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Reasonable 9mm pistol accuracy

In God We Trust said:
Isn’t that what guns are for? I guess I assumed his desire for accuracy was self defense related. Asking about 6 inch groups at 50 yards struck me as a new shooter question, so I was trying to keep things in perspective for him.

OP: I’ve found that all of my guns are more accurate than I am, instead of putting gay red dots and stuff on your gun, just focus on fundamentals at a range you are comfortable at. Slowly move it out until you are happy.



OP didn’t say anything About it NOT being self defense related either. He didn’t mention what his shooting practice was for.

I can hit a man sized target at 100 yards with 10 out of 15 rounds usually. Not getting any groups, but it goes ping. Nothing to brag about, but I can shoot well enough that I’m happy with the results.

Nobody I know is getting 6 inch groups at 50 yards and I think that’s an unrealistic goal for a new shooter to be worried about.
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Thats cute. I can hit an 8 inch steel plate at 100 yards 6 out of 6 times with a ruger 357 blackhawk and my 629 s and w. That's from a rest. Off hand I can do it 5 out if 6 times.

As far as the "gay red dot"......he could absolutely put a red dot on it and have a great time in bullseye leagues......or shoot bullseye league with irons.......I shoot league with irons but don't bust balls of those that use dots.
 
rmemory said:
General question as I'm trying to improve accuracy: I have the goal/expectation of consistently shooting 4" groups at 25 yards, with a stock Glock 19 Gen 5 or Sig P226 (no trigger mods, etc) and a Trijicon 3.25 MOA red dot. Shooting offhand, standing.

I've read different things about expectations, one being that a "good" shooter should be able to get 6" groups at 50 yards.

So is 16 MOA a reasonable goal, or unrealistic?
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wut u use the hand gun 4 op? small game hunting? i dont shoot that much so at 10 yards if i can keep all my shots in a 11x7 piece of paper that good enough for self defense . 6" group at 50 yards? that will take a lot of practice to get to that lv.
 
In God We Trust said:
…

Nobody I know is getting 6 inch groups at 50 yards and I think that’s an unrealistic goal for a new shooter to be worried about.
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To put it in perspective, the 9 ring on a bullseye target is less than 6”. Hell, the 10 ring is 3.36”.

I’m no expert pistol shot, I’m not claiming to be able to shoot 6” 50 yard groups with a Glock. It’d be tough with a Glock, but it’s doable and a worthy aspiration. Only way to improve is to set goals.
 
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PappyM3 said:
I’m not claiming to be able to shoot 6” 50 yard groups with a Glock.
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with a lot, and i mean a LOT of effort i was able to hit an 8" round steel plate at 100yds with my shadow 2. with glocks - well, not really, may be only from a rest once or twice, but not consitently. trigger is everything for that. and practice, of course.

i also found that red dots on all my pistols migrated quite a bit over the year of shooting - took them all to 25yds to rezero couple of weeks ago.
 
paul73 said:
with a lot, and i mean a LOT of effort i was able to hit an 8" round steel plate at 100yds with my shadow 2. with glocks - well, not really, may be only from a rest once or twice, but not consitently. trigger is everything for that. and practice, of course.

i also found that red dots on all my pistols migrated quite a bit over the year of shooting - took them all to 25yds to rezero couple of weeks ago.
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Yeah, I’m working on it. But admittedly rifles will always take precedence. I can keep most of my shots in the 8 ring with my iron sight X5. But that’s with match sights and trigger.
 
I regularly shoot handguns at 100 yards and sometimes 200. I realize that if I shot someone that far away, I'd be accused of murder. I don't do it for defensive practice. I do it for fun. 16 MOA is certainly reasonable but it will take lots of practice. Once you're that good, you have to shoot often to maintain it. Shooting well is a very perishable skill.
 
rmemory said:
General question as I'm trying to improve accuracy: I have the goal/expectation of consistently shooting 4" groups at 25 yards, with a stock Glock 19 Gen 5 or Sig P226 (no trigger mods, etc) and a Trijicon 3.25 MOA red dot. Shooting offhand, standing.

I've read different things about expectations, one being that a "good" shooter should be able to get 6" groups at 50 yards.

So is 16 MOA a reasonable goal, or unrealistic?
Click to expand...

Its completely obtainable.
We used to play this game called 'call your shots"
We'd set those orange clay pigeons at the 25, 50, 75 and 100 yd berms.
You had X amount of seconds and shots to hit your target.
You'd be surprised how many shooters could drill a clay pigeon at 75 yds within 2 rounds fired.
It was a fun little game that really tightened up accuracy.
Plate racks and dueling trees are your friend for stuff like that as well. Something like this can get you where you want to be-

ar500targetsolutions.com

6" AR500 Steel Gong Target - 3/8"

Our laser cut 6" AR500 Steel Gong Target - 3/8" works great when shooting with all pistol calibers and rifles calibers up to 308
ar500targetsolutions.com ar500targetsolutions.com
 
rmemory said:
General question as I'm trying to improve accuracy: I have the goal/expectation of consistently shooting 4" groups at 25 yards, with a stock Glock 19 Gen 5 or Sig P226 (no trigger mods, etc) and a Trijicon 3.25 MOA red dot. Shooting offhand, standing.

I've read different things about expectations, one being that a "good" shooter should be able to get 6" groups at 50 yards.

So is 16 MOA a reasonable goal, or unrealistic?
Click to expand...

16 MOA is a reasonable goal. Get a .22 with a dot and start working on a good trigger break. It will help you with all guns at all distances
 
Cuthbert Allgood said:
You only get to aim at center of AVAILABLE mass. So good luck with that theory 😉
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This is why I went with the triple tap, 2 to center mass, one to the head,
This isn't just about body armor, it wasn't that common when I started with this. But a .380 or even 9mm to the sternum isn't likely to be an off switch, it will sure as heck make them pause but not likely to stop the threat. And so the follow up. Now you're shooting at a 6-8" circle under a high stress situation, at around 20'. You best be able to put every shot in that 6" circle when you are practicing at the range. The tighter you are at the range the better you will be when TSHTF.
 
Cuthbert Allgood said:
I’ve always found it amazing that people think they can dictate the conditions of an engagement and target availability. But let’s all Cc shotguns with flight control 00 buck
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It's easy now - real patriots never leave their houses. My kids will never be in the "wrong" room when that shotgun is unloaded through the wall...
 
I shoot the 226 really well. I like to be able to make golf ball sized groups at 11 yards for any pistol I carry. The 226 or my Derr 1911 will do that at 25 yards freehand or 50 yards from a bag all day. really what matters is good practice. you dont want to practice bad habits, so one of the best things you can do is take some pistol classes with someone who knows what they're doing.
 
Cuthbert Allgood said:
I’ve always found it amazing that people think they can dictate the conditions of an engagement and target availability. But let’s all Cc shotguns with flight control 00 buck
Click to expand...

the only way to learn how fast death comes at you is to actually have been in a real fight. most people on this site never will. I do approve of low recoil 00 buck with flightcontrol, but you need just as much practice with that than anything else, if not more. shotguns are hungry and run out of ammo fast, you better practice shooting while moving to cover and reloading.
 
rmemory said:
General question as I'm trying to improve accuracy: I have the goal/expectation of consistently shooting 4" groups at 25 yards, with a stock Glock 19 Gen 5 or Sig P226 (no trigger mods, etc) and a Trijicon 3.25 MOA red dot. Shooting offhand, standing.

I've read different things about expectations, one being that a "good" shooter should be able to get 6" groups at 50 yards.

So is 16 MOA a reasonable goal, or unrealistic?
Click to expand...
If you want to see what’s reasonable, check out the scores from the NRA CMP# service pistol national matches they’re shot at 25 and 50 yards and the black aiming bull’s-eye is about 6 inches then just look at the scores and will give you an idea of what average shooters get good shooters, get and what the top 5% are getting But also remember this is target shooting a lot of the better shooters that are shooting for score have good fundamentals they’re shooting at known distance and no target size they tend to find ammunition that can shoot above and beyond their skill set, and they buy thousands upon thousands of rounds of the same lot of ammunition or reload so they don’t have to worry about variations and ammunition to maintain their groups

The real fun begins not when you can shoot a 6 inch group at 50 yards it’s getting that 6 inch group centered in the target consistently. I have many many very nice groups shooting 200 300 600 yards but unfortunately the best of those groups, and never really where they need to be so much fun.
 
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rmemory said:
General question as I'm trying to improve accuracy: I have the goal/expectation of consistently shooting 4" groups at 25 yards, with a stock Glock 19 Gen 5 or Sig P226 (no trigger mods, etc) and a Trijicon 3.25 MOA red dot. Shooting offhand, standing.

I've read different things about expectations, one being that a "good" shooter should be able to get 6" groups at 50 yards.

So is 16 MOA a reasonable goal, or unrealistic?
Click to expand...

At my Sig Handgun 102 class we were shooting at steel head targets from 25 yards. Most of the students by end of class could hit the target but maybe one shot in 4-5. Didn’t see anyone hitting it with every shot.
 

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