Why is a short pistol hard to shoot?

[Spetsnaz]

Discounting recoil, what makes a short pistol difficult to shoot? Is it the short barrel itself which makes it inaccurate or the short sight radius?

[GentlemanJim]

The sight radius is the biggest problem.

Jim

[North]

Welcome to the forum.

Mainly it is the short sight radius that impairs ones ability to shoot the pistol as accurate.

The short barrel affects how efficiently the powder burns which in turn affects the bullet velocity,

[G-ManBart]

Short sight radius is the primary factor. I have .40 Glocks in three sizes....22, 23 and 27. That little 27 is incredibly accurate for such a small gun, but it is harder to shoot than the other two. When I do everything perfectly I can get groups that are the same size as the other two, but that's not easy to do!

[Spetsnaz]

Thanks for the welcome, North

Interesting. So a C-more sighted Officer's length barrel would not be more difficult to shoot with a C-more sighted government length barrel. Or balance still plays another role?

[iainmcphersn]

Thanks for the welcome, North

Interesting. So a C-more sighted Officer's length barrel would not be more difficult to shoot with a C-more sighted government length barrel. Or balance still plays another role?

Balance will play a role but a longer barrel is not always better. Consider that there has been a trend toward short barrelled open guns that put the balance farther back and are generally lighter. The shooter's preference is more important to a gun's "shootability".

[JFD]

In my experience, the shorter the barrel gets, the worse the sights get. This doesn't help at all.

The few times I've shot short barrelled guns that had good sights, I never noticed an accuracy difference. I think the last one was a Llama Mini-Max that was a craptastic gun, but it shot really well in terms of accuracy when it fed and fired. I think the relatively decent sights on it made a big difference compared to something like a Chiefs Special with a groove for a rear sight.

[spook]

Never had problems with accuracy, just controlability.

The grip is too small.

[Kingman]

As far as open guns I am still not sure shorter is better at this point.

[Johann the Horrible]

A shorter barrel is less flexible than a longer barrel so all other things being equal the shorter barrel will make the gun more accurate. The problem comes with"all else being equal".

[Radical Precision Designs]

A shorter barrel is less flexible than a longer barrel so all other things being equal the shorter barrel will make the gun more accurate. The problem comes with"all else being equal".

All things being equal ... the first shot (at closer distances) will be/could be ... well, equal, kind of.

But the second, follow up shot ?? or subsequent shots ?? You'd better have a "vise" grip !!! Definetely not for "sissies" !

[Blueridge]

Well I use a Ruger Alaskan (.454/.45) that has a 2 1/2" Barrel and weighs about 42 ounces. I use it in USPSA and IDPA with .45 Colt, and if I do my part it will keep me in the hunt with other longer barreled handguns. The actual sight radius is about 5 1/2" from the rear sight to the front, but with a 7 1/2" barrel it would be about a 10 1/2" sight radius I believe. This is only a 1" to 1 1/2" shorter sight radius than many full size autos.

Part of the issue with shorter barrels is that any movement that the shooter makes has a "magnified" effect on where the projectile goes. If the front sight moves slightly to the left with my 2 1/2" barrel, the point of impact will be farther than if the same happened with a 7 1/2" barrel.

[OpnBlstr]

As far as open guns I am still not sure shorter is better at this point.

Amen. I played with a shorty for a year. Loud, obnoxious, hair raising.

I rebuilt my old 5" non hybrid open gun with new slide and barrel. In the first match out I shot it much better than I ever shot the short gun. Faster and more accurately.

With more people opting for 9x19 open guns, the short option looks even less promising since there's less powder volume than with 38. The extra inch lets you hold velocity with more reasonable pressure and less felt blast to the rear.

I also have a 4" 1911 in 45 I shoot for single stack matches. I personally prefer it over a 5" because of how it cycles - very fast with no waiting around. The sight radius does make more careful aiming required which slows transitions on further targets. That's why for limited I really like the 6" slides. It takes a little getting used to but the same visual error on a 6" as compared to a 5" will generally put more shots into the A. It's hard to explain...you will think you threw more shots into the C zone than you actually do as you call your shots.

[Allgoodhits]

Discounting recoil, what makes a short pistol difficult to shoot? Is it the short barrel itself which makes it inaccurate or the short sight radius?

Good question, often misunderstood and more frequently misinformed.

Since you mention sight radius the logical assumption is that you are talking front & rear sight as opposed to a scope of some type. Also, you said short pistol, so let's eliminate the grip size length as a factor and just go with all else same, except shorter barrel, thus shorter sight radius.

First, consider one's visual ability to align front and rear sight. Since we are not perfect, then we can never align the sights perfectly, no matter what our vision is. So there will always be some measure of misalignment. The longer the distance between the front and rear sight (sight radius) the less negative the same margin of error becomes. Any misalignment of sights is non-parallel. One ten thousandths of inch misalignement on a 4" sight radius will cause the impact to be "off" more than if one had one tenthousandths of inch misalignment of sights with an 8" sight radius gun assuming both were being fired at a target the same distance away. So, abolute sight alignment is more critical with a shorter sight radius compared to a longer one. Thus harder to shoot as accurately, unless scoped. In other words, given a 4 inch sight radius gun and an 8 inch sight radius gun, you may "see" the same alignment, but the misalignment that is there, will produce larger groups with the short sight radius gun, even if both guns are just as accurate.

Second, Newton's laws come into play. Typically a shorter firearm will weigh less than a longer one. A heavier firearm is more stable since inertia comes into play. However, if a firearm is too heavy for the user, then fatigue may create more problems than the inertia solves. Of course balance plays a factor also as some prefer more weight front vs aft. A two pound trigger on five pound gun will tend to fire before the gun moves, whereas a two pound gun with a five pound trigger will tend to move when pressure is required to cause the gun to fire which is greater than the mass of the gun. This later scenario is where firm "grip" really comes into play.

Third, the barrel length doesn't matter, provided two things. ( A ) that the barrel is long enough to stabilize the bullet prior to muzzle exit, and ( B ) that the barrel is long enough to generate sufficient velocity so that the bullet remains stabilized until impact with the target. All quality bullet/brass/combo loads that are accurate at 50 yds, will be accurate at 25 yds, but not all loads that are accurate at 25yds will be accurate at 50 yds. Too light (soft) loads may become unstable too swiftly if the charge was marginal from the beginning. For this reason, all accuracy testing should/must be done at the longest distance you may have to shoot.

Fourth, you typically do not see too many short barreled, quality guns with terrific triggers and quality sights.

Be safe!

Martin

Edited December 21, 2007 by Allgoodhits