Your Own Shooting Ability ? ? ?

[Winelover]

My, self imposed standard for handgun accuracy, is to be able to place a killing shot on a deer sized animal at 20 -25 yards. In a tree stand, that would be off hand. On the ground, like 45 2.1, prefer the sitting position, knees supporting handgun.

 

[freebullet]

I used to be able to hold 6" with the gp100 at 50yd offhand as long as I cared to shoot it. Cataracts robbed me of the ability.

It's probably a sad 15yd on a 4" target now. I did put 3 of 6 on an 8" plate with a nice fellers srh480 recently. I'll need some glasses or a scope to get back in to it. Same story for nonscoped rifles. I can see fine now but my ability to focus is gone forever. Ain't old enough Fer this nonsense yet.

 

[Ben]

I used to be able to hold 6" with the gp100 at 50yd offhand as long as I cared to shoot it. Cataracts robbed me of the ability.

It's probably a sad 15yd on a 4" target now. I did put 3 of 6 on an 8" plate with a nice fellers srh480 recently. I'll need some glasses or a scope to get back in to it. Same story for nonscoped rifles. I can see fine now but my ability to focus is gone forever. Ain't old enough Fer this nonsense yet.

Getting old is no fun.

Ben

 

[Cherokee]

I can't shoot handguns half as good as I once did. At 73 my ability to focus on sights and see a target is limited, plus the inability to really hold steady any more. I'm happy now with a 2" group at 7 yds. I only shoot rifles from some sort of braced position and can make 100 yd kill shots.

 

[Ben]

I can't shoot handguns half as good as I once did. At 73 my ability to focus on sights and see a target is limited, plus the inability to really hold steady any more. I'm happy now with a 2" group at 7 yds. I only shoot rifles from some sort of braced position and can make 100 yd kill shots.

I hope when I'm your age, I can do 1/2 as well.

Ben

 

[fiver]

ain't that the truth.
I can feel it slipping away year by year at this point.

 

[Ian]

I hope I make it to that age and still have a good quality of life. If I can still shoot at all it will be considered a bonus.

 

[Charles Graff]

I really have not done that is so long I could not say. I guess I could go out and try it, but I would be sorely tempted to lie about the results.

In 1964 with my Colt Gold Cup, I could keep 10 out of 10 in the black on standard 25 and 50 yard pistol targets, but goodness knows, I could not do that now. So, I will continue to live in the past and lie to myself that I can still can.

 

[Ben]

Charles,

You might end up with a better group than you'd think "?

 

[Brad]

64? Ummm, I was born in 66.
Charles, keep them in the white at 50 yards, the holes are far easier to see!

 

[Hawk]

As my grandmother used to say, "getting old ain't for sissies". She lived to be 96 and played Bridge until she was 93!
I'm with most of the older fellas on this board. Rear sights, front sights, target, I can sometimes get two out of three in focus, but all three is a thing of the past. Need glass on my guns to really be accurate.
Doesn't stop me from having fun shooting. Just harder to shoot the ears off the hostage target anymore with open sights.

 

[Rick]

Two out of three? About now I'd settle for one out of three. I can get prescription shooting glasses that will bring in sights OR target, forget both. Age, cataracts and 30 years with diabetes has me remembering the good old days and what was.

 

[fiver]

front sight, front sight, front sight.
as long as I focus on that I can keep the holes on the big blur in front of it pretty close together.

 

[Brad]

Yes, front sight. This is why I love my bifocal contacts. With glasses I had a strong target, weak front sight. The contacts are about perfect at handgun front sight distance and the target isn't bad either.
I gave up some on near and far clarity in favor of front dpsight distance perfection.

 

[Hawk]

I remember the good old days too. But you know what, I'm mobile, I've got a good wife, good guns to shoot, enough money to do the things that matter most to me.
Maybe this is the beginning of the best of the "good old days".

 

[Pistolero]

I'll leave this test for a few months from now. Going for cataract surgery
Monday, can't do anything close to what I used to be able to do anymore.
Praying for a second chance at iron sights, we'll see how it works out.

Got a lot of medals at 300m with that rig in my avatar, Swiss K31 with Swiss Products
target peep and target front. Would be able almost certainly hit the berm
at 300m today.

 

[Rick]

I had cataract surgery in both eyes about 12 years or so ago. It was without doubt the single best thing I've ever done and a complete life changer. Not so much for shooting but for life in general. For shooting it's like wearing prescription glasses, either reading glasses or distance glasses, pick one. Since I was driving a truck I went for good distance vision and now reading glasses are a must, can't hardly read the headline of the newspaper without them but distance is better than it had been in years because of the cataracts.

Good luck on Monday, hope it goes as well for you as it did for me.

 

[Pistolero]

Thanks, Rick. That is reassuring. I have had a number of friends tell me that it was between good and
great for them. Pretty scary, but at this point things are bad enough that I have to do something, and
clearly the odds are very good for a good outcome.

 

[JonB]

I kind of tested this very thing out last winter. The local Police setup to do Quals at our Club's range over a three day period. They had several classic poppers setup for various distances for shotgun slugs. The second morning, before they came back out to the range, I setup the classic popper closest to the 100 yd berm. The top of these classic poppers is about a 9" circle. I had my S&W 14 and a bag of WC's, that I loaded long before I started casting, they were Hornady swaged, unknown load. I started shooting at about 20 yards. The poppers were set heavy for 12 ga, so my 38's would just make a 'tink' and not knock it over. Anyway, I stepped back after each cylinder full...I started missing when I was at about 65 yards away. when I got back 100 yards, I'd still hit it once or twice out of 6.

So, my guess is (for pistol, iron sites, 4" Bull, 5 for 5) probably 25 yards.

I haven't shot iron site rifle enough in the last decade to know my ability, or lack there of.

 

[Ian]

Jon, wadcutters tend to start looping and wobbling past 50-75 yards, so your miss rate increase at longer ranges may not have been as much YOU as you thought.