Beyond 25 Yards

I am not bragging about my shooting as a good shot would beat this off-hand, but I might be bragging about my Springfield.

I got my .40S&W Springfield XDM out, loaded with CCI Blazer 165-grain FMJs.  I had an old cardboard box ready to burn, so I drew a six-inch zombie watermelon on it, and set it up at a measured 100 yards.  There was about a 10-15 mph crosswind, blowing left to right, somewhat gusty.  

Once I figured out where to hold, I fired five shots, sitting with my back to a wall, resting off  my knee.  I don't know where the 5th shot went.  None of those in the picture are it unless it is the one that clipped the far right.  I probably just flinched big or something.

The advertised velocity on these Blazers is 1100 fps.  These are short, blunt bullets with a modest ballistic coefficient, at best, thereby being very susceptible to drift.  I had a regular, squared up sight picture and was holding at the lower left corner to put those 4 out of 5 in the "killzone".

A defensive autoloader with a 4.5 inch barrel and stubby bullets is not a sniper rifle, but I was pleasantly surprised by the inherent accuracy of the Springfield.   Don't buy the bull about handguns being necessarily inaccurate.  They can be hard to shoot, and, as Scarlett O'Hara observed, it is easier to shoot straight if you don't have to shoot too far.   And you certainly have to dope the wind a little if you are going to try stretching your handgun range.  It's good practice, though.