Honestly, I don't have a steady hand which means fairly blurred images beyond 105mm without VR. But, with the use of the zoomed flash feature of the Nikon SB-900 Speedlight, I have now made the impossible seems fairly plausible.
This new option not to use the tripod has helped put some fun back into photography again. The above was shot at 200mm with a 70-300mm G lens with the Nikon D90 and SB-900. Hand held.