Taking the Prodigy Pistol to 350 Yards

By GunSpot

A while ago, we reviewed the Prodigy pistol on the GunSpot YouTube channel and were very impressed with the Prodigy and its accuracy. So, during our review, we decided to step back to 100 yards and try to hit a steel silhouette. We accomplished that without too much trouble.

So, we stepped back to 200 yards and again hit targets with relative ease. With the performance we were getting from the Prodigy, we began to wonder how far we could shoot it and hit our target.

Foundations

When we set out on this endeavor, a few things were immediately certain. Grant LaVelle would be our shooter. Grant was the guy who made the original 200-yard shot, and he’s got the most shooting experience. From his time not only in the United States Marine Corps, but as a SWAT sniper and career as an instructor, he has sent many more rounds down range than any of us. Also, he has the skillset.

The next factor to nail down was locating high-quality ammunition. We already had a competent shooter and pistol, so we needed ammo to match. To address this, we asked for help from True Shot Gun Club. They were kind enough to send over plenty of boxes of Federal 124-gr. Punch 9mm jacketed hollow point ammunition. In our experience, Federal is one of the best ammo manufacturers around (to read about the history of Federal Ammunition, click here), and we needed ammo that would be consistent enough we could shoot distance with it.

To start off, we knew we needed to get an accurate zero on the Trijicon RMR Type 2 optic we had mounted on the Prodigy. We headed out to the range and set Grant up firing from the bench off of a bag at 25 yards. Grant fired group after group, slowly walking from the point of impact to the point of aim. Grant ended up getting an extremely tight group and decided to head off downrange straight to the 100-yard line.

Reaching Out

We jumped straight out to 100 yards because we already knew the Prodigy would succeed easily at closer distances; it would be a waste of time to make the Prodigy prove itself anywhere inside that distance. Before we started shooting, we plugged in our ammo into the SBC Light Ballistic Calculator app to get a good idea of our ballistics.

With our 25-yard zero, the bullet was calculated to have fallen 10.5” at 100 yards. Grant then measured with the 3.25 MOA dot of the Trijicon RMR to place his shot and fire. While Grant missed his first shot, he connected on the second one. He made impact three total times before we decided to move back to 200 yards.

At 200 yards, our ballistic program determined the bullet would drop 63.1”. Taking that into account, Grant measured with the Trijicon’s 3.25 MOA dot, which now would measure 6.5 Inches at 200 yards. Grant had to end up holding about 10 of the RMR’s dot sizes over his target for a proper hold. The first shot was a miss, but again, the second one connected for our first impact. In Total, Grant shot seven times and impacted four out of the seven shots. We were more than happy with that, so we stepped back to 300 yards.

At this point, ideally, we would have stepped back to 250 yards considering the long distances we were shooting. However, that would have put us standing in the middle of an icy-cold creek, so we opted to just jump ahead to 300 yards. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried firing a pistol at an IPSC target from 300 yards away on a 20-degree day, but it turns out your hands shake pretty badly when trying to aim.

Grant fired four rounds off-hand and missed. From there, he realized human error was holding the Prodigy back from what it was capable of. So, we busted out a tripod to give him a rest and reduce his shaking. At this point, the bullet, according to SBC Light, has dropped 184.7”, or 15’.

At this distance, the RMR’s dot on target is 9.75” in size. This means Grant would have to hold about 18 or so dots above the target to hit the steel silhouette. With the use of the rest, he missed his first shot but impacted on the second one, hitting two shots out of six before he decided to step back to 350 yards.

Where It Counted

Obviously, 350 yards is a truly demanding distance for a pistol and no magnification. At this point, Grant was holding so far over the target that he couldn’t see it while he aimed. This is an excellent time to stress that you need a safe backstop behind your target. Which, by the way, we had.

Due to the distance, we took out our Bushnell spotting scope to spot our misses. Grant lined up the pistol rested on the tripod, and sent a shot downrange. Now, I’m glad the Prodigy has impressive capacity because it took us 13 misses until we finally hit the target. Once he found the correct hold distance, he hit the target back to back. At that point, we decided to call it quits. In fact, one of those hits was a headshot. Be sure to check out the video at the top of the page to see for yourself.

Conclusion

Yes, we get it. Shooting 350 yards with a pistol is entirely impractical. But, we sure did have fun. The biggest takeaway from this experiment for both Grant and I was that the Prodigy and the Federal ammo were both so good and so consistent that you could spot shots with a spotting scope and walk the misses in until you get impacts.

The fact we did this with a pistol blew us away. Walking in shots and collecting DOPE is something you typically do with quality rifles. The Prodigy and the Federal ammo sure proved their worth!

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Featured in this video

1911 DS Prodigy AOS

Trijicon RMR Type 2

Federal Personal Defense Punch 9mm Luger 124 Gr.

True Shot Ammo