.22 handgun accuracy...

[Dave P.]

Was reading a

 

[Dan in MI]

You violated the rule of magazine articles. Or the author did.

Distance and group size are supposed to be pages apart.


Example. First page - "In our testing this little super gun shot great groups of 3.5 inches."
Last page of the article in the weird single paragraph closing. "At our favorite 5 foot range this super gun shot really well."

 

[Cholo]

I read about what I would consider dismal accuracy out of the new Colt .22 revolvers. I'd already own one of their Anaconda 44's if it didn't average about 2.5" at 25 yds in eight or so different articles.

From the 70's to the 90's I'd bench rest my adjustable sighted revolvers to 1) sight them in and 2) group them; Ruger-S&W-Colt. Not one I can remember shot over 2" at 25 yrs with me behind the sights, with the exception being a 4" S&W M34 22LR. I just found that gun extremely difficult to shoot well with the skinny factory grips. Most of the guns shot 1.5" or less. My '94 S&W 29 Classic and my '79 Ruger SBH shot an inch at 25 yds off a bench with hunting loads.

This 2.5"-3.5" 25 yd. group out of new high $ revolvers is pitiful IMHO.

 

[Mobuck]

I'm sure everyone has heard this too many times BUT. Ruger 22/45 III with 4.5" barrel is capable of 3-3.5MOA @ 100 yards(basically a 3"-3.5" group at 4x the Colt's performance distance).
If that's all the COLT has to offer, I wouldn't carry it home.

 

[turd]

I have a High Standard Super Tournament that I added a match chamber bull barrel to and used to use it to shoot close in prairie dogs with its cheap Tasco red dot sight. Close in meaning 100 yds or less. Shot NRA bullseye with it, also. If it were as good as the Colt, I would have sold it long ago.

 

[Kevin]

Will this be a .22 revolver vs semi auto accuracy debate?

Ruger Mark pistols with the fixed barrel and the bolt vs slide design really make them accurate. Or the Smith and Wesson Model 41. How impressively accurate that gun is!

Revolvers and especially 22 revolvers are fun to shoot, but can't compare in accuracy to the Mark pistols.

 

[turd]

You are correct revolvers vs. semi-autos. I've only owned one single six convertible a long time ago and it was OK, not great. I didn't shoot targets back then and it was surely minute of rabbit. .

 

[Dan in MI]

I shot a Single Six in silhouette. 3.5" at 25 yards means I'd have never hit a ram. That'd be rough to keep INT status.

 

[Mobuck]

Revolver, semi-auto, single shot--I don't care but THREE INCH+ 25 YARD GROUP is not good enough.

 

[gunzo]

Auto's maybe easier to shoot but as a rule, but no more or little more accurate within a given price/quality standpoint, particularly in trained hands.

Otherwise, 3.5" at 25yds. is dismal. Send gun back or find new shooter.

 

[Ride1949]

From the 70's to the 90's I'd bench rest my adjustable sighted revolvers to 1) sight them in and 2) group them; Ruger-S&W-Colt. Not one I can remember shot over 2" at 25 yrs with me behind the sights

There's the biggest determining factor.

 

[Heliman]

Well, I don't shoot a 22 pistol at 100 yds, I do at 50 but mostly 25 yds.

Surprisingly, my 1982 Ruger Mk II Target doesn't shoot any better then my Taurus TX22. I might have to try the Taurus off the bench.

 

[contender]

"Revolver, semi-auto, single shot--I don't care but THREE INCH+ 25 YARD GROUP is not good enough."


^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^

 

[mirglip]

It's been about 25 years since I read any NRA magazines (I have given up on the NRA). I remember they used to do write ups on firearms without ever mentioning what the trigger pull was.
I would get all worked up thinking about buying a firearm they were praising only to find out later they had horrible triggers.

 

[peachhead]

I don't remember the last time I saw any magazine review that said: this gun is horrible, don't buy it.

 

[daveag.]

Was reading an article in my NRA magazine testing a Colt 10 shot .22 revolver, believe it was the King Cobra Target model.
Looking at the shooting results at 25 yards the thing had a average sized group of about 3.5 inches.
Am I wrong in thinking that's nowhere near "target" sized groups. Maybe I've been lucky, but shot over rests both my
MK1 and MKII are more like quarter sized groups at 25 yards and my GP in .22 is about the same.
So did the Colt kind of suck or have I been real lucky that my .22s actually shoot much better then typical?

Maybe it was the shooter? Not many handguns shoot like a Ruger auto, tho.

 

[Ranger]

I wish that all articles referenced the shooters ability. That is probably the biggest factor regarding group size. I've read articles where the writer does his accuracy tests standing shooting offhand and pronounces a 4 inch group as good. That only tells me I wasted my time reading the article. I'd much prefer to see a random sample of 3 to 5 guns tested by an elite shooter or ransom rest with variety of ammo to see what is the gun's accuracy and not the shooter's.

 

[Ranger]

FWIW: My new model 6" Colt Anaconda can do sub one inch 25 yard groups so don't assume accuracy will be poor.

 

[mirglip]

I wish that all articles referenced the shooters ability. That is probably the biggest factor regarding group size. I've read articles where the writer does his accuracy tests standing shooting offhand and pronounces a 4 inch group as good. That only tells me I wasted my time reading the article. I'd much prefer to see a random sample of 3 to 5 guns tested by an elite shooter or ransom rest with variety of ammo to see what is the gun's accuracy and not the shooter's.

It would be presumed that a gun magazine would employ someone with very high shooting talent for these published comparisons, but I'm not that confident about gun magazines in general.

 

[gjgalligan]

For the most part all my guns shoot better then I do. As I get a bit older the groups are opening up.
That said ammo can make a difference and how the gun is maintained.
But anything made by man can be defective.