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Old January 5, 2013, 12:58 AM   #1
ZVP
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when plinking with your revolvers?

At what approximate distance do you commonly shoot?
For me reguardless of caliber I normally find myself shooting at around 20 yards.
Random targets such as soda cans and water bottles are the easiest to quickly aquire and aiming just below the target hits are pretty easilly done. I have shot at Clay Pigeons at 80 to 90 yards and they quickly becaame VERY hard targets!
I know that revolver sights were supposed to be regulated spot-on at those longer ranges but believe me hitting with any regularity is hard
1 Maybe a 2 gallon bucket but Pepsi cans are pretty safe from me!
How about you guys?
Thanks,
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Old January 5, 2013, 01:39 AM   #2
Hawg
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I usually shoot around the same distance. Coke cans fear for their lives.
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Old January 5, 2013, 10:06 AM   #3
Doc Hoy
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That is about right for me too ......

....and I get 100% accuracy. (My rounds always hit the ground......eventually)

Actually, I hear a collective chuckle from the coke cans.
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Old January 5, 2013, 10:25 AM   #4
Beagle333
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Can shootin', I'm usually 25-35 feet, depending on where I'm standing in the yard.
While I love the smoke and sparks, I like to actually hit em and I can't draw, aim, and fire with one hand while standing, and hit a coke can at 20 yards often enough to make me feel happy about it.
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Old January 5, 2013, 10:55 AM   #5
WildBill45
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There are no rules for plinking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are no rules for plinking!!! No crying either!!!

The whole point to plinking is to plink, and to become more skilled at shooting. Run the gauntlet and shoot at all ranges from mere feet to 100 yards or more! Back in my Navy days as Lemoore Naval Air Station, I used to shoot at running jack rabbits with my Colt S.A. Army, 5 1/2 tube at 100 yards or more!!! I also used to draw and fire hitting pebbles on the ground from just in front of where I stood and beyond. It IS PLINKING, JUST DO IT as a Nike, Madison Ave. exec would say!!!!

I am still kicking my own backside for selling that one!!!!

Lighten up, and just have some good ole American fun with that gun ... SHOOT!
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Last edited by WildBill45; January 5, 2013 at 10:56 AM. Reason: add sentence
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Old January 5, 2013, 11:55 AM   #6
deerslayer303
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I guess about 25 feet for me too. I like ringing the steel. I also have one of those yellow steel thingys that you throw on the ground and shoot it, it hops around and rolls and stuff The fun part is to try to hit it before it stops rolling. Then I get so into it that I forget what chamber I'm on and "oh crap, then its a pale rider style cylinder swap" and back to rolling it around. I like to hop golf balls around too. Once at my old range I was shooting the steel 100 yard silhouette with the inline and I thought hmmmm. So I got the ROA out and aimed at the head of it, and I'll be dong gone if I didn't hit it......TING! But mostly I like shooting closer.
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Old January 7, 2013, 12:15 PM   #7
ZVP
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Wild Bill brought up a good point "Plinking is shooting at various distances" and he's right! I think of shooting cans ans stuff as plinking but it's not just the target, it's the whole experience so to speak...
Golf balls are really fun but ya gotta be carefull what ya shoot em with! I once shot one with a pellet rifle and it sent the pellet back at me full velocity!!! Real guns and bigger bullets simply launch the ball off.
SOmeday just to make a mess, I'm gonna blast a wet toilet paper roll..
I do think that 25 to 60 feet is a good distance. You can hit cans even if you wobble a lot like I do!
Back when I first got into BP Revolvers I had a heck of a time accepting their group sizes, coming from the world of precision adult air rifles that stack their pellets up. 3" to4" groups always seemed like something was wrong but now I see how load variances and agriculturial sights make for bigger patterns.
I figgure the Human heart is roughly 4" and hits within that circle wouls likely please Wild Bill Hickock!
I have one revolver, a Uberti London Colt copy, that stacks balls into 1" at 7 yards! I can't explain it because the sights are so vague a simple notch and brass pin. It's OK with me cause I really feel good shootin that one. My 5 1/2" Remington also shoots pretty tight! It outshoots it's full sized Brother.
Thanks for the replies guys!
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Old January 8, 2013, 11:22 PM   #8
Gatofeo
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I do all my shooting at 25 yards, whether target or plinking. I measure it with a 100-foot tape measure.
I do all my pistol shooting at 25 yards, even with my .38 Special snubnose. Old habits learned in the U.S. Air Force Security Police die hard.
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Old January 29, 2013, 01:21 PM   #9
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I shoot at 25 and 50 yards, the usual N-SSA distances.

Steve
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Old January 29, 2013, 01:30 PM   #10
stepmac
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Plinking is one of the great joys of life. I shoot at all distances, pebbles at
10', beer cans at between 20 and 200'. Long range plinking is fun. You will find, much to your surprise, that with the proper sight picture you will be able to worry and even hit beer cans at 200 yds. Shooting at a stump, sticking out of a puddle or lake at 200 yards is about as much fun as it gets.

My favorite pistol round is a .22 mag out of a Ruger Single Six. They shoot very hard and flatter than the standard LR. While I don't plan to shoot anybody soon, if I had to do it, the 22 mag would be a killer.
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Old January 29, 2013, 01:51 PM   #11
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With the revolver, I usually shoot at different ranges between 20 feet and 20 yards, depending on where I set the target out in the yard and how much wind we have...gusty crosswinds open up my groups in a hurry. I live up at the top of a hill and sometimes the wind gusts up out of the holler in back.
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Old January 30, 2013, 12:22 PM   #12
woodnbow
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From handshake distance out to 100 yards mostly, occasionally I'll put up a gong and try to ring it out at 200 yards or so... The local range has an elk gong at 400 yards, that can be entertaining as well.
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Old January 30, 2013, 03:27 PM   #13
10851Man
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Having spent 20 years in law enforcement, I tend to do all my shooting at 21 feet with emphasis on speed and placement. While I have shot out to 75 yards, it isn't a likely self-defense scenario. Under California law, a target at such a distance would likely be considered to not have the present ability to carry out a harmful act, one of the many 'tests' for a legal shooting...FWIW
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Old January 31, 2013, 02:32 AM   #14
DD4lifeusmc
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shooting distance

I have my range set at 10 yd increments to 75 yd.
Most of time with 8" remington 10 or 20 yds depending on the target.

I've always questioned the theory the pistols were made to be "spot" on at 75 yd.
More like 75 ft I would believe.
A minor waver of the barrel at 20yd is magnified many times over the farther out you go.

I use the 8 in remington and the 9" walker out to 30 yds.
Then I move up to the 44 carbine 18" barrel
Then the .50 cal CVA plains rifle or for really long shots th .54 sharps.
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Old January 31, 2013, 09:29 AM   #15
Noz
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Plinking ,to me, implies walking through the woods, down a deserted road or around an old garbage dump shooting at targets of opportunity. No set range, just shoot what you see. From point blank to "I'll bet you can't hit that".
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Old February 1, 2013, 04:09 PM   #16
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8 to 100 yards if available otherwise 8 to 25 yards. Everything from little balloons hanging from a string to 8 oz plastic bottles filled with water to little plastic pill bottles filled with sand. Shooting buddy and I shoot timed fire at various angles and random distances I have to make my adjustments on the fly. It pays off when you are rabbit hunting. Hit a pill bottle with a 22 and it flies right nicely, hit the same bottle with a ball from your Walker and round ball and it disappears in a brown puff of dust. More fun but harder to clean up the yard afterwards.
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Old February 1, 2013, 08:03 PM   #17
Beagle333
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Quote:
hit the same bottle with a ball from your Walker and round ball and it disappears in a brown puff of dust. More fun but harder to clean up the yard afterwards.
That's why you call up a buddy, tell him to get out his .38 (or whatever he shoots) and you'll come over for some shooting time and you'll bring your Walker and let him shoot it a couple of times, and then you go shoot in his yard.
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