The UJ Quigley Bucket Challenge
My wife, in an act of kindness, ruined me. One day she returned from a trip to Walmart and handed me a videocassette of the movie “Quigley Down Under.” “I thought you might like it,” she said. Little did she know.
It’s the story of Matthew Quigley, a Wyoming rifleman who answers a newspaper ad from an Australian rancher for “The World’s Best Long Distance Marksman.” Quigley shows up down under with a Sharps 45-110 with an extra-long barrel and a tang vernier sight. In his first interview with his would-be employer, Quigley hits a bucket repeatedly at a distance of several hundred yards, shooting offhand with iron sights.
When I saw that scene, something inside me responded: “That’s soooo cool; I wish I could do that.” Then another inner voice chimed in: “Maybe you can.” That, in a nutshell, is when I got ruined.
Roger Clouser, writing in Precision Shooting magazine, figured that Quigley was shooting at a 17.5 inch bucket at a distance of 550 yards. Not having a Sharps 45-110 or, in fact, any place where I might shoot one, I decided to duplicate Quigley’s marksmanship on an airgun scale; that is, shooting at a 1.75 inch bucket at 55 yards. Eventually I managed it with a .22 Career. Now it’s your turn.
Here’s what you need to participate in the Uncle Jock (UJ for short) Quigley Bucket Challenge:
· An air rifle or air pistol with NON-glass sights
· Some pellets
· The official UJ Quigley Bucket Challenge target (click to download)
· 55 yards of space
The rest is obvious: set up the target at 55 yards, try to hit it with three consecutive shots with your air rifle or air pistol, and report your results here with full details.
Some notes: First, this is for non-glass sights only. Sure, you can shoot at the target with your scoped rifle, but it won’t count for bragging rights in the UJ Quigley Bucket Challenge. After all, part of the challenge is an optical one; the target is going to look small compared to your front sight.
Second, I realize that some iron-sighted airguns won’t have the necessary accuracy. For example, I tried to hit the bucket at 55 yards with my Sheridan, but couldn’t get it done. If that is the case, try moving the bucket closer in small increments until you can hit it three times in a row. Frankly, I would love to hear from someone the maximum distance they were able to hit the bucket with a Sheridan or a Benji. Or try it with your match rifle, or your springer, or a Daisy Red Ryder. The point is to have fun and make like Matthew Quigley.
And if it turns out that hitting the bucket is just way too easy for you at 55 yards, feel free to move it back and amaze all of us with your skill.
Third, I will accept any shooter-supported position. True, in the movie, Quigley shot the bucket offhand, but later he shot from other positions, so I will allow prone, sitting and offhand. No benchrests, though.
Give it a try, and report back here. I look forward to your results. When you give an account of your efforts, I’d like to know: gun, ammo, distance, and position.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
- Jock Elliott
posted by Jock Elliott at
1:06 AM
11 Comments:
I regularly shoot 5" groups with iron sights at 100 yards with my .22LR Marlin 60SN semi-auto which is pretty close to a heavy hammer .22 Condor.
Infact I'm practicing on a 300yard scoped shot. I've been successful at hitting 3 out of 10 at a quail-sized target.
3 in a row shots over 1.7" at 50 yards is possible but not 3 in a row "everytime" which means if I fire 50 shots I will get many 3-in-a row strings of hits.
By the way 17" bucket at 500 yards with a 45cal is not equal to airgun shot at 50 because a powerful airgun will travel much flatter in 50 yards than a heavy .45 in 500, specially the last 200 yard which the bullet almost falls like a rainbow.
A factory loaded 45-110 sharps was rated at 1360fps for a 550gr bullet & 2260ft/lbs at the muzzle. At 500 yards that bullet would drop 320" or about 26 feet which is not too bad.
A factory Condor .22 with 60ft/lbs energy only drops 4.23" at 50 yards with a 21.1gr Kodiak pellet.
With a modern gun like a .243win cal 100gr/btsp bullet/3100fps we get a similar 2134ft/lbs energy as a Sharp's but only 5feet drop at 500 which makes it a super iron-sight rifle if one can see that far!
Hesam, Arizona,
I appreciate your comments.
So what would you suggest as an airgun "analog" of the Sharps? I was thinking maybe a Benjamin or Sheridan not pumped up full and shooting those super-heavy Eun-Jin pellets.
As nearly as I can tell, the Sharps bullet weighs a full ounce and must have a massive ballistic coefficient.
Hi there UJ,
So interested to read about your Quigley Challenge.
Over here in England (UK) I have been shooting buckets for two years.
Like you, my wife bought Quigley Down Under for my birthday in 2007 and that was it, I wanted to duplicate the bucket scene.
I only shoot air rifle and decided that only a recoiling rifle with open sights could be used, unlike you we shoot off a bench.
Our buckets are approx. 1 1/2 inches square printed onto A4 paper and placed out at 45 yds.(our max. distance on the bench range).
We have ten shots at each bucket usually checking each shot through a spotting scope.
As far as I know we are the only club over here doing this so I often have a look on Google and saw your blog.
Shoot safe,
Steve.
Steve,
Well good on you for having caught "the Quigley Disease."
I'm glad to hear you're doing the bucket shot the proper way, with non-glass sights.
In the Spirit of Quigley, Aim True and Shoot Straight!
Jock,
Last month, you contacted me about fitting a globe front sight to your Benjamin, and I agreed, giving you my address.
I've not seen the gun, and its been awhile ... did you send it?
LD
BTW, I have now fitted a flip up tang sight to one of my old 1960 era Sheridans, and will be giving it a go soon.
LD,
My bad. I have sent you an email.
I'd love to see a picture of that Sheridan with the tang sight.
Thank you Jock,
I think an airgun analog of Sharps 500 yard shot would be a Sam Yang Big Bore 909S .45cal using a Hornady 230gr bullet zeroed at 30 yards shooting at a bucket 240 yards away.
Under these criteria you'd have 311" drop which is similar to what Quigley's Sharp's would do at 500 yards.
The funny thing is that a bucket can't even be seen through an iron-sight at a true 500 yards unless it's a large black bucket on a solid white background!
I use a 3'x3' box for my 300 yard shots and I tape a white sheet of paper on it but the farthest I can see (not aim at)that large box with naked eye is about 400 yards. A bucket is 1/4that size so I'd guess at around 300 yards bucket would look like a dot inside a sight. A car 500 yards away looks like a small fly.
Point: Quigley is just Hollywood camera tricks.
In real life a great shooter can hit a bucket with Sharp's 3 times in a row at 200 yards with iron sights.
Hesam
Jock,
1 more thing, you can use any airgun over 20ft/lbs for this test. All you need to do is to calculate your rifle's Chrono/pellet grains at the muzzle for your pellet, then enter the zeroed distance for the sights, then enter 300 yards as the target distance, then when the online ballistics calculator gives you the pellet drop numbers just follow the numbers down till you reach 320". That's Sharp's drop at 500, then look to the right and see at what distance your rifle gets that result, and done, that's where you put the target.
Hesam,
Thanks again for your input. I've been poking around a bit on the internet and picked up on a couple of things.
First, Mike Venturino has written a book on shooting the buffalo rifles of the old west, and apparently a Sharps could be expected to hold about 2" at 100 yards, which isn't bad, but isn't MOA either. Buffalos are big animals.
Second, there was a Ripley's Believe it or not episode in which a fellow put three shots into a 13" target at 1,300 yards with a Sharps. The big trick was that the 13: circle was on a huge white buffalo target that filled the front sight. The shooter had enough time to trigger the shot then slide over to the spotting scope to see it hit.
Finally, when I accomplished my version of the Quigley bucket shot with a .22 Career with a special front sight that Tim from Mac-1 had created, the bucket was indeed a small spec swimming in the front sight.
I'll run one of the ballistics programs and see where the pellet drops 320 inches.
Thanks again for the input.
Quigley is Hollywood ho-haw, but Billy Dixon (at Adobe Wells) was not!
Interesting article you got here. I'd like to read a bit more concerning this matter. Thanx for posting that data.
Anonymous,
Aside from the excellent comments that have been already posted here, the only other information I can offer are the two chapters on "My Quigley Shot" in my book "Elliott on Airguns" which you can find here: https://www.airgunsofarizona.com/Airgun%20Literature.html
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