At the range what distance do you practice most at?

[benenglish]

Try that with a 4" barrel revolver or pistol, not an SBR.

I am willing to bet he has.

I did not say it was impossible. But there are probably only a handful of people in the world who can hit a snuff can at 200 yards with a 4" barrel handgun and using factory iron sights (more than once, anyhow, reference prior mention of blind sow and acorn).

Hmmm. Now, that's an interesting idea.

First, I never said that 4" revolvers were appropriate for snuff cans at 200 yards. For that, specialized equipment such as I pictured is needed.

However, I have extensive experience shooting 4" revolvers at 200 yards. 12" plates are no big deal out of rollover prone or creedmoor with iron sights. Back when my eyes were good, I could hit full-size chickens (essentially the equivalent of a 6" plate) about half the time with my S&W M29, assuming good conditions.

I also have a little experience shooting 4" bbl revolvers at 600 yards, a situation in which I basically missed everything I tried to hit.

But the interesting idea brought up by oldag is trying to hit a snuff can at 200 yards with a 4" bbl using "factory" sights. As long as "factory" means simply "made in a factory for that gun", i.e. I can replace the sights that came with the gun with better but still non-custom sights, that's a fascinating challenge. It's certainly mechanically possible.

If I were still young enough that my eyes weren't terrible, I would be tempted to shorten the barrel of a 6.5 BR I have and give it a go. No more, though. My ability to shoot irons at those ranges is pretty much gone. I'm lucky I can still focus (sort of) on the front sight.

I'm feeling an itch to break out a .45ACP autoloader or a 4" .38 revolver and shoot a 200 meter match. If I do, I want to thank oldag in advance for motivating me to have some of that kind of fun again. I miss those days and you've gotten me feeling all nostalgic.

 

[benenglish]

They are all sighters until you finally hit.

Good point. That's more or less what they do, for example, at the world black powder pistol championships. They use a standard ISSF bullseye target at 25 meters. You get 3 sighters and then 10 shots for score, all shot on the same target. However, nobody keeps track of when you shoot your sighters.

The bottom line is there should be 13 shots on the target and your score is the best 10 shots.

I really like that format.

 

[TheDan]

Do you guys/gals have a distance that you practice at the most?

15yards with auto-loaders. I mostly shoot steel and don't want to get much closer. My larger caliber handguns I like to try different ranges from 25 to 75yds. I've tried 100yds before, but don't hit often enough to stay motivated at that distance.

 

[impactbumper]

7-10 yards


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[Gummi Bear]

I shoot at the Farm, almost every weekend.

I have steel at 10, 25, 50 and 178 yards. I also have a portable freestanding target that I move around.

I’ll goof around with shooting pistol long distance, but the bulk is at 10. I like to shoot different patterns, and shot sequences(1 shot, 2 shot, 3 shot).



I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...

Henry David Thoreau

 

[Darkpriest667]

Snuff can at 200 yards with a pistol and iron sights? Sorry, but I would have to see that to believe it. Might happen by pure accident. Even a blind sow finds an acorn every now and then.

Paul Harrell regularly hits targets pretty accurately at 50,60 and 100 yards. Here's his youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6QH13V2o68zynSa0hZy9uQ

 

[DD130]

New to me gun gets Dot Torture drill at 3 yards until I can ‘clean’ the drill. Then it moves to 7 yards, until I can ‘clean’ the drill. Pretty good workout and touches all the fundamentals.

https://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture

Good stuff. Just ordered my 2nd pad of targets.

 

[DD130]

Find a nearby Steel Challenge Match and enter. It's a great way to practice the draw, aim and fire under a measure of duress. There will be some excellent shooters there who will be more than happy to help you along. And you'll have a blast doing it.

IDPA matches are good too, you just have to wait until clearing the course to know if/what you hit. The different scenarios really makes you think about how you position yourself and how you setup your holster and mag holders

 

[oldag]

I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that the OP was referring to self defense oriented practice.

For fun, I could see where perhaps some folks like this long range stuff. And that is fine, whatever floats your boat. For self defense training, however, anything beyond 25 yards is largely (granted maybe not quite 100%) a waste of time.

And as most folks know, the vast majority of self defense shootings are at 10 yards or less.

If a real world situation has me at more than 25 yards from the assailant, more than likely I will be able to find cover and dial 911.

At 200 yards, a .44 mag will drop 48", by the way. The 9 mm for those fanboys drops about 58".

 

[Kar98]

So you hold a little high

 

[Dawico]

So you hold a little high

Yeah, but not as much as most people think.

4-5' at 200 yards is usually still not even holding at the top of the berm.

As far as I am concerned there is no better practice for trigger control, sight alignment, and shot picture.

 

[Kar98]

Honestly do you wanna know what I found to the best practice for trigger control, sight alignment, shot picture and grip? Shooting a small DAO pistol with a 8.5lbs trigger. Once you get good with that thing, every other handgun presents no effort or challenge at all.
I shot the hell out of my Kel-Tec P11 until I was really damn good with it. Now everything else, especially the Walther PPS I finally traded it in for after 15 years or so, is a piece of cake.

 

[ZIG]

I usually practice at about 10-15 yards. But I use my own reactive targets which is 12”x18”. I can usually hit the bullseye for the first 10 rounds which is the typical ccw magazine capacity.after 10 my eyes may be little bit tired and I need a 2 second break.


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[FireInTheWire]

I try to challenge myself by practicing at 10+ yards. At 15 yards I still get them all into a 6 inch circle, at 20 yards the group opens up to 12 inches. Consequently, my favorite distance of 7.5 yards (far out enough as not to be utterly ridiculous, but not so far that I actually have to work for it) presents no challenge at all to put them all into one ragged hole in the bullseye at any speed.

Walther PPK .380 at 8.5 yards:

View attachment 131549

OK, most of them are where they should be.

You can also have moving targets (not lateral, but increasing distance), with turns, teases and feints at the Eagle Gun Range in Farmer's Branch.

Damnit... you can shoot a pistol man.

 

[Kar98]

Damnit... you can shoot a pistol man.

Practice, practice, practice

 

[easy rider]

Practice, practice, practice

Having a good shooting gun helps too.

 

[bgw45]

Pocket pistols .... 5yrds
Compact carry ...... 7yrds
Full sized ..... 10yrds

 

[avvidclif]

20 yds +

 

[easy rider]

With handguns I don't always measure, I practice mostly at what I think is a practical distance and then change up distances.

 

[SloppyShooter]

1-2 feet. After a few beers, I back away from the urinal slightly.