# Pistol Range:  Advantage to a 45 ft. firing line?



## Carol (Sep 11, 2006)

Since the weather here will be cold before too long, I've been toying with the idea of joining an indoor range. There are a couple around here, they all have the reputation of being a bit crowded.  

One has a series of pistol ranges with 21' and 45' firing lines.  The club's brochure says priority will be given to any pistol shooter that wants to use the 45' firing line.

Legally speaking, I understand that handgun engagement at 45' is (ahem) not adviseable.  But is there a practical reason to train shooting at this depth?  Does the greater distance improve one's overall marksmanship?

Just curious to see what you all thought.


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## SFC JeffJ (Sep 11, 2006)

The great range will magnify any deficiencies in your shooting, such as trigger control and the like.

I make a point of every so often shooting my handguns at the 100 meter line to see where I need my POA to be to hit targets effectively from there for that reason, and the fact you never know what might happen.  

Enough of the run on sentences,

Jeff


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## Carol (Sep 11, 2006)

Run on sentences are fine as long as the information is good.    

That actually makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it. 

Now to ponder the greater mysteries...such as wondering why an anti-gun state has a queue at the firing range :rofl:


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## SFC JeffJ (Sep 11, 2006)

I'm betting it's cause there aren't enough ranges, for there might be laws making it hard to make new ones, so the ones that exist get crowded.


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## Grenadier (Sep 12, 2006)

Carol Kaur said:


> Legally speaking, I understand that handgun engagement at 45' is (ahem) not adviseable. But is there a practical reason to train shooting at this depth? Does the greater distance improve one's overall marksmanship?


 
15 yards isn't that far of a distance, and is a good distance from which to practice, once you have your mechanics worked out.  

Basically, someone who shoots a nice, small cluster of shots at 7 yards, might see a different level of precision at 15 yards.  As JeffJ stated, 15 yards, vs 7 yards, will reveal various smaller mechanical problems, such as grip, trigger pulling (jerking vs squeezing, etc), flinching, and so forth, that you might not have otherwise seen at the shorter distances.  From there, you can make small corrections, one at a time. 

If you can learn to shoot with good precision and accuracy at 15 yards, then yes, your overall marksmanship is going to be vastly improved.


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