I had the opportunity a few weeks back to shoot a HiPower with tangent sights. [rear sight is like that on many military rifles, except this one was 50-500 meters].
Now, having hunted deer and hogs with .357 and .44 magnum handguns for many years, I knew certain handguns can have quite a surprising effective range. Guess I never thought of 9X19 as a long range caliber, but the HiPower opend my eyes. Was able to hit gallon sized paint cans at well over 100 yards consistently and also, it was fairly close out to about 200.
So then yesterday I thought I'd try it with a few other pistols that wouldn't generally be thought of as long range guns. I looked up the ammo manufacturers bullet drop tables and just aimed over the targets correspondingly. The targets were gallon milk and Clorox jugs at 100 yards, shooting using a tree as a rest.
S&W model 10 .38 special with 125 grain Rem +P JHP's . . . 30% hits
Model 642 with same ammo . . . no hits, but one really scared milk jug.
CZ 75 BD with 115 grain WWB 9mm . . . 50% hit
Wilson CQB 1911 with WWB .230 grain JHP . . . 20% hit
and the real surprise . . .
Bersa Thunder .380 with 95 grain WWB . . . 60% hit.
In all cases the misses were not off very much judging by the dust puffs around the bottles.
It's unnatural to aim so high for many of these shots unlike the Hi Power Capitan with it's adjustable sight, but once you get the hang of it not difficult.
Guess that debunks the "most handguns are only useful to about 25 yards" fable. Anyhow it was good practice and much fun. Thought I'd share.
Now, having hunted deer and hogs with .357 and .44 magnum handguns for many years, I knew certain handguns can have quite a surprising effective range. Guess I never thought of 9X19 as a long range caliber, but the HiPower opend my eyes. Was able to hit gallon sized paint cans at well over 100 yards consistently and also, it was fairly close out to about 200.
So then yesterday I thought I'd try it with a few other pistols that wouldn't generally be thought of as long range guns. I looked up the ammo manufacturers bullet drop tables and just aimed over the targets correspondingly. The targets were gallon milk and Clorox jugs at 100 yards, shooting using a tree as a rest.
S&W model 10 .38 special with 125 grain Rem +P JHP's . . . 30% hits
Model 642 with same ammo . . . no hits, but one really scared milk jug.
CZ 75 BD with 115 grain WWB 9mm . . . 50% hit
Wilson CQB 1911 with WWB .230 grain JHP . . . 20% hit
and the real surprise . . .
Bersa Thunder .380 with 95 grain WWB . . . 60% hit.
In all cases the misses were not off very much judging by the dust puffs around the bottles.
It's unnatural to aim so high for many of these shots unlike the Hi Power Capitan with it's adjustable sight, but once you get the hang of it not difficult.
Guess that debunks the "most handguns are only useful to about 25 yards" fable. Anyhow it was good practice and much fun. Thought I'd share.