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Sidearms & Scatterguns Whats's accurate. Please show your groups

Target background matters for sure. I've got an RDS on a carbine and it's much the same. I can put bullets on target out to a few hundred meters without issue...but, if I'm going to shoot a tiny group I need an absolutely crystal clear (compared to the background) that is the right size and shape to offer consistent POA. I don't have a single pistol setup for target accuracy...just not my bag. I like tiny groups, but not at the expense of tiny splits.
 
I'm mostly pistol ignorant. I can point and press buttons like most monkeys. I was unaware of an "accuracy standard" similar to the ubiquitous MOA or 1" at 100 yards for rifles, and I was working up a load using cast projectiles in a pistol, as I'm too cheap to shoot jacketed in volume. I needed to know what the pistol was capable of so I wouldn't waste time/components trying for the unattainable.

The target's an 8.5x11 sheet of paper at 10 yards. The big holes were slow-fire off a sandbag, just trying to be consistent with a Glock. In an attempt to gauge operator error, I shot 5 rounds from .22lr Ruger Mk2 target pistol: better sights/sight radius, better trigger, and fewer moving parts, though I shot crap Remington ammo, not Ely.

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I have a spare stainless cut-rifled barrel, and shot the same target with another 5 shots of the same ammo. Problem is though that the SS barrel will lead-up and accuracy will plummet, where the factory polygonal barrel stays mirror smooth (the low shot is when the barrel started to foul).

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I don't know if it's good or bad, but it works and isn't much worse than my .22lr through a cheap go-bang plastic gun with a terrible trigger.
 
mcfred - for most people even shooting off of a sandbag introduces a lot of operator error.

Not really sure what the baseline is for a pistol to be considered "accurate". Because of the difficulty of shooting accurate groups off hand, from a gun that's not shouldered and has iron sights and a short sight radius the standard answer is that most guns will be "a lot more accurate than you". Not sure how helpful that is, and there are certainly a significant percentage of shooters for whom that's not really true - i.e. they will definitely notice if a gun has only mediocre accuracy.

To give you some kind of frame of reference there are definitely pistols that are designed as "target/bullseye pistols" (for example Sig P210, SW Model 41, High Standard, and some custom/semi-custom 1911's) and are capable of shooting 1.5-2" groups at 50 yards if shot from a ransom rest. So from 10 yards these guns will consistently produce one fairly small hole. But that's in a pistol that's designed to be accurate, with match ammo it likes and shot from a device (ransom rest) that in theory should eliminate all operator error.

Not sure what the standard Glock is capable of, although I think the trigger will be something of an obstacle to getting the best groups possible out of this gun. I will tell you that I own a Glock 34 with a red dot and with pretty standard ammo shooting offhand I would have little trouble keeping all my rounds in the circle of your target at 20 yards. More experienced shooters would be able to do significant better.
 
Shooting a pistol is no different than a rifle in terms of fundamentals. As @Rifles Only likes to say, every bullet tells a story. It tells you what you did right & it also tells you what you did wrong. In short, if you apply the fundamentals of marksmanship it’s pretty easy for the most part. However, when you don’t apply the fundamentals the wheels fall off the train. Quickly.

These quals below are shot from 1.5 to 25 yards under time. I used a stock Glock 22 w/ Trijicon night sights. The last pic w/ the clean miss (circled) was a buddy messing w/ me. I screwed up anyway & shot a 359/360.

If we break this down in its simplest form, each loss of points is a breakdown in fundamentals in some form. I can live w/ a dropped point here or there. I don’t claim to be a great pistol shooter. If you post a clean miss, you have a legit breakdown somewhere & I find that inexcusable. Remember the old saying, “Every bullet has a lawyer attached to it.” I believe it was Pat McNamara who said “Ownership doesn’t equate to proficiency “ or something close to it. Regardless, it rings true.

If you can’t engage targets accurately you should seek training. Lots of people spin their wheels trying to figure this out. Shooting a pistol well doesn’t mean pick the gun up & blaze away. Proper application of fundamentals is key. Remember the old adage “You can’t miss fast enough to win.”

I don’t shoot pistols for groups; I’m always shooting under a clock & if my groups are super small I need to pick up the pace.
 

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Here's a pic of my best qual target, stock Glock 17. Shot that in 2014 and I havent beat it yet.
Range 5yd, 7yd, 10yd, 15yd under time from holster 25 rounds total.
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I believe this is called a “self own.” All about honesty, though. If I wanted to impress, I guess I’d need to shoot better. I was doing a comparative analysis of my duty holster, competition holster, RCS Perun and Bravo Concealment holsters for my SIG P320. I ran a full size slide and grip, full slide, compact grip, compact/compact and compact with RDS. There was a lot of draw and shoot one going on here, and a smaller number of draw and shoot 3 to 6. All done at 7 yds. Was initially high and tight in the A zone, so I decided to push the speed...and you can see the wheels come off. I had some issues with footing and NPA, presenting onto the right side of the target - which led to some bad shots and some slow shots.

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whatsupdoc Good shooting. 50 yards is hard to deliver the goods. Here’s a group that was going well until I threw one out.
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I shot this at 7 yards which is where I train alot for pistols. I would say I'm an average maybe slightly above pistol shot.

The gun was a FN 509 tactical full size with a Octane .45 can on it, suppressor height iron sites that come on the gun. I fired roughly 2 mags or 30 rounds to make that hole with very few flyers as you can see most of the 30 rounds went thru a hole half the size of a playing card. I don't know if this is good shooting or not, but I was pretty stoked about it. I don't think I've ever been this repeatable with any other handgun. For some reason I shoot this combo very well. I believe I was shooting subs since I had the can on it. By the way I was standing un-supported in any way.
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