ispcapt
US Veteran
Check the trajectory tables. Do some long range steel plate shooting. Those matches go out to 200 yds.
A 148 WC leaving the muzzle at 750 fps and with a 25 yd zero will drop about 20" at 100 yards.
Snubby practice distances
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A 148 WC leaving the muzzle at 750 fps and with a 25 yd zero will drop about 20" at 100 yards.
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I'll check the tables, but I was shooting at about a 60 degree or greater up angle out of a snub. Literally mortar shots. I 'walked them out to around the 80-90 yard range to make sure I kept them on my side of the berm.
Yep, about an 80 angle will drop them inside of 100 yards. I figured 725 fps. Probably wasn't quite getting that with my usual 2.7 gr. of Bullseye. It was almost 40 years ago. I don't get the range to myself any more.
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ispcapt
US Veteran
In addition to the trajectory tables you should check your angles. 80 deg angle is nearly straight up. 90 deg is shooting straight up overhead.
A 20" drop at 100 yds does not require a 60 deg angle of elevation. With a B-27 target resting the head on the front sight will drop the rounds into the COM on the target. Resting the head on the front sight the bullet will drop 20". That's not a 60 deg elevation.
I guess with your reasoning you could "mortar" a .38 at 10 yds distance by shooting with an 89 deg elevation.
Arik
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My handgun ranges are limited to 25y and the chance of me carrying a snubby is almost zero. But any gun I bring to the range I shoot at the max distance in double action. There is no disadvantage at being able to confidently and consistently hit a target at that distance. It makes you a better shooter at closer distances and a more confident one at longer distances. Im NOT trying to do headshots on hostage rescue, just center mass to stop a threat. Besides, when youre outside can you tell how far something is?
Look around your daily travels, can you say that object is 7, 10, 15, 17 yards away? My driveway is 60ft, thats 20 yards. Im currently buying a different house and that driveway is 115.97 feet as measured by google from the first step leading onto the deck to the steet. That is 38.6 yards.
Wherever you live whats the distance from your door to your trash, mailbox, car, garage. Store or church parking lot...... I just measured the distance from my door of a local grocery store to the middle of the 1st parking spot. This includes the road that always in between the store and the parking lot. The distance is 55.8 feet or 18.6 yards. One parking spot measures 8.9 feet/2.96 yards wide. So 2 parking spaces is a little under 7 yards and 3 spaces is almost 10 yards.
IF you want to know how to measure distance on google maps. Open it and select satellite view. Itll make more sense visually than using terrain view.
Right click on the spot you want to start. It will open a small window with different options such as "directions from here" or "....to here". Look all the way on the bottom and youll see the option for "measure distance" click on that. It will create a small white circle on the map. Click anywhere else on the map to create a second point. This will give you the distance between the two in feet and yards and eventually mileage. From here you can keep clicking and adding more points or move the original two points around, shorten them, extend them. If you want to close it, on the bottom center of the screen there is a white box with the distance written in, just click the X on the top right of that box
Look around your daily travels, can you say that object is 7, 10, 15, 17 yards away? My driveway is 60ft, thats 20 yards. Im currently buying a different house and that driveway is 115.97 feet as measured by google from the first step leading onto the deck to the steet. That is 38.6 yards.
Wherever you live whats the distance from your door to your trash, mailbox, car, garage. Store or church parking lot...... I just measured the distance from my door of a local grocery store to the middle of the 1st parking spot. This includes the road that always in between the store and the parking lot. The distance is 55.8 feet or 18.6 yards. One parking spot measures 8.9 feet/2.96 yards wide. So 2 parking spaces is a little under 7 yards and 3 spaces is almost 10 yards.
IF you want to know how to measure distance on google maps. Open it and select satellite view. Itll make more sense visually than using terrain view.
Right click on the spot you want to start. It will open a small window with different options such as "directions from here" or "....to here". Look all the way on the bottom and youll see the option for "measure distance" click on that. It will create a small white circle on the map. Click anywhere else on the map to create a second point. This will give you the distance between the two in feet and yards and eventually mileage. From here you can keep clicking and adding more points or move the original two points around, shorten them, extend them. If you want to close it, on the bottom center of the screen there is a white box with the distance written in, just click the X on the top right of that box
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I'm telling what I did and how I did it. It was a very long time ago. What I said happened the way I described it. The calcs I estimated matche up wiith what I did that day. And yes, my reasoning says if I shot it straight up it would land on my head.
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I've done quite a bit of 'surveying' on google earth. Distances around the neighbor hood, and the distance from the fairground midway to my house as the crow flies is .48 miles. It sounds like it's right next door.
ispcapt
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I'm sure that's what you believe. Sounds like you just flunked geometry and trig in school if you think it required a 60 deg angle.
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That's not nice one bit. I didn't say it required a 60 degree angle to send a wadcutter 80-90 yards. I said that I shot them at a steep angle to drop them nearly vertically at that range to imitate a mortar shot. I'm a mechanical designer and did very well in trig and physics in college thank you very much. I've tried to be civil but at this point I don't care if you think I'm wrong for repeating exactly what I did that day.
ispcapt
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I'll remind you what you wrote - saying your rounds wouldn't go past 80 yards.
You wrote this on July 7 -
" One time, though, when I was alone at the outdoor range, I tried some long range shooting of wadcutters. After a while I realized the the load wouldn't go past the berm so I started shooting it like a mortar, dropping the bullets almost vertical at 80 yards."
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Great Lord. Of course if I aimed above the berm I could have arced a wadcutter over it. But realizing that they were dropping so much I started a steep mortar shot probably 80 degrees that dropped about 50 yards to make sure it wouldn't go past the berm, even though there was nothing but National Forest on the other side. It hit about 50 yards and I walked a few more shots out to 80-90 yards. I didn't have a theodololite or transit, but I'm pretty good eyeballing angles so that's the best I can tell. The ballistic chart matches with my story.
Brownie0486
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Knowing my own prowess [ or lack thereof ] with a snub, I hold the distances to 5 yrds or less for defensive responses on my chest size plates standing at an average mans height. I've never taken the time to master a snub as I have mid and full size semi's. Nor care to.
At 5 yrds, I'm 100% accurate on threat [ somewhere COM ]. At 7 yrds, I'm not 100% and knowing that, I don't want to send lead past 5 yrds and have to answer for any misses that may harm an innocent.
Yes, that puts me in a bad way if someone starts the party at 7 yrds. Fortunately few DGU's are at 21 feet, most being inside 4 yrds or less. That's the chance I take to carry a 5 shooter in the back pocket that can be drawn and fired in 1 second, sometimes in the .90 seconds range.
At 5 yrds, I'm 100% accurate on threat [ somewhere COM ]. At 7 yrds, I'm not 100% and knowing that, I don't want to send lead past 5 yrds and have to answer for any misses that may harm an innocent.
Yes, that puts me in a bad way if someone starts the party at 7 yrds. Fortunately few DGU's are at 21 feet, most being inside 4 yrds or less. That's the chance I take to carry a 5 shooter in the back pocket that can be drawn and fired in 1 second, sometimes in the .90 seconds range.
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KarmannGhia
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My Dept required that I qualify with my back up(s). The course of fire went out to 25 yards. I practice with everything I carry out to 25 (642 and LCP included).
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I scared myself after a (forced) long layoff from shooting. My SD pistol skills got so rotten I wondered if I should ditch them in favor of a carbine until I improved. I'm a little better than minimal now.
Compass Will
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I used to shoot lever gun silhouette with a guy that could hit life size steel chickens with one a 200 yards, or at least close enough that i would not want to be standing there. He was not using wad cutters though.
ispcapt
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Not even close. Check you trig formulas again. I'm sure you believe what you want. Doesn't make it reality.
But what I do believe is you don't know what 80 deg is or how far a .38 will travel horizontally at that angle.
And I also believe that if you really are a mechanical engineer it clearly shows you don't know anything about trajectories or angles.
You can't even keep your story straight. First you angled at 60 deg. Then it's 80 deg. And neither will "mortar" a .38 to 100 yds. If you have someone who actually knows trig run the formula and then actually try long distance shooting you see the actual horizontal distance traveled is well over 100 yds.
But you've dug yourself into a hole by spouting off some yarn and now you've been caught. Give it up. Anyone who has actually done steel plate shooting at long distance knows your story doesn't hold water. You're embarrassing yourself and don't have the knowledge or experience to know it.
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I sight in at 25 yds, then practice my drills at 3’, 3 yds and 15 yds. Point shooting, and one handed (right and left), rapid movement getting off the X. Occasionally I’ll shoot out to 25 yds.
Brownie0486
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I just put the 148 grain at 750 per into the ballistic calculator set for a 25 yrd zero
At 100 it's down 23.77" near 2 feet
At 200 yrds it's down 122.88" near 10 feet
At the estimated 80 yrds his load would drop 13.5" Certainly not a mortar type trajectory by any stretch of the imagination
jakeintexas
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I do some contact drills on paper and some at 5-7 yards.
Most of it though is at 10-15 yards in that I usually shoot steel and 10 yards is my minimum safety distance.
Most of it though is at 10-15 yards in that I usually shoot steel and 10 yards is my minimum safety distance.
In my last job, before retirement, there was a co-worker who liked to butt in when adults were having discussions. A shooter friend and I were discussing this very subject, when Mike butted in and claimed that he had a friend that could hit a coke bottle, every round, from a snub nose at 100 yards. My biggest contention with him was his claim that he had a friend.
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I was just relating a funny story. I didn't include every detail at the outset nor did I expect it to be scrutinized like a scientific paper and it was decades ago. I didn't think the details were important enough for me to state precisely and have to 'prove' my story. I don't need to shoot steel to find out. I was at the range that day with snub loaded with wadcutters trying it at 100 yards. I think you'd do better not worry about my qualifications and address your own comprehension, because if what I described doesn't make sense, it's lacking. Sorry you don't believe me and think I'm wrong or making the whole thing up. I've done the best I can to explain.
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I don't own a short-barreled revolver, but I practice at ranges up to 50 yards and beyond with what I have. It seems to me that as remote (no pun) as the chance may be that someone will start shooting at me from an any distance, it would be well to have some idea of how and where my handguns will shoot.
It takes only about 30-35 foot pounds of energy to create a flesh wound, and many handguns can reach that number, even at longer ranges.
A co worker was in an area adjacent to a section of our town that was known for a shooting a day. It also had some good-looking hookers along one stretch of street.
He said he suddenly lost consciousness. No visible trauma, but we thought someone must have shot at him from a distance, and the energy had dropped enough so no penetration occurred.Somebody shot at me with a pellet gun...again, from a distance, and the round bounced off my car before it hit me. It didn't hurt..no penetration, and I could see no one within reasonable distance. But, I got my family into the car and left the area with "speed and enthusiasm!" Another time, my Air Force roommate and I were shooting our .22s in a rural area, with several members of a minority group about 100 yards away. My roomie yelled "Somebody's shooting at us!" We took cover, and the group left. Like the GUNSMOKE guy said;"It makes a man watchful, and a little lonely!" BE safe out there!
Ha!
It's actually pretty fun. Went on a little camping trip with my wife. We found an ad hoc rifle range up in the woods so I stopped and the only gun I had with me was a K frame 2" S&W M-15, the little Target stub nose and the only ammo 100 rounds of 38 special wadcutter target stuff.
I shot the 1st 6 shots to get the holdover range, there was an old tire out at 100 yards full of rainwater it was pretty fun when you'd get a hit the water went flying.
My wife was giggling after scoring some hits. This all the while standing Weaver style open sights of course. I was amazed how well she shot that little gun.
Of course that slow 158 grain ammo had a rainbow trajectory going but we dropped them in there. Can't remember the hold exactly but seems like it took all of the front sight & part of the base. Just like ol Elmer
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I don't own a short-barreled revolver, but I practice at ranges up to 50 yards and beyond with what I have. It seems to me that as remote (no pun) as the chance may be that someone will start shooting at me from an any distance, it would be well to have some idea of how and where my handguns will shoot.
It takes only about 30-35 foot pounds of energy to create a flesh wound, and many handguns can reach that number, even at longer ranges.
A co worker was in an area adjacent to a section of our town that was known for a shooting a day. It also had some good-looking hookers along one stretch of street.
Somebody shot at me with a pellet gun...again, from a distance, and the round bounced off my car before it hit me. It didn't hurt..no penetration, and I could see no one within reasonable distance. But, I got my family into the car and left the area with "speed and enthusiasm!" Another time, my Air Force roommate and I were shooting our .22s in a rural area, with several members of a minority group about 100 yards away. My roomie yelled "Somebody's shooting at us!" We took cover, and the group left. Like the GUNSMOKE guy said;"It makes a man watchful, and a little lonely!" BE safe out there!
Just because I train at 10 yards max doesn't mean it wouldn't be much better to be able to shoot accurately at longer ranges. So more power to you!
Brownie0486
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I've had airsoft 6mm plastic pellets break skin at the closer ranges during Fof courses. One embedded itself and had to be plucked out of my forearm. Now sure what they weigh but they're traveling around 350fpsI don't own a short-barreled revolver, but I practice at ranges up to 50 yards and beyond with what I have. It seems to me that as remote (no pun) as the chance may be that someone will start shooting at me from an any distance, it would be well to have some idea of how and where my handguns will shoot.
It takes only about 30-35 foot pounds of energy to create a flesh wound, and many handguns can reach that number, even at longer ranges.
A co worker was in an area adjacent to a section of our town that was known for a shooting a day. It also had some good-looking hookers along one stretch of street.
Somebody shot at me with a pellet gun...again, from a distance, and the round bounced off my car before it hit me. It didn't hurt..no penetration, and I could see no one within reasonable distance. But, I got my family into the car and left the area with "speed and enthusiasm!" Another time, my Air Force roommate and I were shooting our .22s in a rural area, with several members of a minority group about 100 yards away. My roomie yelled "Somebody's shooting at us!" We took cover, and the group left. Like the GUNSMOKE guy said;"It makes a man watchful, and a little lonely!" BE safe out there!
oldmanmontgomery
Member
One of my recent acquisitions is a pre model 10, square butt, 2 inch. The ammunition used hereafter is PPU .38 Special 158 grain stuff.
I first shot it at an inside range at about 7 yards to see where the sights hit. Pretty well centered.
Then I shot it in one of the informal but regularly scheduled matches at my club. (Outside range.) One of the stages required knocking down a rack of metal 'falling targets". I hit all of them, most first shot. I cannot recall any 'hold over'. This was about a month ago.
I seem to do my best work with a short barrel.
I first shot it at an inside range at about 7 yards to see where the sights hit. Pretty well centered.
Then I shot it in one of the informal but regularly scheduled matches at my club. (Outside range.) One of the stages required knocking down a rack of metal 'falling targets". I hit all of them, most first shot. I cannot recall any 'hold over'. This was about a month ago.
I seem to do my best work with a short barrel.
Timothy2700
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Some of the back and forth above reminds me of a project I worked on many decades ago.
The team was working on a specialized 155mm round and we built some ‘bullets’ with highly-instrumented internals. Data was to be collected at the end of flight, and thus it was important to find the round after it was fired. If one fired the tube at a normal elevation……the round would impact many 10’s of kilometers down range somewhere. We tested with the gun tube elevated at 89.9 degrees from horizontal, and it was still quite a drive across the desert for recovery ops. But at least the tracking cameras could see the dust cloud when it returned to Mother Earth.
My apologies to the OP for a non-response…
The team was working on a specialized 155mm round and we built some ‘bullets’ with highly-instrumented internals. Data was to be collected at the end of flight, and thus it was important to find the round after it was fired. If one fired the tube at a normal elevation……the round would impact many 10’s of kilometers down range somewhere. We tested with the gun tube elevated at 89.9 degrees from horizontal, and it was still quite a drive across the desert for recovery ops. But at least the tracking cameras could see the dust cloud when it returned to Mother Earth.
My apologies to the OP for a non-response…
I take an empty beverage can and throw it as far as I can. If I can hit it 1 or 2 times with my Smith model 60 I consider that good enough for what it’s for. 3/3/3.
