TargetTalk

I have a new barrel for a 22 and I am trying to test fire to determine what kind of accuracy I am getting out of it.
I went to the range today and do my normal thing- I rest the pistol on a fully loaded range bag and try to group.
I then twitched to a fixture which is common at ranges- a steel vinyl coated V with a butt plate.

So out at 25 yards I couldn't seem to group better than an inch and that was consistent over the four types of ammo I had with me.
I was getting an inch with both the range bag and the fixture.

I fought with it a bit as I expect the gun is shooting closer than that then decided I was not able to hold a decent enough sight picture to get past that inch group.
With rifle if I am grouping at an inch at 100 yards with good aperture sights and rested I really feel that is it- the gun is shooting better than that and that is good enough.
With pistol I just am not finding I can trust my sight picture and hold with open irons rested to tell me anything.

I really can’t tell- is the barrel grouping at an inch or is that just the limits of my hold.

What is done?
Is everyone getting some time on a Ransom rest with correct grip pads or?

Thanks

Greetings,

You can get comparable results using either the Random Rest or attaching a 4X pistol scope to your gun.

With the scope method, align the cross hairs to touch a 1" black paster on a white target face at 50 yards.

Use a comfortable sandbag rest and try to be as consistent with your grip and trigger control as possible.

Cheers,

Dave

Dave thank you for that.
With this pistol a scope will not be possible.
This gun also has a barrel in 32 S&W long wadcutter and as I intend to try reloading for it so the problem of accuracy testing will haunt me.

I read with interest your posts on reloading for the 32

The only way to remove most of the human element in testing is to use a ransom rest.
From a bag or a V rest, without optics, it's going to be difficult to get a better consistent result than what you already got.

Hope this helps

Pretty hard to get better than an inch at 25 yards with iron sights, or any .22 pistol really.

Do you need to do better than an inch?
The ISSF X is 25mm so an inch is fine.

Otherwise a ransom rest is the way to go, although they need to be used with care and they don't replicate the human arm.

I am testing to find inherent accuracy in a barrel of unknown back history.
I have an ideal of where the barrel should be and this one inch group is far over that- this is just a question of checking off the list that the barrel is where is should be.

As an aside- my best rapid string at the short line had a pulled 10 at 2 on first shot (as I am want to do..) and the rest neat as a dime in a penny size group right on the X.
Needed...?
Perhaps not but when I am putting in the time it is a useful assurance for me that the pistol is capable of an center of X shot each and every time so I KNOW it is my foolishness which caused any other shot...

One shot "flyer" CAN be the ammo.

Even a Ransom Rest doesn't really test a barrel for accuracy. It does test the gun as a system.
To truly test a barrel, you need a barrel testing fixture such as a Cominolli device attached to a very secure foundation.
I got the chance to see the difference when a National guard team was evaluating a batch of Kart 1911 barrels. With the Cominolli device, the barrels themselves would mostly shoot 1" 10 shot groups at 50 yds, using Federal Gold Match ammo. The couple barrels that didn't do that well were returned and replaced by Fred Kart. Once fitted and built into a 1911, and tested in a Ransom Rest, best groups ran 2"-3".
Interestingly, sometimes a "3 inch" Ransom Rest gun is actually capable of better accuracy, if the barrel to slide fit is better than the slide to frame fit. That is, if using iron sights or a slide mounted optic.