From my use of this style of circuit is they work very well, BUT......... if the frequency is not correct for 38 to 40khz then the distance will be greatly reduced.
I think the problem is not the circuit design but more to your ability to be able to set the correct frequency of the circuit.
If you dont have a frequency meter than it becomes hard to tune the circuit.
You could try to place the receiver about 2 meters away then with the ir leds facing the receiver adjust the frequency till the receiver works, then move the receiver 1-2 meters further away and fine tune it again, and so on till you get the distance required, it is how i done it many years ago before i had a frequency meter.
Another circuit would be have a look at the 08m picaxe as it supports IR, but is really an over kill for such a simple project.
The commercial IR alarm beams only go to 10 meters on average so i think that is the limit of the IR range, and the 2 large 10m IR alarm sensors i have are about 500mm long and 100mm wide, with some rather clever focus adjustment systems, so i doubt if you will acheive the results you want by just pointing the led in the direction of the sensor and expect it to work over the distance.
Pete.