Long-Range Pistol Shooting

[Mobat555]

Long-Range Pistol Shooting: Find the Right Sight Alignment

In order to defend myself I knew I'd have to be able to shoot a pistol somewhat accurately at long distances...out to 700 yards.

[68Charger]

[quote;376005]Long-Range Pistol Shooting: Find the Right Sight Alignment



[/quote]

Here's the problem:

However, due to the contract we were working under, we were only authorized to carry handguns for self defense. Rifles were strictly prohibited.

he does state that his point is to be accurate enough to convince them to stop shooting at him... I'm dubious that will work, and why use a standard length Glock 19?

if those were the constraints (he's a trainer, not a combatant), I'd take a high-power (10mm, 38 Super?) long-barreled pistol... you need all the velocity you can get.
or a revolver in a high-power caliber with good longer-range ballistics (.357 Mag, .44 Mag?) he does mention the FN57... could be a decent choice for long range.

as an interesting sidebar on sighting your G19 to 700 yards, it's not bad- as tactical information, I believe it's dubious at best... if they have rifles, they're going to be more accurate and deadly than you at any range- I guess if they start shooting at you, what's your options? just take cover & call for backup that's actually armed for the task?

[Zundfolge]

I'm sorry but there's no such thing as "defensive" shooting at 700 yards, even with a rifle.

In all seriousness, if they thought they'd need to reach out to 200-300 yards every once in a great while with a handgun, a scoped .44mag revolver would be just fine.

Otherwise all their "self defense" shooting will be under 100 yards, which is workable (but not ideal) with a 9mm.


I'm with 68Charger here ... a Glock 20 or Witness 10mm Hunter well tuned and with high quality, fiber optic sights would be my carry gun of choice in such an environment.

[banks74]

Cody is the real deal and one of the best shooter's I know. I trust his advice more than most.

[Hannu]

I'm sorry but there's no such thing as "defensive" shooting at 700 yards, even with a rifle.

Depends where your at... at top of 400ft TV tower with sniper rifle and you see AT missile pointed at that tower @700 ?
Not very much fun but couple of seconds intense action...

[sscoyote]

here's a better article--

http://www.fiveshot.org/guests/longrange.htm

I've recently measured the sight radius from rear sight to the rear of the front sight on my Ruger Target 22. We'll see if i can make 1st shots using a ballistics programs calcs relative to the MOA calcs of the scribed lines on my front sight at 200 yds. (each of the 3 "units" is ~25 MOA from rear sight...according to my calcs.)

[Bailey Guns]

Depends where your at... at top of 400ft TV tower with sniper rifle and you see AT missile pointed at that tower @700 ?
Not very much fun but couple of seconds intense action...

If I needed a hide it would be someplace with a pretty simple egress route. Not the top of a 400' tower that would take me probably 10 - 20 mins to climb down.

I can't imagine a scenario where a sniper would want to be in that position for a lot of reasons.

[sneakerd]

I see no practicality here. The front sight will totally obscure the target (and a large area around it) at far less than 700 yards. Don't know how you would actually hit anything, except by pure luck.

[Bailey Guns]

I've shot pretty much every handgun I have at 100 yds...maybe a little further. With a few "sight in" rounds I can get minute of torso pretty easy.

Don't know that I'd care to waste ammo, though, at 100 yds if I was in a defensive situation unless it was absolutely necessary. 700 yds? Definitely not. Personally I'd be looking for an escape route. The average bad guy...hell, even the above average bad guy, isn't going to be able to put shots on a moving target (yes, I'd be moving) at 700 yds even with a rifle.

I'd want to be pretty sure of hits before I started firing back as it's likely ammo supply would be a consideration.

[SA Friday]

We have a member at the BLGC range that specializes in long distance shooting of pistols, 1911s shooting factory 230gr ball ammo. He's put 4 out of 6 hits on an 8 inch plate at 400 yds with his pistol, with witnesses. His pistols are custom made, he makes them, and his front sight is made with yardage indicator lines on it. Its the way he sights it in and then calculates the yardage from there that's key to using his sight system. The sights are slightly higher than normal competition sights, but not very much. It IS a science to do this type of shooting; it's physics (bsllistics) combined with trigonometry, experimentation, and practice.

Banks, if Cody wants his contact info send me a PM and I can get it for you.

On a side note, what a horrible contract. Pistols only in a hot zone? Sounds like something simply not worth it.