I spent a bunch of years shooting those 200 meter metal targets and it's a bunch of fun. Always used a 44 mag. Killed one black bear at 200 yards with the Super Redhawk but that's as far as I've ever shot a game animal at with a handgun. Eyes are gone now for any long range open sight shooting.
Read a book about a fella shooting the 357 when it first came out out to a thousand yards. Looks like you'd have to hold just a little left of the moon to hit anything that far out. What the heck was his name. Born and raised in Montana and spent his life shooting stuff thrown in the air with S&W revolvers. Boy this getting old is the dickens. Of all the things I've lost I miss my mind the worst. Does Ed MacGivern bring back any memories.
I had to go look it up.
Edward ('Ed') McGivern (
1874-
1957) from
Lewistown, Montana, was a famous exhibition shooter, shooting instructor and author of the book
Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting. McGivern also performed extensive research into the art of handgun shooting, particularly with the
double action revolver.
Exhibition shooting
Ed McGivern is renowned as one of the best handgunners that ever lived. His
Guinness world record for "The greatest rapid-fire feat" (set in August 20,
1932 at the
Lead Clube Range,
South Dakota) still stands. This feat consisted of "firing two times from 15 feet five shots which could be covered by a silver half-dollar piece in 45/100's of a second".
Mr. McGivern was capable of many amazing shooting feats, most of them well documented in his book.<sup id="cite_ref-fast_0-0" class="reference">
[1]</sup> To name just a few:
- He could break six simultaneously hand thrown clay pigeons (standard trap targets) in the air before they hit the ground.
- He could hit a tin can hand thrown 20 ft. in the air six times before it hit the ground.
- He could shoot-drive a tack or nail into wood.
- He could shoot the spots out of playing cards, or even split a playing card edge on.
- He could shoot a dime on the fly.
All of these executed with either hand using a factory
Smith & Wesson M&P double action revolver (puportedly his favorite handgun).
Competition shooter
Jerry Miculek has attempted, and broken, some of McGivern's long standing records, such as the record for 60 shots fired from 10 revolvers. Miculek is one of the world's fastest revolver shooters, holding a number of records, such as 8 shots (from an 8 shot revolver) in 1 second, but his attempt to beat McGivern's 5 shot record resulted in a time of .57 seconds.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference">
[2]</sup> A testament to McGivern's ability was the fact that the 5 shot record was set in 1932, when McGivern was 58 years of age. Soon after that point,
arthritis ended McGivern's competitive shooting career.<sup id="cite_ref-fast_0-1" class="reference">
[1]</sup>