In creating this article, I originally imagined it would be an interesting how-to for stretching the legs of your optically equipped pistol. While I did make some interesting observations in the process, handguns—even like the one I’m using—aren’t designed to be fired at these distances, and a very dangerous situation can present itself to you and others if extreme caution isn’t exercised. It’s hard to shoot over a berm with a handgun bullet, but it’s very easy to skip them off the ground if you weren’t conscious of the drop. Any time you can’t safely stop a bullet, you’re asking for trouble. In the end, I didn’t walk away with the assumption that this was in any way practical with 9mm, .45 ACP or even 10mm Auto.
For this reason, I’ve included a recommendation on how to safely zero a pistol for longer distances; however, I don’t recommend you try this at home or at your local range. I was able to make some (not as many as you think) hits to a maximum distance of 500 yards, but, in reality, 200 yards with a proper zero is about as far as I feel is safe to go. I observed precaution in creating
