Maximum distance for a .44 mag from a pistol

[Fordguy]

If you look at the chart presented earlier- you'll see roughly a 10 fps loss per 50 yards between 1650 yards and 1700 yards when the bullet is traveling a bit more than 400 fps. This is assuming that the bullet has remained stable in flight. If the bullet has lost stability at that point and begins to tumble, I would tend to think there would be an increased loss in velocity due to increased resistance. The only point at which a bullet will stop losing speed with the exception of terminal velocity is when it stops moving, unless you've found some way to fire your .44 in a vacuum. Yes, at some point terminal velocity will be reached on the descent, if the descent is steep enough.
Using a relatively short, heavy, bullet with a large frontal surface area over a long distance with most of the flight at subsonic speeds in changing air densities and atmospheric conditions- it's a bit much for me to try to predict the results that far out. A quick search found this article, not dealing with anything as heavy as a 44 so maybe not apples to apples. Possibly the in flight theory holds though.

Bullet Stability

The details of gyroscopic and dynamic bullet stability

bisonballistics.com

 

[riversidejeep]

I don't think we have enough info to make that determination. We'd need to know muzzle velocity, the particulars on the bullet, altitude/air density, wind values, whether or not the guy who was hit was sun-bathing by a pool, etc. Even if it was falling near-vertical and the victim was standing up, maybe he heard it coming, turned, and leaned back to look up at it offering a chest hit.

I like the sun bathing by the pool part!

 

[Fordguy]

Maybe I'll try to find the account of the incident. Lol. I think the guy was cutting or splitting wood. I don't want the image of a wood cutting okie lounging by a pool...

 

[Pocoloco]

We drive 10-20 miles past where most people shoot in the desert because we had some idiot zinging bullets over our heads closer to civilization. I found this bullet with no impact damage three weeks ago and then started looking around and found a 45 hard cast and 55 grain 223 both with no damage.

Our population has too many idiots, what goes up must come down. Scary and now has me re thinking where we shoot

 

[Fordguy]

So no copy and paste from FB using my phone. Not sure if that's because I don't have FB myself or if it's a know how thing with the phone. The guy was stacking wood when he was struck in the chest. "The bullet just missed his heart."
I have very limited experience with a .44, just target shooting a few times at 50 yards or less. I have a lot of experience with shotgun slugs from my youth- Slow heavy projectiles that aren't particularly stable in flight, so maybe I'm drawing too much on that.
And for anyone who's curious, I did look at how much the angle of descent affects terminal velocity but it's Sunday and there are too many variables in that equation for me to want to pick through it on my day off.

 

[CALNNC]

Ok, this is strictly from a curiosity standpoint. I read an account written by someone claiming to be a former game warden who was called to the scene where a man had been shot in the chest with a 44 caliber bullet. Suspects were identified who were target practicing "more than a mile away" using .44 caliber handguns. Will a 44 cal bullet from a handgun travel more than a mile? I don't have a long range trajectory chart for the round, but out of a 6 inch barrel it's probably.moving between 1200-1500 fps depending on bullet weight and powder?
Since they said 44 cal and pistol I'm assuming it was a 44 mag or 44spl.

I know this is an old post, but just stumbled on it. A box of .22LR used to have 'Danger, range more than 1 mile" printed on them. In the 1980's when I was down in FLA, a news story was headlined where two Boy Scouts in a supervised setting firing .22 bolt action rifles at targets with proper backing, turned and fired at a distant sign, missed, and the bullet continued on to kill a woman sitting at a bus stop over 1 mile away. The police were amazed at the odds of it reaching her, as the bullet threaded its way through a forest of trees. But it does not take a rifle, as two workmen in Jacksonville Baptist Hospital using a Ramset with a charge based on the structural drawing of a wall, found out. They fired the Ramset, killing a women in an adjacent room. The drawings were incorrect for that part of the structure, the workers had a copy and past job by an architect on a big sheet that was incorrect for what was behind the wall which, was not a reinforced concrete column they were trying to attach to. You really never know when it's your turn.

 

[Fordguy]

I know this is an old post, but just stumbled on it. A box of .22LR used to have 'Danger, range more than 1 mile" printed on them. In the 1980's when I was down in FLA, a news story was headlined where two Boy Scouts in a supervised setting firing .22 bolt action rifles at targets with proper backing, turned and fired at a distant sign, missed, and the bullet continued on to kill a woman sitting at a bus stop over 1 mile away. The police were amazed at the odds of it reaching her, as the bullet threaded its way through a forest of trees. But it does not take a rifle, as two workmen in Jacksonville Baptist Hospital using a Ramset with a charge based on the structural drawing of a wall, found out. They fired the Ramset, killing a women in an adjacent room. The drawings were incorrect for that part of the structure, the workers had a copy and past job by an architect on a big sheet that was incorrect for what was behind the wall which, was not a reinforced concrete column they were trying to attach to. You really never know when it's your turn.

I also would tend to think that "target shooting" would involve shooting in a direction more or less perpendicular to the earth if not at a downward angle, so the 44 cal bullet would likely have contact with the target, the earth, (or both) and other objects before traveling the rest (the majority) of the distance. When target shooting, my targets are always affixed to my backstop which is an 8' thick section of 2'dirt/4'sand/2'dirt that I dig out and rebuild every few years. Maybe the guys were "target shooting" at clay pigeons. Crazy things happen, and they happen more often when people are careless.