How accurate is a pistol?

[fredj338]

There is mechanical accuracy & practical accuracy. Most modern semiauto pistols are mechanically accurate enough to get hits @ 200y. I have done this with Glocks, 1911, but most guns are capable of sub 2" 25y accuracy in a Ransom with decent ammo. I used to shoot met sil with an 8" DW 44nmag. Our shoot off targets were chickens @ 200m. Yes a good revo is capable of better than 6" accuracy at 200m from a rested position. handguns in general are more accurate than their shooters & should not be considered just close range, under 25y weapons. My scoped RBHH hunter will do 3" all day @ 100y from a seated resting field position.

[fredj338]

In my experience, it is rarely the gun. The CZ is not very accurate but it is not the problem in the performance you described.

I would be happy if a had a CZ and it would hold 2" at ten yard. I would be disappointed if my 686+ would not do under an inch. Guns make a difference but not a much as you might think at short ranges.

Not sure which CZ you are talking about but I have seen plenty that will hold under 2" out at 25y.

[Mytmousemalibu]

If you want to know how good your trigger control is, do some dry fire drills like a dime drill.

Place a dime flat & centered on your front sight. Take a firing position and manipulate the trigger and if you have smooth control (key to accuracy) the dime will still be there after the hammer drops.

[Tom W.]

When I had my SRH 480 Ruger and a 2x Leupold mounted on it I could hit clay pigeons @ a measured 100 yards offhand with my handloads with regularity.
My CZ 75 SP 01 is extremely accurate to 70 yards offhand, with my handloads with factory iron sights. I haven't tried any further yet. My Ruger SRH in .44 mag, while shooting 310 gr Lee cast boolits was smacking steel sillouettes @ 170 yards. Both I and the deputy sheriff I was shooting with were surprised. But this was with 18 rounds, not just six.
Unless the boolit fit is poor and your loads are questionable, a reputable handgun should do really well, pistol or revolver.

[Thumbcocker]

If you want to know how good your trigger control is, do some dry fire drills like a dime drill.

Place a dime flat & centered on your front sight. Take a firing position and manipulate the trigger and if you have smooth control (key to accuracy) the dime will still be there after the hammer drops.

THIS!

Shooting a handgun is a system of gun, shooter, and ammo. A great gun won't hit for beans with crappy ammo. An average gun can wow you with great ammo. In revolvers dimensions are critical. I have a coupe of .44's that have no problem with gallon jug sized targets at 200 yards from a seated backrest. But that is with properly sized boolits and a load they like.

[Bazoo]

I shoot my 1911 on my 2/3 IPSC out to 125 yards. Been know to shoot the 6" plate at 50 yards. I can hit clay pigeons at 50 yards with my moms single six or a blackhawk. At 25 yards I can hit a shotgun hull every couple tries with the single six. It's right at my limit (so far), and I work to get more consistent. That's standing. Setting rested off my legs I've been known to hit a shotgun hull at 50 yards every couple shots with the single six, but it's mighty difficult.

That's good day stats. Bad days I do good to hit a 6" plate at 50 yards with the single six. It's mostly nerves and concentration, and then lack of confidence on those days.

Confidence and trigger pull and consistent grip and upper body stance makes a good handgun shooter.

The dime trick, try it one handed and see where you get. If someone else balances the dime on my sight I can do it one handed, which is somewhat harder than 2 handed.

[jsizemore]

If you think you can't do it, you probably won't.

[tazman]

If you want to know how good your trigger control is, do some dry fire drills like a dime drill.

Place a dime flat & centered on your front sight. Take a firing position and manipulate the trigger and if you have smooth control (key to accuracy) the dime will still be there after the hammer drops.

I can't do that. My hands move enough that the dime falls off before I even start the trigger squeeze. A steady, two handed hold for me has the sights wandering around nearly 2.5 inches at 10-12 yards.
I just do the best I can.
Over the last 5 years, due to weekly practice, I have improved from about 6 inches of movement to 2.5 so it is possible to get better.
At my age, I don't expect to be a match grade shooter. Just good enough to hit the middle of a man sized silhouette at across the house distances. Practical accuracy.
Every handgun I own is capable of much better accuracy than I can provide. I test them from a bagged rest. Even there, my eyes and movements don't let them perform at their best.
I have seen really good shot with handguns. I am not one of them.

[arlon]

I think handguns are just an order of magnitude more difficult to deal with than the average rifle.
One short stubby bullet that stabilize great for 50ft and then goes crazy and the next one that has a slightly different lube groove is good to 100 yards. One cylinder has five good holes a 6th one I should just weld shut. Problem is that one I need to weld shut changes from load to load. One likes lead and hates jacketed, the next one will not hit a 55 gallon drum at 25 yards with cast. One has a chamber that won't fit cast and the next has cylinder bores a thousandth of an inch smaller than it's brother and it won't shoot anything. The exact same model made on a different day shoots everything. People make a living fixing revolver cylinders....

Then there's that crazy random choke where the revolvers barrels are screwed to the frame. Getting a perfect one is like drawing lottery numbers. Want to drive yourself crazy, go buy a full set of pin gauges.

Then consider the sights. Some I can see fine and line up nicely for my arm and barrel length some have rear sight notches that are three times too wide for barrel length, some too narrow. Some grips are great, some are horrible. There are just so many variations with handguns and all of them are probably good at some distance with some load and a particular bullet and the right shooter..

If I can hit a soda can at 25 yards half the time with a particular handgun it gets put into the "NEVER sell or trade" shelf in the safe. (-:}

[Echo]

Good information here

Plus One! Dry Firing is super exercise , in that one is coaching themselves. Pulling and heeling become VERY obvious...

[kevin c]

I am definitely the limiting factor in the pistol/ammunition/shooter combination. That being said, for me some chamberings like 22 LR and some guns like my heavy barreled ruger target 22/45 are easier for me to shoot accurately. My groups in all my pistols shrink as I practice group shooting more, and do so more quickly if the gun gets accuracy mods like trigger jobs or more precise sights and if I develop a better accuracy load tailored to the specific pistol.

All that to say that, for me, getting repeatable fine accuracy, defined in absolute terms like group size, means addressing multiple factors that include the pistol, load and the shooter, and currently the biggest gains come from working on the last element.

[Petrol & Powder]

Handguns are interesting tools. Some are better than others but many of them are capable of surprisingly good accuracy.

Back in my younger days I won more than a couple of bets with a snubnose revolver. A decent snubnose 38 Special is capable of far more accuracy than most shooters can extract from the gun.

On another level, with a 4" barreled K-frame chambered in 38 Special, I saw what a handgun could do. I was with a bunch of guys shooting at about 90 yards. The target was a rock on a berm that was just big enough that you could pick it out from the red clay backstop. Once you got the elevation figured out, you could hit it every time. The cartridges were commercial standard pressure reloads with a LSWC. The guns were model 64's - fixed sights, 4" barrels, nothing fancy. Every one of us could hit that rock (which we could barely see at 90 yards) with amazing consistency. The gun was more than capable.

[jonp]

So, I'm wondering if my thoughts on pistol accuracy is just because it is only as accurate as the shooter...


About sums it up for every firearm.

[jimb16]

How are you defining a pistol? My old Contender with a 10 inch 7TCU barrel , 100 gr bullet and IMR4198 powder will hold 1 1/2 inch groups at 100 yards off sandbags. I used to shoot .22 shillouette with a 6 inch High Standard H-D Military from prone and knocked down the rams pretty consistently at 100 yards. Those rams are about the size of an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. Good sights, good ammo and plenty of practice make a world of difference with handguns.

[The Dar]

Here is my background on my thought:
I shot a steel match the other day with my CZ52 Tokerev. The the targets were 10 yards away and large 1-2' diameter. I had a tough day at work and went in and was missing everything. Not really everything but 2 or 3 or 4 misses out of 6... That sucks...

My question is, are you new to shooting competitions? I've seen new shooters in competitions get caught up with racing the timer and missing a lot. If you are new, slow down, take aim and realize you're not competing against others. You are competing against yourself and you will improve in time. If you're not new to competitions, shooting is like any other sport, you will have good days and days that aren't so good.

[tazman]

That is something that I have noticed. The more I practice, the more accurate my guns are. Strange, that.

[gnostic]

F. Bob Chow a famous 1911 builder from San Francisco used to guarantee one inch groups at 50 yards, from a machine rest. The short sight radius is a big part of the problem...

[megasupermagnum]

Mechanically, I see no reason a revolver couldn't produce 2 MOA accuracy. Some, like the 30-30 Magnum Research BFR can do that or even a little better with a scope. Based on what a bullseye shooter can do, I would think most production guns are more up to 4 MOA, although you will never see that with open sights. I've been quite surprised by semi-auto's. I never believed they could shoot as well as a good revolver, but some of them can. Obviously a well put together, nearly custom, or fully custom fit gun can shoot well. But even your typical run of the mill semi-auto with slop you can feel by shaking the gun can still shoot decent. It seems many times production semi-auto's are capable of around 3" at 50 yards from a ransom rest.

[OldBearHair]

My pistol groups are reduced by at least half as one or the other of my two sons are doing the shooting.

[44Blam]

This particular gun is shooting a 30x25... So the bullet is going quite fast and the recoil is significant.

From what everyone else is saying and what I kind of figured, the accuracy is truly achived when you have good ammunition, a good gun and a good shooter...

Here we can control all of these varibles.