Accuracy question

My Father, who was a skilled hunter and shooter, NRA certified rifle and pistol instructor, and taught Hunter Safety courses every year, was a fan of the paper plate method. Sort of. His requirement was that you had to be able to hit near/at the CENTER of the plate.

No matter what the range, or weapon, if you could hit near the center of the plate, you could cleanly take deer with a boiler room shot.

HOWEVER, if you could only manage to hit the plate somewhere, then you needed more practice. And I'll stand with that, today. You need to be better than just hitting the plate somewhere, you need to be able to hit it somewhere near the center. If you can do that, then your bullet will be in a vital spot.

Good idea shooting brown targets, deer aren't white, unless its a whitetail and you're going for the "Texas heart shot" (shooing the deer in the rump as it bounds away. Not an easy task, nor are all guns able to penetrate enough for a clean kill)

Expect something a bit different when you go from shooting specials to magnums. Point of impact may change drastically, or it may only change a little, seems to depend on the gun. Drop at range changes a bit too. Depending on the range it might be something you need to adjust for, or it might not.

One gun I got to shoot was one of the SAA clones (its been decades, I forget the maker, but I do remember the performance), in .357Mag. Shooting .38s at 25yds, the gun was highly accurate. shot perfectly to point of aim. Same gun (fixed sights) shooting magnums, EVERY shot was at least a foot low and a foot left. And three different shooters had exactly the same results.

Never could figure out why it did that, there was no reason we could find, but it did do it. I don't expect your S&W to be anywhere near that, but do expect a slight change in point of impact compared to shooting .38s.

Some guns are more accurate with magnums, some aren't. Some shooters are more accurate with one load than the other, though its seldom a beginner is more accurate with magnums, it can happen, I've see that, too.
My Daughter was...
or, perhaps she just felt like showing off a bit.

Her (then) boyfriend wanted us to go shooting. My Daughter is smart (about nearly everything except picking boyfriends :rolleyes:) and hyper competent in some areas, which she hides quite well, most of the time. I taught her to shoot, and how to operate guns, but never insisted she practice, and she very seldom did. She knows how, just not really that interested.

So, we go out to a sand pit, do some plinking, Boyfriend shoots my Model 28 6" with .38s at an old 2x4 sticking out of the bank, range about 15yds...get 4 hits. Happy. Daughter fires a cylinder of .38s, get 3 or 4 hits...
Switch to magnums (my handloads) BF shoots gets 3 or 4 hits, and is excited, daughter isn't really interested, but he insists, "honey, you GOT to try this!!!"

Daughter looks at me, rolls eyes, I just nod...she takes the gun shoots a cylinder of magnums, hits 6 for 6! :eek::D

Boyfriend just stands there with mouth hanging open...daughter goes to fix picnic lunch...I tell him, "if I were you, I wouldn't do anything to get her really mad at you...." after a bit, he gets his mouth closed, and nods slowly...

There is such a thing as natural talent, and some of the most unlikely people have it, sometimes.
 
Haha that's a good story and memory of you and your daughter. I bet you was proud. Hopefully i can just have talent like her and save a few thousand rounds lol. My grandfather tells me I'm a good shot with the guns I have. However, i haven't shot around many people to compare to. I think I shoot decent for the time I put in. Good enough to hunt and not worry about missing the vitals in my respectable ranges. I can be better. And this is gonna be a challenge and I'm very excited to be challenged. I should mention I have shot 357 magnums. Well I've shot 6 rounds total. Being the most powerful handgun caliber I've shot it wasn't horrible but its definitely noticeable. Here's a question..is it harder for people to shoot a compound bow accurately or a handgun?
 
Here's a question..is it harder for people to shoot a compound bow accurately or a handgun?
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I have no real frame of reference for the bow (did shoot a recurve as a pre-teen), and I think its apples and oranges.

I would say the bow, as it requires both hands while the handgun only requires one. Two is better but one works.

I have read often over the years that a handgun takes roughly 3 times the amount of effort to master than the rifle. Don't know if its true, and can't say it isn't, but..there's been talk...;)
 
Here's a question..is it harder for people to shoot a compound bow accurately or a handgun?
Click to expand...
I had to give this one a bit of thought. I think it's mixing apples and oranges here, but a comparison can still be made. I shot tournament archery for many, many years and did pretty good at it. I got my first bow when I was five and shot almost every day with my father and we both went to a lot of shoots. When I got to be twenty-one I got into handguns and ended up shooting them about every day and going to a lot of big shoots around the country. I ended up being a pretty decent shot with the handgun (and rifle and shotgun.....three gun shoots). Anyway, with a great many years of practice I can group my shots with the bow in about four inches at fifty yards and just a little bit under that with a handgun (both standing off-hand obviously). These are approximations, I never directly compared one versus the other. In any case, if you dedicated yourself to mastering both you'd probably come out with similar results out to around fifty yards if you were proficient with both.
 
That's dang good shooting for 50 yards. I was curious about the answer to that because I devoted alot of time shooting a compound bow. I loved every minute of it but it does take time
 
Most of the shooters I see at the range are happy to be able to keep all their shots on a zombie silhouette at 20 feet.
If that’s the best they can do, those people should not be hunting deer with a handgun.
Any standard is going to be arbitrary. My standard of a 4” group at 25 yds is something any reasonably skilled handgunner should be able to meet. An expert can produce 2” groups with the occasional 1” group thrown in.

I understand that many shooters consider my standard unreasonable. I suspect that’s because they can’t do it most of the time.

Now, if a handgunner is going to be shooting from a blind, with a solid rest, my standard should be applied to those conditions. Shooting a deer, especially the first time, is not the same as shooting a stationary paper target. You’re excited. The deer’s moving or might move at any second. Yanking the trigger is a very real possibility.
Skill and good habits are required.
If you don’t have the necessary skill, you shouldn’t be hunting deer with a handgun.
Period.
 
If you don’t have the necessary skill, you shouldn’t be hunting deer with a handgun.
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Don't stop with a handgun, I've seen plenty of gut shot and lost deer from people using scoped rifles, shotguns, and bows. Ethics applies to any choice of hunting weapon. It's not unique to handguns. No hunter should take unethical shots with anything...however, a lot of them do.
 
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