I know guys at the range shoot their .45s at around 7-10 yds and I understand statistics in a combat or home invasion situation but I just went to the range yesterday and as normal to me, I shoot in the rifle range section and I consistently shoot out at scattered targets at 100yds. I've fired over a million rounds over the years and a book I read by Elmer Keith "Hell, I was There" about 20 yrs ago is what started me instinctive shooting and shooting with a gun in each hand or ambidextrous and shooting skeet. It was just like Elmer Keith said, ya miss a lot and then ya get lucky every now and then and then ya lucky a little more often and then ya start hitting them and over time of shooting ALOT, it will start to become regular and it did.
Now, back to the .45. Using my son's Caspian, my son shoots different then I so I had to take a few shots to see where he sits his sights and I immediately compensated. Now guys. I shot 3 deer 3 years in a row with a loose scope once and tightened it up on the 4th year so ya can't tell me ya can't compensate. Not to mention that my weapon's receiver in the military was bent and I always aimed to the left. (What? I'm not a complainer is why I didn't trade it in)
Anyway, I can consistently shoot groups out at 100 yds with several different hand guns. The thing for me is, I can hit further than that but depending on the weight and trigger pull of the individual hand gun starts to become an issue being steady and if there is a heavier trigger pull. I'm sorry but I use to quick draw at 35 yrds til I shot next to my foot once at the 35 meter and 50 meter targets but they became just not challenging enough is why I went out to 100yrds.
If you can think it, it's possible. There's always a way.
I can remember watching the person who trained me with firearms doing as ( cz52jim ) stated shooting what seemed BS distances till i found out hey this is possible 100+ yards skeet sized group with 45 or how about this put the filter of a cigerette stuck in a picked fence with a marble on top of that shoot the filter then the marble before it hit the ground with B-B pistol OR salt tablets ( MILITARY ) with b-b pistol watched many a $$$'s passed with those
This is not good, not good at all. Glad the woman was not hurt, and I'd like to know more about the shooting situation (how did this happen).
I bought my first .45 (got lucky and found a Ruger SR1911) a few weeks ago. Haven't shot it yet, but I'm looking forward to a good time at the range. I'll keep this incident in mind as I acquire the sight picture....
I am not sure, but when I was in the Marine Corp I was taken out to a range with a .45 and man size targets set up at 400yds and after the third or fourth shot, I would not want to be standing on the side of that hill, because we started hiting the targets.
Typically do not train on targets at a hundred yards but can hit them quite well. Just a function of practice and knowing your weapon. At a hundred yards I am just using the pistol to get to a rifle.
I don't know how far a .45 slug will travel, but when I was in the Army I had to qualify with a .45. These old guns were so worn out, that standing in front of me may have been the safest place to be. Being a surveyor at
the time, we were authorized .45's. It's been a while, but it seems like we were shooting at about 25 yards.
After the first group, I discovered that I hit the top left of the target (these are silhouettes on
rectangular cardboard)once. So from then on, I shot towards the bottom right corner and was grouping them
rather well for an old worn out gun.