How do they shoot?

[Thumbcocker]

I just got into the BP revolver game and have been impressed. The gun is a ROA and with 35 grns of T7 and a .457 ball it is accurate enough to make repeated hits on a charging soda can on the 50 yard burm. My accuracy standard for a center fire revolver is soda cans at 50 and at least throw dirt on a similar sized target from a sitting backrest position at 100. Most Blackhawks in most calibers will do this with a little load development.

Now my question. I have read a lot of postings on various forums BP revolvers and they usually say something like really accurate! Great accuracy! etc. Without actually defining what that means. Sooo with a quality Remington style replica revolver (I am looking at Pietta or Uberti) what is a realistic accuracy expectation at 25-50 yards?
Do the 5.5" models shoot as well or worse?

Thanks

[Omnivore]

I've been observing the same things; "Really Accurate" and so on. You'll also see group sizes given, but no distance, which makes the group size utterly meaningless. It is in fact very rare to get a meaningful representation of these guns' accuracy.

Also, some people mistake POA/POI issues with "accuracy", yet of course one has nothing to do with the other. So you might have a guy tell you his gun is "totally accurate" but what you may not know is he means his seven inch group at ten yards is perfectly centered over the point of aim.

All I can tell you is my own, personal experience. My average group with a Pietta Remington 44, shooting round ball or 200 grain Lee conical is in the 3.5 to 4.5" range at 25 yards, strangely whether I'm shooting from an improvised rest or standing unsupported. That's not cherry picking groups, but they are the regular sort of thing I could do for you any day. Not impressive at all though. My best groups were from Colt open top guns, in the 2.5" range at 25 yards, using the bed rail of my pickup as a rest. That's getting into the accuracy range of many decent, modern service type pistols. Some people have reported slightly better than that, but then my eyes aren't near as good as they once were. I often have difficulty seeing well enough to really eek out the best accuracy using the black on black iron sights.

And that's another, VERY common thing about accuracy reports; most of them come with qualifiers and excuses, such as "Those two 'fliers' I think were my fault, and so I believe the gun is capable of holding all shots in that smaller cluster nearby..."

A person must do a LOT of shooting to really be able to give a definitive report. My problem, and I suspect the same goes for a lot of people, is that I'm almost always experimenting with something different. Well using something different isn't conducive to accuracy, which is to say "consistency" is it?

Soda cans (if we're talking the standard 12 ounce version) at 50 yards would be something of a Hail Mary, but "repeated hits" is another one of those definitions that doesn't really mean anything. Does it mean more than one hit in a whole day of shooting, or more than one hit per cylinder load of six, or three hits in a row, or what? See? My luck at 50 yards has not been in keeping (angular size-wise) with my experiences at 25, but then I haven't done much at 50 so I should now shut up.

As for barrel length; it has been pretty well scientifically proven that barrel lengh has little if anything to do with inherent accuracy (though in rifles it is often the shorter barrel that is the more accurate). The functional difference in that regard is the longer barrel has the longer sight radius, which helps the shooter aim with alittle more precision. If you have really good eyes, it won't matter at all. There are so many other variables that go into detrermining the accuracy of the whole system that it's sort of pointless to even talk about barrel length as being one of them. For certain, all else being equal (heh), you'll get lower velocity from a shorter barrel than from a long one, but velocity is another subject.

[Thumbcocker]

Thank you for being a voice of clarity. On a really good day I will mage 2 hits per cylinder and move the can with 4 or 5. The misses are on me which is what I like to know about any firearm I shoot.

[Wayne Smith]

You will generally find that the mode of loading has little to do with the accuracy of the revolver. Geometry of the internals, grip design, how it fits or doesn't fit your hand, and how much you have practiced with that particular firearm will all be greater variables in practical accuracy.

[Hanshi]

Accuracy of a c&b for me is sub 2" groups at 25 yards. But normally they do much better than that.

[Omnivore]

Hanshi; That is remarkable, and so now I would like to know the particulars; which guns, made by whom, any modifications or improvenents to the guns, and what specific loads. If you're getting that kind of accuracy from "c&b" in general, I, and I'm sure a lot of people, would like to know how they might duplicate your results.