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rhysianaOr: How to Write Your Gun-Toting Badass In a Way That Doesn’t Strain Your Reader’s Suspension of DisbeliefToday I read a fic in which a character visited 1) a 2000-yard shooting range 2) with a handgun, and I had to just stop and stare into the distance while considering whether I could ignore it enough to continue. Being me, I decided to make this writing guide instead. I have attempted to write this so zero familiarity with guns beyond what you may have seen on TV/in movies is required.
With a .45 caliber handgun (a fairly standard military caliber) using an ideal .45 round (which is better than a standard-issue military round would be), gravity will cause the bullet to strike the target 13 inches lower than the gun was aimed if the target is 100 yards away. This amount of difference gets bigger faster than the distance to the target gets bigger, because the farther the bullet travels the more it slows down, and the more time gravity has to affect it. At 1000 yards, the bullet will impact 2150 inches (180 ft) below where it was aimed… which is why no one would even attempt to use a handgun to shoot at a 1000-yard target.
If you were to additionally assume a 5 mph wind, which is a fairly gentle breeze, all things considered, the bullet would have been blown about 4 feet off target by the time it had traveled 1000 yards.
Furthermore, the standard front sight on a military-issue .45 handgun is wide enough that if you hold it out in front of you, it’s blocking your view of an area that is 16 feet wide at 1000 yards. At that distance, there’s no such thing as a handgun bullet with a specific name on it so much as they’re all just being addressed to To Whom It May Concern.
Realistic target ranges for different types of guns:
-Most people practice with a handgun at 7-10 yards, and might increase that distance to 25 yards for longer range practice and 50 yards to prove a point.
-Depending on the type of rifle, distances vary a lot. For a carbine (the type of rifle issued in most modern militaries), practice might range from as little as 25 to as much as 200 yards, and with a larger caliber rifle, one might practice between 100-500 yards.
-With specialized long-range rifles, the most common practice distance is actually 100 yards with a focus on shooting extremely tight groups, and for very long-range practice with a long-range precision rifle, practice range would generally not exceed 1000 yards. Most military sniper rifles are simply not accurate beyond 1000 yards, which is actually because the ammunition loses too much velocity and starts to tumble more than any issue with the gun itself.
-To give some perspective about realism, a mile is 1760 yards, and shooters who can make a mile-long shot generally end up in record books. The longest hit with a sniper rifle ever confirmed was 2707 yards, using a quarter-million-dollar custom-built sniper rifle by a trained sniper using custom-made ammunition under ideal conditions with the best scope money can buy.
If you want to make your character sound impressively skilled, assuming a non-stressed character shooting at targets on a shooting range:
Handguns
- The really impressive thing a character can do is not so much hit targets at an extremely far distance, but instead to hit targets at a closer distance so consistently that the bullet holes are all touching (or creating a single hole).
- To hit a man-sized target at or near center mass from 50 yards with a handgun is not easy, but is entirely achievable and something a skilled shooter can do consistently.
- To achieve the same level of accuracy at 100 yards is quite difficult, and requires great skill to do consistently.
- At 200 yards, a shooter able to perform this feat with consistency is a highly accomplished marksman, and a novice able to achieve it at all is more likely lucky than good.
Rifles
- To hit a man-sized target at or near center mass (an area roughly 10 inches in diameter) at 100 yards with a rifle requires moderate skill to achieve consistently without a using a scope or resting the gun in a stable position, and is something most novices can do consistently with a good scope if they are able to rest the gun in a stable position while they do it.
- To achieve the same level of accuracy at 500 yards requires a skilled shooter, and to do it consistently requires a scope, a bipod or other stable rest, or both.
- At 1000 yards, this requires a specialized rifle solidly braced. High precision long-ranged rifles are judged by their manufacturers’ ability to even build a rifle mechanically accurate enough to shoot groups this tight, let alone the ability of a shooter to aim them. The shooter most likely had to lie in the prone position to keep their body still enough to make this shot consistently, combined with a high-powered scope and some kind of indicator (like a flag or a piece of ribbon tied to a post) to judge the direction of the wind.
Leaving the target range:
Of course, if your character is moving, winded, full of adrenaline causing hand shaking, or the target is moving, this all becomes far more difficult. It’s very common for consistent distance shooters in calm conditions to completely miss their target at a much shorter range (say, an enemy on the other side of the same room) in live conditions.
(If you want to live a happy life, never let anyone teach you to shoot. I didn't mean to get into competitive target shooting, and I haven't even been to a competition in probably two years, but it's too late; I will never be able to watch crime procedurals or read urban fantasy or mystery novels in peace ever again. Don't let my excessive knowledge of this subject go to waste! Ask questions if you've got 'em.)
(Originally posted on Tumblr, Dec 2, 2017)
So you’ve taken your character to the shooting range to establish their credibility…
With a .45 caliber handgun (a fairly standard military caliber) using an ideal .45 round (which is better than a standard-issue military round would be), gravity will cause the bullet to strike the target 13 inches lower than the gun was aimed if the target is 100 yards away. This amount of difference gets bigger faster than the distance to the target gets bigger, because the farther the bullet travels the more it slows down, and the more time gravity has to affect it. At 1000 yards, the bullet will impact 2150 inches (180 ft) below where it was aimed… which is why no one would even attempt to use a handgun to shoot at a 1000-yard target.
If you were to additionally assume a 5 mph wind, which is a fairly gentle breeze, all things considered, the bullet would have been blown about 4 feet off target by the time it had traveled 1000 yards.
Furthermore, the standard front sight on a military-issue .45 handgun is wide enough that if you hold it out in front of you, it’s blocking your view of an area that is 16 feet wide at 1000 yards. At that distance, there’s no such thing as a handgun bullet with a specific name on it so much as they’re all just being addressed to To Whom It May Concern.
Realistic target ranges for different types of guns:
-Most people practice with a handgun at 7-10 yards, and might increase that distance to 25 yards for longer range practice and 50 yards to prove a point.
-Depending on the type of rifle, distances vary a lot. For a carbine (the type of rifle issued in most modern militaries), practice might range from as little as 25 to as much as 200 yards, and with a larger caliber rifle, one might practice between 100-500 yards.
-With specialized long-range rifles, the most common practice distance is actually 100 yards with a focus on shooting extremely tight groups, and for very long-range practice with a long-range precision rifle, practice range would generally not exceed 1000 yards. Most military sniper rifles are simply not accurate beyond 1000 yards, which is actually because the ammunition loses too much velocity and starts to tumble more than any issue with the gun itself.
-To give some perspective about realism, a mile is 1760 yards, and shooters who can make a mile-long shot generally end up in record books. The longest hit with a sniper rifle ever confirmed was 2707 yards, using a quarter-million-dollar custom-built sniper rifle by a trained sniper using custom-made ammunition under ideal conditions with the best scope money can buy.
If you want to make your character sound impressively skilled, assuming a non-stressed character shooting at targets on a shooting range:
Handguns
- The really impressive thing a character can do is not so much hit targets at an extremely far distance, but instead to hit targets at a closer distance so consistently that the bullet holes are all touching (or creating a single hole).
- To hit a man-sized target at or near center mass from 50 yards with a handgun is not easy, but is entirely achievable and something a skilled shooter can do consistently.
- To achieve the same level of accuracy at 100 yards is quite difficult, and requires great skill to do consistently.
- At 200 yards, a shooter able to perform this feat with consistency is a highly accomplished marksman, and a novice able to achieve it at all is more likely lucky than good.
Rifles
- To hit a man-sized target at or near center mass (an area roughly 10 inches in diameter) at 100 yards with a rifle requires moderate skill to achieve consistently without a using a scope or resting the gun in a stable position, and is something most novices can do consistently with a good scope if they are able to rest the gun in a stable position while they do it.
- To achieve the same level of accuracy at 500 yards requires a skilled shooter, and to do it consistently requires a scope, a bipod or other stable rest, or both.
- At 1000 yards, this requires a specialized rifle solidly braced. High precision long-ranged rifles are judged by their manufacturers’ ability to even build a rifle mechanically accurate enough to shoot groups this tight, let alone the ability of a shooter to aim them. The shooter most likely had to lie in the prone position to keep their body still enough to make this shot consistently, combined with a high-powered scope and some kind of indicator (like a flag or a piece of ribbon tied to a post) to judge the direction of the wind.
Leaving the target range:
Of course, if your character is moving, winded, full of adrenaline causing hand shaking, or the target is moving, this all becomes far more difficult. It’s very common for consistent distance shooters in calm conditions to completely miss their target at a much shorter range (say, an enemy on the other side of the same room) in live conditions.
(If you want to live a happy life, never let anyone teach you to shoot. I didn't mean to get into competitive target shooting, and I haven't even been to a competition in probably two years, but it's too late; I will never be able to watch crime procedurals or read urban fantasy or mystery novels in peace ever again. Don't let my excessive knowledge of this subject go to waste! Ask questions if you've got 'em.)
(Originally posted on Tumblr, Dec 2, 2017)
