Looking for tips for .44 mag 100yard shooting

[Radarsonwheels]

I consider myself a decent shot with a pistol- fairly consistant, no flinching. My recent experience shooting a pistol at 100 yards has been humbling! I usually shoot a variety of pistols from 15 to 50 yards and group well. I just got a scoped .44 magnum (2x nikon on a 7.5" barrel ruger super blackhawk) and today I got the scope close and pushed it out to 100 yards.

Here's a six shot 15 yard group


And here's the rest of the ammo I brought with me shot at a big target at 100 yards. I will admit fatigue set in a little bit and my hand was not rock steady toward the end. I didn't want to walk back and forth and figured a lot of shots would give a good idea of how I was doing. I shot close offhand standing but 100 sitting with my elbows on my bag. The gun was not resting on anything.


I often mixed a fired case into the cylinder to check for a flinch and was happy to be staying on target pretty well when the hammer fell. Im a little baffled by the general tendency for the long range group to be low and right. My 15 yard groups were very tight and slightly low left (as pictured), the 50 yard groups were slightly high and a little loose (offhand standing). The only thing I can figure is that the bullet must be crossing the point of aim around 60 yards diagonally left to right and hitting the highest poi around 50 yards before beginning to fall?

Im shooting 18g AA#9 under a plated flat nose 230g bullet in mag cases- should be hotter than a special but not a crazy full house load. I havent chrono'd this load or done ocw work yet, just starting to get my wrist in shape for this.

My instinct is to dial my poi up and left to try and get the group more centered on the 10 ring, then start with a fresh wrist and bring my spotting scope next trip and start at 100 yards. This is all new to me I never tried to shoot 'long' range pistol before!

Any tips thoughts or strategies are more than welcome thanks!

Radar

[Radarsonwheels]

If it helps any this load felt hotter than blazer alum ammo but not quite as hot (almost) as federal american eagle.

[mike12_nguyen]

Man that's pretty good at a 100yds, I wouldn't even hit paper...

[bogey1]

Man that's pretty good at a 100yds, I wouldn't even hit paper...

Agreed. A man sized target is pretty good at that distance, especially standing, w/o a rest. I,m pretty good at 85yrds with my mod29 8 3/8 barrel. If i know where i'm hitting, a beer can is no problem.

[pennlineman]

A sight adjustment up an to the left would have place about 22 of your rounds inside the 9 ring. If you can keep them all in the nine ring on that target you'd be deadly on deer.

Long range pistol shooting like that takes a lot of focus. Like Mike said, you're not doing bad. Maybe a little more time between strings not letting yourself become fatigued. Sometimes with powerful guns it is best to limit the number of rounds you fire per session. Work on getting a steadier position. It could even be the ammo, you may need to work up that shoots well in your gun. This of course would require reloading.

[GeneCC]

Man that's pretty good at a 100yds, I wouldn't even hit paper...

With a handgun, offhand. Certainly.

[smoke-wagon]

I've only shot my 4" python and 5" ruger mk III at 100 yards once and I must say it was a challenge. Standing offhand and iron sights took me around 20-25 .357 to figure out the front sight holdover but I did not have a spotter and the bullets impacted too fast to see where they landed in the dirt but out of my 35 .357 I put about 3 on a paper plate and one very close to the quarter sized bullseye.
I could see your wrist fatigue playing a roll with your elbows resting on the bench because your wrists are taking the full impact so I prefer standing offhand, using a monopod or sitting with my back supported and my arms supported between my legs.

With the .22 it was a different story all together. The round impacted so slow that I had time to look up with the lack of recoil and walk the rounds onto the water bottles but it did help that poa and poi were very similar out to 100 yards.

I'd also say that your groups are so good at 15 yards because your comfortable and experienced at that distance, uncertainty does funny things to your confidence and once you get inside your own head and over think it that's when it's time to pack it up or go back to a comfortable distance and rebuild confidence.

[robert slabaugh]

Looks like pretty good shooting to me. 100 yards is a long way with a pistol!

[Steve in PA]

Practice, practice, practice.

I routinely shoot my scoped Super Redhawk at 100 yards. It wears a Bushnell 2-6x scope and will usually shoot a 3" group at that distance from a rest.

That said, I blew a 75 yard shot at a doe during the second week of deer season here. Thought I had a good rest, but I yanked the trigger, shooting right underneath her.

[Delkal]

After shooting that many rounds of .44 mag you are going to be a little "punchy". Even if you say your not flinching.

Start out fresh and do some 5 shot groups. Concentrate, and take a minute between shots. Your groups should improve dramatically.

When I'm shooting my (hot) .45 Colt loads my groups always open up towards the end of the box (and I don't mind recoil).