Are certain pistol designs more accurate then others?

P

Peter M. Eick

New member
I was pondering the following question and would like to throw this out for discussion.

My question is this, are certain pistol designs, intrinsically more accurate then others?

Are 1911 style pistols intrinsically more accurate then glock or beretta or H&K or whoever designs, just because they are 1911's? or is it because we customize and work them over?

Is the 1911 intrinisically more accurate then the high power? I have not seen anyone hand making high powers from the ground up like the Baer's and Wilson's are doing for the 1911, does this mean it cannot be done?

Where does "shootability" fit into this?

From a logic standpoint, something like an automag should be more accurate then a glock because the barrel is fixed to the sights.

What do you all think?

Also, what design is the most accurate, or if you had the money, and you solely wanted the most accurate pistol, where would you and does not move, so it should be more accurate right?

start?
 
I'm going to ruffle a few feathers with this one, but here goes. Toe to toe, the modern Browning design blows away the first design, the 1911. I is a simpler, faster, and more accurate design. When I mean toe to toe, it is a dollar, size and value equals. If you compare let say a 1911 with a 4.5" barrel, same price point and no modifications, to a HK or Sig of that same price and size, the newer design is hands down superior. More accurate and above all, more reliable. The added accuracy of the 1911 come primarily from the increased sight radius on the 5" barrel. That sight radius is about 7" on most full size 1911's vs 6.2 on the modern gun.

Now, I will put on my asbestos fire suit on and lets burn the house down.

Robert
 
Dollar for dollar, the SIGs and HKs probably are more reliable than comparable 1911-style pistols, and perhaps they're just as accurate, but I have yet to see anyone win a bullseye match with any .45 other than a 1911 or a revolver. The crisp trigger and low bore axis of a 1911 make it more "shootable" than most other pistols.

The P7 pistols with their fixed barrels and light triggers might be an exception. HK doesn't make a P7 in .45, though, so it can't be tested in NRA bullseye.
 
John Browning got patents on all three basic operating systems in 1896. And almost every automatic pistol today is a direct descendent of one of those. The two most commonly seen are blowback and short recoil locked breech (which is the mechanism of both the 1911 and P-35. Is one more basically accurate than the other? Not really.

The beauty of Browning's designs is that they functioned well with faily generous tolerances. It is the removal of those tolerances as seen with the custom 1911s today that makes the 1911 far superior because it's more easily worked on. I have a suspicion that the .45 ACP cartridge is also more accurate than the 9mm, but don't have the means of proving that.

A fixed barrel, such as those of straight blowback design should, theoretically be more accurate because the barrel doesn't tilt and depend on some mechanical means to return to exactly the same place every shot.

Actually this is a great question, but not one easily answered with hard data.
 
The secret of accuracy in any gun is consistency. The 1911 target pistols are more accurate than most out-of-box other types because they have been worked on and worked over until all the accuracy secrets are known.

It doesn't matter what a barrel does. It doesn't matter what a breech block or slide does, AS LONG AS IT DOES THE SAME THING EVERY TIME. Assuming that the ammunition is accurate and the barrel rifling and dimensions are correct for the ammo, everything else is a matter of consistency.

That is why we have carefully fitted links, fitted barrels, lapped in slides, tight barrel bushings, etc.

If we remove the human factor (primarily trigger pull), I think possibly the service type pistol with the best designed in accuracy potential is the Luger. But the Luger and the BHP have "round the corner" trigger-sear connections that (unless in a machine rest) cannot but hurt practical accuracy.

The 1911 is capable of some fine trigger pull work, and its only major limitation is the sliding trigger. Actually, a pinned trigger (like the Ballester Molina) probably has a better potential and doesn't have the problem of the hammer dropping to half cock when the slide is released. Reason is that the pinned trigger does not have the inertia movement that causes the hammer drop.

Jim
 
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