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The farthest shot you’ve succecfully made...

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I don’t shoot much past 120yards unless I’m at a rondy, then I’ll shoot out to 300 yards at a metal gong, which is normally an easy score for me.What’s the farthest your club shoots? I’ve got an article that is kind of interesting to read, it’s the farthest shot recorded by a Brown Bess.. I’ll be it sounds far fetched and luck most surely played a large part.. but non the less here it is... what do you fellas think?
https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/10/long-shot-september-1776/
 
I don't shoot past 100 yards with my muzzle loaders simply because my main use for them is hunting, and I like my shots close to insure a clean kill. Most often I keep my shots at 50 yards. Just a preference thing.
 
My thoughts exactly.. I don’t like chasing deer all over and want a clean, ethical kill. However,I don’t mind shooting at gongs and things I’m not going to wound rather than kill. So with that being said 300 yard 30 inch gong is doable for me.
 
Today I think nothing of ringing steel at 300 or maybe 500 yards with a adjustable peep front globe sight, a 45 caliber paper patched bullet and a steady rest, but find I can think of no WOW moment shots with that type of setup. Pretty much repeatable time after time.

The one long distance shot I made and remember was when I was maybe not quite 10 years. Old man used to take me to the rifle range on Sunday afternoons. I had a Model 34 Remington 22RF and he would give me ammo one box of 50 at a time and let me shoot away, loading a single shot at a time (there was a tube feed that I was not allowed to use). A brick of 500 rounds didn’t last long.

My favorite target was at 300 yards. A metal frame that held a large military type target. I learned how to aim at a rock well above it on the hillside and drop many of my shots into the black (remember the black being at least a foot in diameter). Also learned how to play the wind. If no paper target, would shoot at rocks (you could hear when hit) and probably learned the most doing this.

Well there were a couple of guys who used to shoot muzzleloaders, all original, or at least that’s what we were told. One guy had a Bess that I asked if I could shoot every time I saw him. He and the old man finally gave in and said go ahead. I was astute enough to insist on a full charge. I had been disappointed when shooting other guns and knowing immediately I had been given a reduced load.

So the loaded Bess is placed on cross sticks, the stock is under my arm (couldn’t reach the trigger with the butt on my shoulder), the old man was behind me to support the butt of the stock. My intended target? The 300 yarder. Everyone laughed, but I insisted. The owner of the gun told me to aim above the target, way above. I told him I knew that. More laughter. So I aim down the barrel, picking an aim point even higher up the hill than my ‘aiming’ rock before I pull the trigger. Cloud of smoke, then nothing. After what seems like an eternity, the entire metal target stand spins 180 degrees and flops over in a cloud of dust. Bullseye. I got it. I am big man on campus and no one is laughing or knows what to say.

Turns out that big orb of lead hit one of the legs supporting the target stand to knock it over. Left a big dent in that piece of angle iron. I wanted to try again. The old man was smart enough to say that was enough for the day. No way to make it any better. He got the return on his investment of a brick of 22s every time we went shooting.

50 plus years ago and still my best and most memorable long distance shot.

Sorry for the long story, but you asked....
 
I’ve got an article that is kind of interesting to read, it’s the farthest shot recorded by a Brown Bess.. I’ll be it sounds far fetched and luck most surely played a large part.. but non the less here it is... what do you fellas think?
https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/10/long-shot-september-1776/

Bullet drop for a .69-.71 caliber. round ball from a Musket would have been around 27 feet or more at 350 yards according to the calculator I used and there is NO way the Soldier would have known that. There is no way the soldier would have known how to aim far enough above the British Soldier and unless there were trees or a hill behind the British Soldier, there would have been no aiming point.

Also at that range, wind would have disturbed the flight of even that large of a round ball, but Martin doesn't even mention if there was any wind.

The article mentioned two mistakes made by the author, Joseph Plumb Martin, in his story.

If the "old six-feet barrel" was actually a RIFLE barrel and Martin improperly called it a "Musket" instead of a rifle, then it at least somewhat comes out of pure fantasy into the realm of barely possible and that by the sheerest good fortune/dumb luck.

Gus
 
Bullet drop for a .69-.71 caliber. round ball from a Musket would have been around 27 feet or more at 350 yards according to the calculator I used and there is NO way the Soldier would have known that. There is no way the soldier would have known how to aim far enough above the British Soldier and unless there were trees or a hill behind the British Soldier, there would have been no aiming point.

Also at that range, wind would have disturbed the flight of even that large of a round ball, but Martin doesn't even mention if there was any wind.

The article mentioned two mistakes made by the author, Joseph Plumb Martin, in his story.

If the "old six-feet barrel" was actually a RIFLE barrel and Martin improperly called it a "Musket" instead of a rifle, then it at least somewhat comes out of pure fantasy into the realm of barely possible and that by the sheerest good fortune/dumb luck.

Gus
Agreed sir
 
1,000 yards prone. For off hand, we enjoy seeing what we can do on steel targets at 500 yards.

Fleener
 
I love stories and that certainly is a good story. The author makes several guesses/assumptions. I'll make a couple of my own. To call the gun used an "old" anything hints to me what was being shot was not a standard military piece. And, sending an "express' hints the projectile may have been something other than a musket ball. That the shooter offered indicates he had something that made him believe he had the ability to make that shot. I'm kinda surmising the gun used was some type of big game firelock shooting an elongated projectile from a rifle barrel. Still, from the information given, it would have been a heck of a lucky shot. Either was, good story.
 
Very interesting thread. At targets on the rifle range the farthest I've shot is 100 yards as that is where the berm is located. The best I could ever do, with at least two rifles was just under 4" for 5 shots. On normal days forget it.

I have killed two deer at something over 100 yards. This happened in a huge farm field where deer would show up near the edge in late afternoon. The closest I could get was behind some hay bales out in the open. The bales made excellent rests; otherwise I'd have had at least some trouble pulling it off. This happened on two different days with two different rifles, both .50 flintlocks. Penetration was through & through on both and they dropped within a few yards. My average shot on deer is probably not much past 25 yards; perhaps between 20 yds and 35 yds.
 
Greatest delight at long range was winning the Hepsworth medal presented by the Long Range Rifles Branch of the MLAGB in 2017. 15 shots fired prone at 1200 yards.

David
 
I don’t shoot much past 120yards unless I’m at a rondy, then I’ll shoot out to 300 yards at a metal gong, which is normally an easy score for me.What’s the farthest your club shoots? I’ve got an article that is kind of interesting to read, it’s the farthest shot recorded by a Brown Bess.. I’ll be it sounds far fetched and luck most surely played a large part.. but non the less here it is... what do you fellas think?
https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/10/long-shot-september-1776/

I'm not sure about my furthest shot, but someone on one of my threads gave me a link to the exact same article.
 
Closest To the Heart.
years ago; At a rondy there was the Ace of Hearts on a post @100yds. I won the money with 2 balls touching the heart.
BTW, the third shot went wherever in the atmosphere.. T/C .50 .
Now I couldn't see the card at 100 yds.
 
Rainbow shot for 125 yards at a fourteen inch metal gong, with my CVA Derringer. I only had to do it once... I walked away with bragging rights. :cool:
 
Around 1976, I built a .62 cal. Hawken copy. I put an adjustable for elevation rear sight, and shot ridiculously heavy powder loads with a .610 roundball. From a sitting position, ( couldn’t stand the recoil prone.) I could hit a frying pan hung at 200 yards, nearly every shot. The gun shot right on with the sight on the high notch.

I also made a 200 yard shot,(paced off) on a deer, in an old strip mine area in Southern Illinois. Anchored the deer on the spot. I keep my shots under 100 yards now with a .54 flintlock longrifle.
 
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