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| PX4 Storm .45 |
I love guns and I love shooting. I like the look and feel of the firearms themselves and the challenge of the shot, I like the satisfaction of getting well on the target as well as the concentration and calm in the midst of explosion. There's a strange mixture of stillness and adrenaline to it that appeals, at least to me. Then there's the benefit of getting out in the countryside; it's a fine thing to be out there in the fields and brush with the guns, at a distance from the rush of the world. Still, with all that and more in mind, I won't pretend that I'm some sort of great shot. More like a decent priestly average.
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| filthy little beast |
So after an hour or so of banging away at my old enemy, the steel plate ram and its lesser ally, the steel plate turkey, offhand iron sights at 50 and 100 yards with an AR (CMMG), I didn't expect to hit the ram with my .45 at 100 yards. After all, I'd never shot out to that range with a pistol before and the adversary was little more than a grayish blur of rust against the brush backstop of the berm.
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| somewhere, to the right of the 'silhouette' is a steel ram... |
A round in the chamber later I lined up the sights slightly high on the metallic beast and squeezed off a shot, by instinct more than anything else. Lo and Behold! A satisfying plink of bullet on metal. Somewhat amazed, I fired off two magazines and was rewarded with 4 hits, the last shots being wasted due to lack of concentration and shooting high.
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| make safe and for goodness sake, LSP, don't shoot the fridge |
People mostly shoot their pistols, I think, at anywhere from 5 - 25 yards, something like 18 being the average. Fair enough, they're probably practicing at the range they think they'll use the weapon at and it makes sense to get good at those distances. Still, I discovered there's a whole lot of enjoyment in going for the ridiculously unfeasible long shot and, unless I'm mistaken, the .45 shoots oddly flat.
At the nearest opportunity I plan to load up on Walmart's cheapest (TulAmmo... look, I apologise) and do it all over again.
Shoot straight,
LSP
"...decent priestly average"? My friend, you're likely to win the priestly Olympics in all event relating to fire arms. Let us keep practicing.
ReplyDeleteThat's very kind! Come on out for a shoot later this month. All about rounds downrange.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. You must have a very steady hand!
ReplyDeleteI'd never thought of trying something like that. I don't have a 45 but next time I'm out I'll try it with my 357. Be interesting to compare a 357 round with a 38...
Try out the 357 -- you might be surprised at how well you do. Great fun.
ReplyDeleteHave a blessed Sunday.
Long Range Handgun Silhouette is fun. I use my .375 H&H Mag or .223 Ackley Improved for such porpoises :-)
ReplyDeleteBang
Clang
Bang
Clang
...etc...
.44 Mag is a reliable round out to 250-300 in a Super Blackhawk, FWIW. .357 Remington Max is a way superior round to .357 for longer range work and not a bad deer round, .35 Rem ain't bad either, and .243 makes a pretty good pistol round or any of the other bench-resty ~6mm rounds. .300 Bellm is good as are .30-06 and .303 Brit. Depends on recoil tolerance and noise tolerance if you use significant braking/porting.
BTW, pro-tip: Brakes and ports should point to the sides and up unless you like a faceful of debris from bottom ports/brake outlets that ODDLY are sold on many high powered handguns.
Prone or bench you get a face full of garbage along with the loud noises, so if you get one done wrongly like that, safety glasses are a must. Friend in Oregon has always liked .270 and he's back on targets and hunting/varminting with a 18.5" barrel .270 pistol.
Oh, interesting thing. .460 S&W is about as brutal to shoot as my .375H&H Mag pistols but doesn't carry the energy. Big bullet but slow. It's like an expensive to shoot version of my .45-70 pistols. Comedy bonus (I'll be damned if I've ever seen .460 or .500 S&W on ANY STORE SHELVES IN TEXAS that weren't reduced recoil loading. Neither one of them holds a candle to a lot of rifle caliber long range pistols we've built (friend's most recent brain fart is a .50BMG pistol that's pretty shootable but makes my elbow hurt from the bench) but it's the same game with magnum 12 gauges. Only duck and goose hunters actually push the max ballistics on 3.5" magnum 12 gauge (the round that basically killed the 10 gauge with comparable ballistics for stalkers of wildfowl).
ReplyDeleteGrain of salt, I know what field loads I like for dove and quail and don't duck hunt and like 16s because they swing nicer and I'm also bigoted at having enormous heavy pistols when you don't push them to make the weight a good idea. In gunsmith college a friend of mine built a blackhawk size revolver that fired 5 rounds of HIS cartridge that basically duplicated what is now .500 Alaskan. First one blew to bits in the test chamber, but he figured out appropriate steels. Long time ago in a decade called the late 80s or early 90s I saw his gf knock herself out shooting it. He told her "FIGURE OUT WHERE THE GUN IS GOING TO GO AFTER IT FIRES" and she ignored him and landed the hammer spur on her forehead and crumpled. She lived with no permanent injury but I don't think she has lived that down yet :-)