Target Shooting At Long Range With Handguns

[JimT]

This article was written in 1987 and contains data, addresses and other information that is REALLY dated and can not be relied upon. You have been warned!

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I really like to shoot sixguns. I like aerial shooting, quick-draw, hip shooting, target shooting, hunting, - but most of all, I love long range shooting. In the "old" days long range handgunning was apparently anything over 50 feet. I had a real good friend who lived to be 103. His name was Jim Hardy and he was born in 1875 here in Arizona. He had been a U.S. Marshall, had punched cows all over the State, was with Pershing in Mexico after Pancho Villa, fought in Cuba in the Spanish-American War and was in the Moro Wars in the Philippines’. He used a sixgun more than once on a deadly opponent, and he didn’t think that you could hit anything with them further than across the road! Shooting a hundred yards with a handgun was the same as throwing rocks as far as he was concerned! I never had that problem as I grew up on a diet of Elmer Keith and Ed McGivern. As a boy I can remember watching my Dad thump rocks and boxes at distances of up to 400 yards with his .45 Colt’s and Smith and Wesson's . It was a normal part of my raising. To this day I still regularly shoot to long ranges. To me it is the ultimate test of a gun and load.

Awhile back Paco Kelly and I decided to do some accurate testing of loads at distances beyond 100 yards. Out here where I live we have plenty of room to set up long range targets. Just shooting at rocks at unknown distances don’t always tell you the whole story. You may be getting close? How consistent is the load that you’re using? (I have a 16" truck rim hung on a tripod at 400 yards and you can tell when you hit it and when you miss it, but not by how much!) Paco’s idea was to take some 4’X4’ sheets of plywood and set them up for targets at known distances. We measured off the ground and set up with a black aiming point on each one. Paco decided that the outline around each black aiming point should be yellow, so we spray painted it on. It made the black stand out really well, even in bright sunlight. The sights could be seen clearly. Our shooting was done from the sitting position. I used a backrest and held the gun in both hands between my upraised knees. It was pretty solid for me, though probably not as solid as shooting off of sandbags. When shooting in bright sunlight we smoked the sights and also rigged a shade so that the sights were shaded. With all this we were able to maintain a very clear sight picture. Shooting on the targets, we would sit down, get rested, and then fire our shots. Then we would walk out to the targets, measure and record the groups, tape up the holes and repaint the target. We had targets at 150 yards and 200 yards. It takes quite a long time to shoot a 4’X4’ piece of plywood to splinters so you can shoot a lot of groups.

So far I’ve shot mainly with my custom .45 Ruger that John Linebaugh built for me. This gun has proven to be very accurate and I wanted to see what it would do at these ranges. The loads that I’ve started out with are ones that were accurate at much shorter distances on paper, and worked well on the 400 yard rim.

Bullet No. 454629GC is a gascheck design by Freedom Arms. The mould is by Lyman, but is available only through Freedom Arms, no. 1 Freedom Lane, Freedom Wyoming 83120. It casts a slug of 305 gr. Out of my mould when using wheel weights. It has a large flat nose and should be a good game bullet. Bullet No. 457191 is my old time favorite. I started using this bullet almost 15 years ago. It is the old Lyman bullet for the .45-90 rifle and casts 308 gr. Out of wheel weights in my mould. This mould is only a single cavity which is slow, but the bullets are perfectly round! It is very accurate in most applications. Bullet SSK 270-451 is a 270 gr. Flat-point made by NEI but available only through SSK Industries., 721 Woodvue Ln., Wintersville, OH 43952. It is the bullet that I used to take the number one Javelina this last spring. (1986)

Using No. 454629GC I sized the bullets to .450" (my gun is tight!) using Hornady gaschecks and Apache Blue lube. The Apache Blue lube was developed by Paco for use in rifles shooting cast bullets. It has a higher melting point than Alox and works better at higher velocities. The first shot with this load as 200 yards was out of a clean barrel (though I do know better) and went high. The next 4 fell in to a group of 7" center to center, the high first shot making an overall group of 12" – not to bad at 200 yards with open sights. Further shooting confirmed the accuracy of this load as groups averaged from 9" to 14 ½" at the 200 yards mark. The powder charge for this load was 18.5 gr. Of 2400 with the Federal No. 150 primer. The bullets were seated so as to crimp into the top grease groove.

For No. 457191 I again sized the bullets to .450", something that most will tell you cannot be done, especially since the bullets cast around .458"! On all my accuracy loads I size the bullets by running them NOSE FIRST into the sizing die, then after they are sized, I run them base first into the lubri-sizer. The reason for this is that most lubrisizers push the bullet off center and wipe one side more heavily than the other. This shows up especially in bullets that are long, or are oversized. Part of the problem is the way the machines are built. The linkage pushes more to one side than the other. What I usually do for bullets that I want to be especially accurate is to push them nose first through a Lee Push-through die, then use the machine to lube them. It works for me. Again I used Apache Blue lube, 18.5 gr. Of 2400 and the Federal No. 150 primer. The bullets were crimped into the top grease groove, which puts the bullet right out to the end of the cylinder. Groups at 200 yards ranged from 8-3/8" center to center to the largest at 16". The funny thing was that I did no better at 150 yards than I did at 200 and sometimes I did worse! Why? I don’t know. Paco’s shooting was usually tight at 150 and slightly larger at 200, while mine was just the opposite. Strange.

SSK 270-451, again sized to .450", lubed with Apache Blue, 18.5 gr. 2400 and the Federal No. 150. Groups at 200 went from 8 ½" up to near 15". I heat-treated some of the bullets and got the best group that I ever shot at 150 yards. It was a five-shot group that went 9-7/8" overall with four of the 5 in 4-5/8"!! Heat-treating bullets has proven to increase accuracy in most cases, though it is quite a bit of work.
Shooting targets at these ranges proved to be very informative. With the 300 gr. Bullets, loads that were sighted in point-of-aim at 25 yards were slightly low at 150 and from 12 to 14 inches low at 200. I had missed a whitetail cleanly last year and thought I shot over him. Now I know that I shot under. Should have tried this out before deer season.

The only hard thing about doing this long-range target work is the going back and forth to measure the targets, tape and repaint them. I must have walked 3 or 4 miles by the time my first session was over. Next time Paco walks! He needs the exercise.


One of the groups fired at long range

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[weiler]

Great article Jim, really makes me miss being back on the farm and having the space!

[Walt]

Yep, great article! I really like the Lyman 454629 bullet and I shoot it strictly in my Freedom Arms model 83 in .454.

Even if the 200 yard target (gong in my case) is twice as large in diameter as the one at 100 yards, the number of hits is always lower on the farther one.

I enjoy shooting at 100 yard gongs with snubnose .38 specials; that's a challenge, it's great practice and it's fun.

[Walt]

Glen Fryxell is a metallurgist who has written and I believe still writes for the Los Angeles Silhouette Club. John Taffin calls him the most knowledgeable authority on cast bullets he's ever known. Among other related subjects, Glen has written about bullet lubricants. Some years back I tried his formula and have used it ever since. His formula was originally comprised of equal amounts of three items but was later reduced to just beeswax and an automotive grease, Sta-Lube Extreme Pressure Moly-Graph Lube which is a lithium-based grease. I melt it in a pan on a Coleman stove in the garage and pour it into PVC tubes that are the same inside diameter and length as the reservoir of my RCBS sizer-lubricator. A long bolt the same size as the center bolt on the sizer-lubricator with an appropriately sized fender washer on the end is placed in the PVC tubes before pouring to aid in removal. I then wrap them in wax paper to store them. The lubricant is soft and somewhat messy in warm weather but makes an outstanding seal for my cast bullets. The moly coats the bore during passage down the barrel, further reducing leading. I have fire-lapped all my large bore handguns and leading is virtually eliminated.

[Griff]

The only hard thing about doing this long-range target work is the going back and forth to measure the targets, tape and repaint them. I must have walked 3 or 4 miles by the time my first session was over. Next time Paco walks! He needs the exercise.

That's the main reason I bought my golf cart.

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If you zoom in on this pic, besides the snow, you can see the Rugged Gear 4 long gun rack in front of the passenger seat.

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Although it's currently out of commission while the engine gets rebuilt... (Honda GX390s don't take well to being run dry on oil)!!!

[JimT]

That would do it in style Griff!

[Catshooter]

Jim,

With a .450 bullet, how did that affect it's fit in the case? What die did you use for sizing, an old tapered steel set?

[JimT]

Jim,

With a .450 bullet, how did that affect it's fit in the case? What die did you use for sizing, an old tapered steel set?

I used a standard RCBS carbide sizing die. I did not use a neck expanding plug. I ground a tapered plug that just opened the mouth of the case to take a bullet. The bullets fit tight enough that you could see their outline in the brass if you looked at it correctly in the light.

Some time after this article was written my Dad throated the pistol with his throating technique and the gun suddenly became accurate with .450" diameter ... .452" diameter and .454" diameter. I shot 25 5 shot groups with each bullet diameter and averaged them out and the .452" diameter won by a few thousandths ....so I went to using that. Lots less work in sizing them.

[marlinman93]

I really enjoy long range shooting with various handguns, but just hitting the steel gongs has always been enough gratification for me. Never considered looking at groups as I'm not hitting enough at 400-450 yds. to get groups. Once I get on the dinger I can hit about 60-75%, but with pistol sights I'm aiming at objects well above the target to get those hits. Usually those objects might be rocks, bushes, or even a spot on a tree limb above and behind the dinger. So it's a challenge to zero in on the exact same object well.

[JimT]

I really enjoy long range shooting with various handguns, but just hitting the steel gongs has always been enough gratification for me. Never considered looking at groups as I'm not hitting enough at 400-450 yds. to get groups. Once I get on the dinger I can hit about 60-75%, but with pistol sights I'm aiming at objects well above the target to get those hits. Usually those objects might be rocks, bushes, or even a spot on a tree limb above and behind the dinger. So it's a challenge to zero in on the exact same object well.

I filed a line across the front sight for my 200 yards mark.

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The target "sets" on top of the front sight (a 6 o'clock hold) and the rear sight is dropped down to the filed mark.

I had a 16" truck rim on a tripod at a bit over 400 yards. I figured out how far below the 200 yard mark I had to hold to get on the 400 yard target using this method. By doing so repeatable hits were much more consistent. Some days getting 5 in row. Consistently getting 3 and 4 in row.

[Griff]

When I first got separated from active duty, during the week, between college classes, I often went out to a public range off Jeffreys Road in Orange County, CA. The range master there was an old Marine by the name of Charlie, a real live character and a helluva pistol shot. He'd often wager the price of admission against hitting a man-hole cover set up on the hillside 500+ yards away. He'd bet he could hit it with his 1911 against you shooting with your 'whatever'. He seldom lost. Sometimes we were the only two there and we got to talking about hitting at long range... he told me his secret, exactly what bush to aim at, after than he'd sometimes include me in his bets. Surprisingly, with my .53 caliber Hawken and 100 grains of 2F and a round ball, I was able to use the same aiming point to hit the manhole cover. Oh, to have youthful eyes and be able to see a bush in detail @ 500 yards again!

[JimT]

I am with you on the young eyes again!

I learned from my Dad about using a 6 o'clock hold and dropping the rear sight down the front sight .. learning where to put it at different ranges. The first Javelina I shot was about 130 yards across a canyon. I sat down, rested the pistol in a two hand hold between my knees and fired and shot right over it's head. I put the front sight in the same position (the pig hadn't moved) and dropped the rear sight down the front sight a bit and put the next shot through it's neck, killing it.

The thing about learning that kind of sight picture is you never lose visual on your target.

Though I have shot at extreme ranges where if you didn't pick out a bush or rock to hold on your bullet wasn't gonna get there. But I never shot at game at those distances.

[marlinman93]

Same here Jim. I don't mind shooting metal or paper at long range with a pistol, but wont try it on game. Just not enough center hits consistently to be ethical.

[JimT]

When I was younger a 100 yard shot on standing game with iron sights was not tough. Anymore I like to be within 60 yards or less.