Range Report: Engaging a vehicle at 50yds with a pistol (pics/vids)

[indytechnerd]

This is why I strap remote control claymore mines on my kids front and back and teach them to put their hands on the head when confronted!

Overkill much? I mean, really...have your kids carry matching P3ATs like I do (well the girly girl gets pink grips, so they don't really match). The boy OC's, so he probably wouldn't get grabbed anyway, but the girl carries in her purse , someone will totally jack her for that gun one day. She doesn't listen though.

 

[JSeroka]

This is definitely something I am going to try, I have been shooting many log distance shoots in my mother's woods for years and believe I have become fairly competent at the 50 yard bench mark with my SW99 .40. This is a good test to actually put hard data behind should "I" ever attempt to engage someone from this distance or not.

Can't wait to head back out to the woods :-D

 

[esrice]

As far as knowing one's limitations and having confidence in your abilities. I agree 100% I am not trying to knock your test. I am sure it was a lot of fun and helped you to answer some questions. I also commend you on your accuracy, you certainly shot better than I could have.

I didn't take it as a knock at all. I enjoy having these discussions and seeing it from different perspectives.

As to disabling the vehicle. I didn't necessarily say I wouldn't shoot. At those distances I would maybe try for a front or back tire depending on the angle what ever one was forward of the passenger compartment to me at the time before shooting into the cab. I would just want to give myself the greatest amount of room for error.

Understandable. I will say that there was NO WAY I could've even attempted to be accurate enough to take a tire shot during the test. Even if I could, you then run into the issue of using a deadly force weapon in a situation where deadly force wasn't the intent. The old "why did you use a gun if you didn't feel that deadly force was warranted?"

And in saying. "The problem with practicing for this type of scenario is that its never going to be like you think. No matter how many factors you have thought of there will always be something you never considered." is not to suggest you shouldn't train but to be aware that in this type of situation Murphy's Law tends to be a great denominator.

Agreed. Mr. Murphy is just the icing on the cake for the many variables that are present during these kinds of scenarios.

 

[hoosierdoc]

I went to Atterbury today and pulled the target back 25 yards for the last portion. About half of my rounds hit the 12x12 target. I probably would have killed a few cats, my kid, a parakeet, and depending on the neighborhood, a lionfish. I'll stick to shooting bad guys in the head at 7 yards and work on my 40y time.

 

[Chefcook]

I didn't take it as a knock at all. I enjoy having these discussions and seeing it from different perspectives.



Understandable. I will say that there was NO WAY I could've even attempted to be accurate enough to take a tire shot during the test. Even if I could, you then run into the issue of using a deadly force weapon in a situation where deadly force wasn't the intent. The old "why did you use a gun if you didn't feel that deadly force was warranted?"



Agreed. Mr. Murphy is just the icing on the cake for the many variables that are present during these kinds of scenarios.

In the early 90's we had a farm in TN and I literally shot every single day. I was involved in shooting IPSC and trained a lot. We had a silhouette target that was a permanent fixture in the middle of a hay field we had clipped a florescent orange hunting cap to its head with clothespins, people used to drive by and wave at it LOL. Anyway I used to shoot at that target with my Beretta from in front of mom and dads garage it was easily 150-175 yards away and I got to where I could hit it mostly all the time. You could tell a hit from a miss because it was so quiet out there a hit sounded like "tick thud" while a miss just made a thud as it impacted the ground. I know this is a little off subject, but I know a handgun can be employed at great distance.

To speak towards Murphy or pressure or what not. We had a really bad wild dog problem out there. Our place was way out in the boonies and folks from places like Knoxville would instead of taking their unwanted animals to the pound would drive way out in the country and drop them off. It was not uncommon for these animals to be seen in packs of 15-20 and they commonly would kill our and our neighbors calf's and pigs. Pop and I were sitting on the porch drinking coffee when we heard a commotion and looked up to see silhouetted on the top of the ridge Big Momma (A really good cow we had a Gert Angus mix.) with her head down confronting what looked like several wild dogs defending her new born calf. She had just calfed 2 days before. I grabbed the Winchester mod 12 and headed up the hill while pop went for the tractor to follow. I managed to get up there before pop and was confronted by 5 animals, I shouldered the model 12 and fired. It was instinctive and very fast so much so that I didn't even realize I unloaded all 5 rounds until pop caught up with me. All I can say is it was a good thing most of the pack ran off after I shot because I only killed one animal. I had neglected to grab any extra ammunition and was standing there empty. I guess my point is I fired 5 rounds so fast instinctualy that I didn't even really remember firing them all, I thought I had fired maybe twice. That is what I mean by its never like you think its going to be. I had played that scenario out in my head a hundred times, but in my head I always had extra ammo and I shot slowly and methodically always knowing how many rounds I had fired...

 

[esrice]

Since iChokePeople had to be super observant and take me to task on the pistol I used for the test , I had to put out this next report a little sooner than I had originally anticipated.

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/handguns/179098-a_farewell_to_arms_glocks_specifically.html

Thanks again for all the replies in this thread so far!

 

[812homes4u]

Great range report. Good info.

 

[Kutnupe14]

First Esrice, "F'n" AWESOME report. You have a rep coming your way.

Secondly, you and the boys at the "woods," are obviously (after seeing the other postings of how often you shoot) in the seasoned shooter category. The skill sets you have are easily well above most gun owners (notice that I don't mention shooters) abilities. For the peanut gallery, that is very important to note. I have no qualms saying I'm not going to be able to hit crap at 50 years with a G27 after the adren dump. Take into account your abilities prior to being in a situation where you "wished" you had taken a few more hours at the range polishing your skill.

Again Esrice, awesome dude. It's stuff like this that makes being here pretty cool.

 

[esrice]

Again Esrice, awesome dude. It's stuff like this that makes being here pretty cool.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! My hope is that you learned something from it, because I sure did.

I'm forever a student and I love putting stuff like this to the test. Of course keep in mind that even though I tried to add some realism, I can't expect that kind of performance in the moment. But at least I know where my boundaries are.