed him, he expected to do it. That only comes from lots & lots of trigger time. A good six gun man can become very comfortable shooting double action with great accuracy if he works at it.
There's another famous six gun man that lives just a block off of Ustick Ave. in Boise that's also a real snake with a single or double action.

Dick

This has been a great thread. Enjoyed reading it and can't believe I missed it in 2013.