“Messin’ around shooting” with carry pistols

My friends and I, as a natural matter of course, sometimes try our carry or service pistols at 100 or even 200 yards. It’s always seemed to me an obvious thing to try. Why wouldn’t you?

And so when Oleg and I were out “messin’ around shooting” at various rocks, dirt clods, sticks and whatnot at various random distances, we did some 100 yard pistol shooting with our carry pistols (a 9 mmP and a 10 mm Auto).

I haven’t commented on this phenomenon before, but I’ve noticed that the point of hold for 100 yards with a Glock 20 isn’t much different from that at 25 yards. It was when Oleg, without any prompting, made the same observation regarding his 9 mm carry pistol that it occurred to me to say so in a post. Well here it is.

Oleg was striking a roughly 8″ square plate at 100 yards with successive shots from his 9mm Glock.

I don’t know what utility this sort of pistol shooting might have in defense, but it is good to know you can do it.

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6 thoughts on ““Messin’ around shooting” with carry pistols

  1. When I get to the point of being able to hit a newspaper at 25 yards (which right now is an iffy proposition) I’ll try the longer distances. Then again, it’s probably harder with a Boberg shortie than with the guns you mentioned.

    • I haven’t done any of what might be called scientific experimentation in this regard, but I would bet that you’ll be hitting that newspaper easily once you’ve given 100 yard shooting a serious and dedicated try using the same gun.

      It’s very easy to say “aim small, miss small” and understand what it means, but when your target actually is both small and far away, the phrase really gets taken to heart in new way.

      I can tell you that I’ve had several fairly new (and one or two not-so-new) shooters try their hand at 100 yard pistol. While without exception they were all reluctant to try it, and had to be talked into it, every one of them has ended up being quite impressed with what they could accomplish.

      The only thing that would necessarily make your shortie more difficult is the slightly shorter sight radius. That just means you have to be that much more careful with your sight picture.

      There’s a guy out there someplace, some years ago, who was into shooting balloons at 200 yards with a .38 snubbie.

  2. The defensive purpose is simple: if there is considerable range between you and your target, and you can hit at that range, you are safe in assuming your assailant probably can’t, so you win that gunfight. There was a well-publicized shoot, in VA IIRC, that proved this point.

    Back in the apolitical days of police work when I broke in as a Deputy Sheriff, we had to be able to get 5 out of six in the 3-or-higher scoring area of a #28 silhouette target at 50 yards to qualify with our .357 revolvers. We were trained to shoot this distance either prone or barricade-rest. I demonstrated doing it in the reclined sitting (Creedmore) position with my Ruger Security Six.

    • There was a shootout between a perp armed with a rifle and a cop with a handgun. An armed citizen with a handgun put the perp down from about 100 yards away with two to the chest.

      Also, keep in mind that you will shoot NO BETTER than about half as good, when it’s for real. So, if you can’t make the hits at 100 yards, you’ll never be able to make them at 50 yards when undere fire. 50 yards, against a perp with a .30-30 or slug-loaded shotgun (you might get into trouble in a rural area), is WELL within his effective range.

      On teh other hand, if you can make good hits at 100 yards, and your opponant has a handgun, chances are at 50 yards, he will be within your effective range while you will be at twice HIS effective range.

  3. I used to be able to hit bowling pins at 100 yd with a Rossi .357. I probably still could, but I’d need some optics on the Rossi so I could actually see the pins any more.

    • You could always shoot at something you can see, like paper grocery bags, silhouettes, or steel targets painted bright..

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