Certainly there has been long range handgunning since there has been handguns. But this century really brought it to an art form.....Silhouette handgunning in the 1970s and 80s made it acceptable and practiced by a large number of handgun shooters.

Thanks to John Taffin I have a number of copies of Keith’s articles dated from the 1920s thru the 1960s. I am re- typing them so that John can publish them on his web site in the future. Several of these articles are on the topic of long range handgunning..and in several more he speaks about it. It was obvious that back in the 1920s and 30s folks just didn’t believe a handgun could be practical over 50 yards. We scoff at that now...but then that was the accepted knowledge of the times. Keith had to paddle hard upstream to bring change in the minds a number of gunwriters as well as the public on the issue.

One individual Harold Croft..who developed the Keith #5 Colt SA for Keith and became his life long friend. Croft first traveled to Keith’s ranch in 1928, with a suitcase full of handguns to challenge Keith because of his long range handgunning articles. Croft and most others didn’t believe him. The first day at the ranch, Keith hit a four by four foot square made of wood out at 700 yards with every gun Croft had with him....it made a believer out of Croft and a number of others, and the long range revolution was restarted in modern times....

In the late 1930s Ed McGivern’s book Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting...talks of shooting at 600 yards and even mentions Keith as an aside and his long range handgunning. On page 407 McGivern states....My friend Elmer Keith, of North Fork, Idaho one of the early long range revolver shooting enthusiasts, and , in my opinion about the most successful and proficient large and small game shot with revolvers in this country, developed a system of gold cross-bars at certain intervals across the back of the front sight, that worked out very well for various distances......." High praise from the master of all revolver shooters....confirming Elmer’s long range abilities....

Keith writes of long range many times I’ve selected some articles from...1920s, 1930s, and the 1960s....I will quote him from the several of them. In the column Arms and Ammunition in the old Outdoor Life Outdoor Recreation magazine in the 1920s issue Keith is writing an article titled, ‘Light vs. Heavy Six-Guns’, and talks of shooting a very large billy goat at ranges from 40 to 300 yards with the old Remington 45 Colt ammo...black powder 255 grain bullet....and the sad performance of the flat tipped semi-pointed bullet. And that prompting him to go to the old Ideal/Lyman Gould bullet...which was a 300 grain flat face round nose for better killing effect...loaded over 35 grains of black power. And he just begins to advance his thoughts on sights and what is needed for long range duty.

In his column the Last Word in 1929 he talks of how the #5 Colt was designed and built and really goes into the special sights installed....this is at a time when handguns for the most part didn’t have adjustable sights...Keith states..."...We decided to call this gun model No.#5 (they rebuilt a Colt SA 44Spc.) The sights are square, or patridge: the rear and adjustable for windage in the same manner as the S&W target sights. The front blade is adjustable for elevation by the turning of a screw in the rear of the base. This gives very close micrometer adjustment with a locking screw on the side of the base. This type of sight gives maximum sight radius. The front sight elevates the muzzle......"

After this set up on the Colt, Keith’s long range handgunning went into a whole new level of accomplishment And he also talks of his ability of loading the 44 special heavier than the 45 Colt...he had a Colt SA 45 come apart shooting heavy loads on July fourth 1928. And went to the 44...not just because of the extra steel in the gun’s chambers, but because most of the 45 long Colts of the times were made before the turn of the century and had been used and abused...and made of softer steels then any of the 44 specials since that caliber was released in 1907 to the public. The 44 Special sixguns were of new double heat treated higher carbon base steel and could take more pressure. And Keith made use of that new found strength with #80 powder and 260 and 280 grain bullets he designed for Belding&Mull. But he found that the long range abilities of these bullets were to say the least, unacceptable.

He then designed the famous Keith bullet for the 44 special by Lyman/Ideal and the rest is history...the most famous cast bullet design to come along this century. Since it has lasted in popular use for over 70 years, I guess we can say it is proven effective as both long range and a game bullet.

And in 1936 for the Arms and Ammunition column he wrote..."An All-Range Six-Gun Sight" article and the bar system on the front sight of a six gun was born..a system that in one way or another has survived 63 years...so it too must still be very effective for long range. I use it myself...often.

Simply put Keith describes how he had three gold bars put on the front sight at equal distances and after working with these sight settings dropping handgun bullets into targets out to 600 yards becomes much easier. Not only the bars but on the back sight he explains that there must be a wide enough opening to allow a strip of light on both sides of the image of the front sight in the back sight while aiming so the eye can center the front sight...like it does with peep sights....I have noticed that a number of major handgun manufactures don’t open the back sight enough at the factory for the shooter. I have opened the back sights on a number of guns and friends have been able to hit much better with that arrangement.

In an article for the American Rifleman in November of 1935 Keith reviews the new release of the first magnum handgun cartridge and the gun made to shoot it.....the S&W 357 magnum revolver...it is known as the Model.27 today. He had the 8 and 3/8 inch model....and speaks highly of the gun but is not happy with the long barrel. And of course we must realize that Elmer carried his guns every day...and that long barrel was just to much of a good thing on horseback in a side holster. In this article Keith states that in the various 38/44s he has had, he loads his 173gr to 180 grain cast bullets over 13.5 grains of 2400 powder in 38 special cases. That load has become a classic, I use it extensively and have always found it extremely accurate and powerful....but in heavy framed and strong 38s and 357s.

Elmer and friend Cale Dickey go to a place called Pahsimeroi Valley which is from his writings loaded with jack rabbits. In three days they killed 125 jacks at various ranges out to almost 300 yards with the new gun and magnum ammo, and Elmer’s reloads...as Keith states the test of the accuracy potential of a handgun and it’s ammo is long range shooting.

Keith also talks of something else not mentioned often..a fact I found fascinating and hadn’t thought of before. The atmosphere and the air in the western states is drier and clearer then in the eastern and middle states. Targets stand out much better in the drier and clearer air. And we have to be able to see a long range target well to even think of hitting it with a handgun. I have lived in the east and now in the dry southwest...Elmer as usual is right.

In his May 1939 article for the American Rifleman titled....LONG-RANGE SIXGUN...Keith talks of the long range shooters that came before him...Chauncey Thomas...that was his first Editor by the way...E.A.Price, Ashley Haines and others.... he talks of Thomas’ statement that a man on horseback is not safe a half mile away from a long range revolver shooter. And all of the grief Thomas took over that statement....grief that Elmer would suddenly share in the 1960s when he tells of killing a deer at near 600 yards with a 44 S&W magnum.

Elmer explains in his articles that long range sixgunning is common sense. That if an artillery crew with a eight foot barrel can drop shells in a doorway of a house many, many miles away...the same principle with a handgun out to hundreds of yards is easily possible.

At the range in Tucson Az. In the late 1980s I had a friend that said all this long range hitting of targets was nonsense...couldn’t be done....I just love a challenge like that. But instead of me doing it, because he would just say I had some special talent, which isn’t true... I asked him if he would follow my instructions...He said he would really try. In 20 minutes I had him bouncing 45 acp rounds off a ridge out behind the range, past 350 yards, he was continually hitting a rock about the size of a man at that range. His high combat sights on the Colt 45 ACP allowed for the front sight hold up that was necessary. He spent the rest of the afternoon shooting at very extended range with the 45.

Keith in his early articles professed the 357 magnum was a fine long range caliber. And as he moved thru the decades of his career that didn’t change, in his long range articles...in his January 1951 article in the American Rifleman he restates that conviction and then again in his 1960 articles. The only problem with the smaller calibers is the amount of dust they kick up...so you can walk your shoots into the target and get the proper range.....for example the 32-20 is a wonderfully flat shooting long range caliber...but seeing the bullet strikes at extended range is sometimes a problem. Where a 44 or 45 can be seen very clearly.

A bunch of Shootists at the Shootist Holiday one year in Star Valley WY...hosted by Freedom Arms...stood on a hillside and shot single action handguns loaded to about 1200 fps+ with heavy bullets and continuously hit an old line cabin over 1100 yards away....! When the old log cabin was inspected. The heavy bullets went complete thru the cabin...one went in the front of the cabin and buried itself in the top bar of an old heavy brass bed. So the statements Keith makes about the killing factor of a heavy 44 or 45 out to outrageous range are truthful. He speaks of both elk and big goats having his heavy handloads go completely thru the animals to 300 yards. The 600 yard deer he killed had the 44 magnum Remington load completely penetrated the chest and lung area and exit....I know it’s hard to believe that anyone could even clearly see a deer at that range much less hit him with an open sighted handgun but...

I had two very special Lugers in the 1980s. A special built 1917 Artillery Model with a 8 inch barrel in 9mm and one of only 11 made civilian models with a 11 inch barrel cambered for the 30 Luger round. Using four by four plywood boards we tested the open but adjustable sights on these guns by shooting all the way out to 500 yards. At five hundred yards we not only hit the wood but actually got twenty to twenty-five inch groups...all with ball ammo loaded to the level of velocity the sights were set for at the turn of the century into the 1930s. I first had the article I wrote about that test published by JD Jones in the late 1980s in his magazine Sixgunner. And like Keith I have had grief over it for some time by those that just don’t understand handgunning and think they do. By the way as I remember, all hits even out to 500 yards, with both calibers completely penetrated the 3/4 inch plywood.

The Keith 1968 article for Guns and Ammo magazine called...500 YARD SIXGUNNING...became a pivotal point for long range handgunning and brought letters of protest, unbelief, and articles by other writers giving their expert opinion that it wasn’t possible, though they themselves when asked, stated they never tried it. One noted writer...gone to his reward now...even said ..."everything Keith states has to be taken with five pounds of salt..." But just a decade later Silhouette would explode on the scene, and suddenly the truth of long range handgunning became clear even for the most rabid non believer.

What was this that sent shock waves into the readers of G&A? Keith killed a deer with a 44 magnum at 600 yards. Lets have it Elmer’s own words.....

Conditions forced me to assume the prone position, the worst possible for shooting a heavy sixgun. I held up the same amount or a trifle more front sight as used on the rock shot. (They had just before that been testing the long range of the S&W on a rock out to 500 yards). I fired and nothing happened; Paul fire again with like results. Then I held up about all of the front sight clear down to the ramp, shot again and Paul said, "I saw that one hit at his feet." He shot again and missed, and then I held all of the front sight up, perched the buck on top and squeezed off another round.

As Paul took off, I held all of the front sight up and some of the top of the ramp in line with the rear -sight notch, perched the buck on top again and started the trigger squeeze. Just as I was finishing the squeeze, the buck turned up the mountain in the tracks of the bank on the low ridge, so I shoved my sight picture in front of it and let go. The gun kicked up and settled back down. The buck turned and disappeared over the ridge. I got up and started the long swing across the swale and then to where I had last seen the deer, well over six hundred yards away.

When I had reached the ridge, I saw where the deer had rolled down the mountain then gotten up and walked toward a clump of yellow pine. I cut across to the trail, finding blood sprayed out well on both sides but never dreamed I had hit it again at that crazy long range for the best rifle, let alone a sixgun. Paul yelled, "Just climb a little higher." We were soon at the fallen deer. We finally found Paul’s 180 grain Remington bullet entrance on the right side back of the rib cage. It had stayed in the left shoulder.

When I examined its head, no horn was even touched. We found that my first hit was in the back of the right jaw. It had come out the top of the nose, right in the black tip. Then Paul asked, "Who shoot him through the lungs? I only had the first broadside shot that hit the flesh of the left shoulder and just below the chest and made the him run on three legs?"

The lung shot had hit three inches higher on the side turned toward me, and then it had exited. We dressed it out and found a rib cut on each side and Paul said, "You must have done that with your last shot." I could not believe it. However , some days later, my son Ted skinned the buck out and came back in the house with that Remington base-jacket of the bullet in his hand. He said, "Dad, I picked this up under the skin on the left side near the lung shot exit hole."

I wrote up this episode some time later, (for the American Rifleman...it wasn’t until it appeared in the G&A that the fun started), and have been called a charter member of the Ananias club ever since.