distance of .........

[katfishinking]

i was watching one of those shooting shows on the outdoor channel a while back, they were talking about the 1911, .45. the host stated that they had a max. usefull range of about 75 yds. got me to wondering, what is the max. range of a .357, a .38, a 9mm., and a .380? I have carried all of the above, at 1 time or another. now I have an XDs in .45. well, actually springfield armory has it right now, as I have sent it in due to their recall. any help will be appreciated. thanks in advance.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Useful range is a combination of how accurate you can be with a given round out of a given gun and what you hope to accomplish.

Most handgun rounds can cause injury out to a mile or so, but almost all handgun rounds' energy drops off substantially with distance, and how much depends entirely on the ballistic coefficient of the bullet itself and the initial velocity. The slower the initial velocity, the shorter the distance. Because of this, the lower the amount of initial velocity and the worse the BC of the bullet, the less distance it can really be effective. Deer are regularly killed out to 100+ yards with a .44mag out of a rifle, but a .380 at 100 yards would be very lucky to do more than cause a bruise or put an eye out.


There are some target shooters who go out to about 200 yards with a handgun.

 

[9mmfan]

Most handgun rounds loose a whole bunch velocity after 100 yrds (as posted above). Some rounds, like the 357, 10mm and 38 Super are 'flat shooting'. Those rounds, being higher velocity than most handgun rounds, stay 'flat' out to a longer distance. My 10 mm Glock with 180 Gr fmj Underwood is dead on at 100 yrds. My 9mm Glock 19, even shooting Cor Bon or Gold Dot +Ps, drops off greatly at 100 yrds.

 

[Chewie]

Got to have 1 smart a$$ response...
Max usefull range is how far away you can hit what you are aiming at.
Max effective range is how far away will the chosen cartrdge perform the required task.
With a handgun (for me) both are no more than about 25 yards.

 

[cosermann]

Yup, two aspects here as others have mentioned; range at which you can reliably hit, and range at which the bullet runs out of steam to accomplish the desired task. Here's a handgun trajectory table that sort of addresses the former.

Handgun Trajectory Table

 

[j706]

On everyone of our pd's firearms training sessions I start everyone off at 95 yards unsupported offhand on a Bobcat Steel 12"×18" target. We use Speer 155 GD. You do not have to aim high and if you use the basic fundamentals hits will occur quite routinely. We do not advocate shooting at someone at that distance but use it to reinforce the basics and instill confidence. It works well btw. Distance handgun shooting is great fun.

 

[Hookeye]

IHMSA big bore is cool stuff.

 

[ru44mag]

Yup, two aspects here as others have mentioned; range at which you can reliably hit, and range at which the bullet runs out of steam to accomplish the desired task. Here's a handgun trajectory table that sort of addresses the former.

Handgun Trajectory Table

Thanks for the table of stats. Been a while since I did the comparisons. Pleasantly surprised to see 1000 FPS out of the .380 even if it is only pushing a 90 grain bullet.

 

[Leo]

IHMSA big bore is cool stuff.

My 10 inch, iron sighted .44VH Dan Wesson slammed a lot of 30 pound Ram silhouettes off the stands at 200 yards. I was only sharp shooter class. The guys that were good would slam them ALL down almost every time. I would say 200 yards is definately within the effective range of a .44 magnum. The guys with .454 casull freedom arms revolvers are probably good for at least another 50 yards.

I have seen Police officers who were real pistol lovers who could nail a stop sign sized target (don't even ask) pretty routinely at 100 yards with their .357 service revolver.

I think most people under estimate the distance a handgun can actually be used. Of course it takes a lot of skill building to get there.

 

[wolfman]

I can ring torso size and shape steel on a regular basis, (5 out of 7), with my SR1911 .45acp at 100 yds. The hits sound hard enough for me to think that a head shot would most likely be fatal, but am not sure how much damage a center of mass would cause, other than knowing it would have to more than just hurt.