Posted: 1/24/2006 11:08:16 AM EDT
| How do you measure how accurate you are at the range? How important is the ammo you use or is it more of handgun / shooter specific when it comes to accuracy? Of all the elements wouldn't you think that the shooter was more important? I have heard guys saying it was the gun and not me, what is it for you? |
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I KNOW that my gun will shoot 1" groups or maybe less at 15 yards. Anything larger, and its me. 90% of inaccuracy in handgun shooting comes from the shooter. No shit. Thats why it's silly to put a new barrel in a handgun that does not have the ergonomics, sights and trigger to allow the shooter to use it to anywhere near its potential. If you really want to know how accurate your pistol is, rest it over a bench and take your time. Then you have a benchmark. So, in order of importance: Shooter Ergonomics Mechanical accuracy of handgun |
It's unfortunate that more people didn't know that. I often read of folks blaming their sights, barrels, ammo and guns for inaccuracy but I've always said that more can be achieved by tuning up the shooter. |
Showoff! I honestly don't really measure accuracy. I shoot out to 50 yards (occasionally) with pistols, but even then I don't check groups, I look to see if I hit what I was aiming at. The great majority of my shooting involves more than groups, such as: can I punch this target in the face, step back Mozambique the one to the side of the first, then do the first one as well? |
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As you have probably noted, the term "accuracy" means different things to different people...and even to the same people at different times for different purposes. The old Bullseye shooters used to say "You can buy X's, but you can't buy 10's"...meaning that you first had to learn how to shoot well before a high-dollar custom Target gun would do you any real good. As SGB knows full well, the group he posted is...assuming it is a slowfire group...Excellent (note the capital "E"!) if fired at 50yd., very good, indeed, if fired at 25yd., pretty good at 15 yd. and a joke if fired at 7yd. and all that only if fired offhand without a rest. Unbelievable? Not hardly...go to any Bullseye or PPC match and you will see that or similar any weekend you choose. But these guys are shooting tuned guns with tuned triggers and light loads, and they are very, very good. (Ol' SGB hisself ain't bad for an old fart!) "Intrinsic" accuracy speaks to the gun and the ammo only...can the gun repeatedly put bullets through the same hole at a given distance with that load. "Practical" accuracy speaks to what YOU can do with the combination. They are definitely not the same thing. A firearm mey be extremely "accurate" with no sights at all and a really crappy trigger if fired in a machine rest, but it is not very practical. A different weapon, with good sights and trigger, may fit you perfectly and hit whatever you shoot at within reasonable limits with a given load, but never come close to the other one in accuracy from the machine rest. Now you tell me...which is the more "accurate"? Clear as mud now? 
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