What's determines pistol accuracy?
Does caliber have an affect on accuracy (9mm, .40, .45) or does it depend on the make and model of gun? or Both?
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I think 90% is the shooter, and 10% gun!!! 0 -
#1 The shooter
#2 The Sighting system
#3 the way the pistol is fitted so the barrel points the same spot as the sights at the distance to the target + the amount of drop to the bullets flight
#4 the ammo used
With that said just like a chain the weakest link will be the most obvious and it is the one of those 4 that is the furthest from perfect.0 -
for practical accuracy for hunting large game or whatever if you can hit a pop can 5 out of 6 times at 25 yards, and keep 5 out of 5 rounds in 8" round target at 50 yards the gun is good enough..
I havent seen many pistols, including cheap surplus pistols in good condition that wont maintain that kind of accuracy.. I have seen alot of people, myself included that cant shoot as well as the average handgun..0 -
A highly skilled shooter like member Perry Shooter can get a high degree of accuracy from a very average pistol, while a shooter like myself, with very average skills, can get mediocre results from extremely expensive match pistols! Shooting is all about he basics and you don't need a big money Olympic pistol to learn the fundamentals and be accurate. Once you have mastered the skills and have reached the full potential of your handgun it is then time to step up to the higher level pistols where the careful fit, finish and meticulous rifling of the barrel and the best quality adjustable sights, trigger and hand grip (many are custom fit) will lead the the maximum possible accuracy...If you ammo is also match grade! Nearly all companies that make high quality match ammo also make a "practice" version of the same ammo which mimics the match characteristics, but does not have the same exactly production standards, or the prices to go with it. Generally speaking, 9mm does NOT have a reputation as a highly accurate round and there are very limited match loading available in 9mm. Because of this you won't see many match grade 9mm pistols out there, although both Beretta and FN did offer versions of their service pistols with match grade features...And sales were disappointing! Probably the most accurate and well developed centerfire cartridge for accuracy is the old .32S&W LWC, which is favored by many Olympic shooters. The .38 Special has also seen wide use when loaded with WC bullets as well as the old .45ACP. For true match grade accuracy in a handgun cartridge it is all about the .22LR rimfire.
Beretta Model 92FS, standard police and service pistol:
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Beretta 92F Competition pistol with many up rated match feature in addition to a special barrel:
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Which one is more accurate? It all depends on just who is holding the gun!0 -
9mm-Sig P210 Lotsa practice and cash, good luck finding one
40-Hi Point Carbine very easy to work on, inexpensive to buy & maintain, longer barrel tends to be more accurate
45-STI, Caspian, Strayer-Voight very pricey, specialty guns0 -
quote:Originally posted by cpt_spac
Does caliber have an affect on accuracy (9mm, .40, .45) or does it depend on the make and model of gun? or Both?
Its a good question, and the answer is complicated.
In a nutshell, in terms of pure accuracy, quality of the gun is more important than choice of caliber.
To expand on this, there are two kinds of accuracy. There is what you might call "mechanical" (or "intrinsic") accuracy. . .which is how accurate the gun and ammunition combination are by themselves. Imagine shooting a gun from a mechanical rest that returns the gun EXACTLY to the same spot after every single shot, so all human variation is taken out of the picture. I believe this is really what your question is asking about.
There there is what you might call "practical" accuracy. That is how accurate you can be in the REAL WORLD, with an ACTUAL shooter.
Things that affect mechanical accuracy include the quality of the AMMUNITION (eg mostly how consistently its made), the quality of the GUN (mostly about high tolerances, good barrels, and quality design), and then (to a lesser extent) how well the ammo interacts with the particular gun.
In addition to the factors that affect mechanical accuracy, the factors that affect PRACTICAL accuracy include the skill of the individual shooter (this is actually the single most important thing), the quality of the gun sights, trigger, and grips. The last three things affect the ability of the shooter to extract good practical accuracy from the gun.
For example, lets say I take a pristine $3000 match quality gun, but replace the trigger sear with a crappy one yielding a long rough trigger pull, and also replace the nice match sights with tiny crappy 19th century sights. From a mechanical rest, the gun will shoot small groups, but if you gave this gun to a shooter, they would have a hard time shooting it well.
Also note that a really good shooter with a mediocre gun and mediocre ammo will outshoot a novice with a match quality gun and match quality ammo EVERY SINGLE TIME. There are only a small minority of shooters who are skilled enough to fully exploit the accuracy potential of their guns.
Now, to answer your specific question, in theory, there is no reason why a 9mm luger gun or a .40SW gun can't be as accurate as a .45 ACP. In THEORY, all these CALIBERS are capable of extremely good accuracy. . .so long as the ammunition quality is high and the gun quality is high.
For example, the best possible 9mm luger gun, the famous SIG p210 target pistol, is capable of shooting as small groups as any match grade .45ACP pistol (in fact, smaller than many), so long as its using good match-quality ammunition.
In PRACTICE, however, 9mm luger AMMUNITION has been made in so many places across the globe over the year, and in so many different guns, that tolerances between guns and ammo run the gamut from very good to extremely poor. As a result, the 9mm luger CARTRIDGE never developed a good reputation for accuracy. . .even though the round actually is capable of good accuracy, when well-made.
EDIT:
quote:Originally posted by gunnut505
9mm-Sig P210 Lotsa practice and cash, good luck finding one
Oh, they're quite easy to find. How many would you like to buy?
http://www.rocosystem.com/sig-p210/
There are also usually 2-4 of them on the auction site here at any time:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/SearchResults.aspx?Keywords=sig+p210
The hard part is AFFORDING one. [;)]
The second hard part, by the way, is after you've sold your first born child to afford one, actually being willing to shoot it! Seriously speaking, if you do manage to get your hands on one, be careful, they're quite notorious for "hammerbite" where the hammer pinches the web of the shooting hand thumb during firing.0 -
Mark covered it all. 0 -
match guns means just that....
the parts were matched to each other.
the ammo was matched to the gun.
the gun was matched to the shooters ability.
a matched shooter with a matched gun and ammo = accuracy.0
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