How much impact on your score does your gun have on score?

[Thomas H]

Vogel is shooting a finely tuned Glock and his skill level is through the roof but if the gun didn't feel right to him would he have done as well. I think it would be hard for him to switch to another gun now also. In one of my training sesssions the pro was hard pressed to even consider changing guns even though his was old and starting to really have some wear and tear.

Hm. That may depend on the "pro" you are dealing with.

For example,when I took a class with Manny Bragg, he didn't have any problem with switching from his Limited gun to my Production Glock (which, for trigger work, only had a 25-cent trigger job and a minus connector in it) and racking up hit factors that were slightly less (different gun he's never practiced with) but very close to his original ones.

I think:

1) That some guns ARE easier to shoot, and can be more forgiving of shooter mistakes. (Ex: 1.5 pound single-action triggers are more forgiving of poor trigger control than 5-pound Glock triggers),

2) That other than trigger, the rest of the differences between guns is minor and completely depends on personal preferences,

3) That to succeed at a high level means having trigger control such that you pull the trigger straight backward without disturbing the sights, such that trading between pistols will not cause much of a difference---we aren't talking about picking up a new gun we've never fired before and doing JUST as well, we are talking about doing similarly as well, AND that with practice we would be doing just as well.

I don't see Vogel, Leatham, Bragg, Stoeger, Grauffel, or any of the other high-level folks having a problem with #3.

Oh---and I think 4) that most people base their preferences on how the gun "feels", as opposed to actually putting it on a clock and really knowing. (Ex: for years, I went with 147gr bullets because the recoil felt easier to get back on target more quickly, and thus run the gun faster. And yet, when I put them on the clock, for the combination of myself and my gun, shooting 124gr bullets gave a slight but consistent decrease in my splits and transitions. That particular recoil impulse, though it felt sharper, worked better for me, and it saved me time. The same isn't necessarily true for anyone else, I'll note.)

Point of all the blathering: Some guns ARE easier to shoot. As such, for new shooters, starting with a gun that has a great trigger is a good thing. On the other hand, it forgives poor trigger control more easily, and if you want to shoot at a high level, you can't afford that, so you'll have to fix it no matter what. Starting with a gun with a worse trigger means that from the beginning, you have to have good trigger control, so you'll work on it harder and earlier.

...other than that, I don't think that there is THAT much difference between guns. Of course, I've never won Nationals, so what do I know?

[Thomas H]

Whoops.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Thomas H

[Thomas H]

Forum gave me an error message, and I thought it didn't post!

.....humph.

Edited April 27, 2013 by Thomas H