Revolver accuracy vs Semi-Auto

G

Geek-With-A-Gun

New member
I am new to handguns and after doing some research I settled on a Ruger SR9 as my first handgun. I bought it in December. Over the weeks I got a little better each time I went to the range, but nothing to write home about. Suddenly I fell in love with the Ruger GP100 and bought one last week. With the SR9 I could average 12-17 bulls eye hits out of 50 shots at 7 yards and I was happy with that. The last two trips (out of three) to the range with my GP100 I averaged 25-30 bulls eye hits at 10 yards shooting DA.

Now I am not trying to brag and I certainly am not complaining but I just assumed that a) since the revolver has a much heavier trigger pull that my accuracy would suffer and b) since this is my first revolver ever and only my second handgun, that there would be a learning curve before I could get at least as good as I was with the semi-auto.

Needless to say, I really like my new wheelgun.

The question is this: why is my accuracy better with the GP100 than the SR9?
 
First of all, a heavier trigger is only an impediment to good shooting if it is heavy enough to cause muscle strain against it (which causes jerking and or increased wobble), or if the effort required is inconsistent before the break, ("stacks" with increasing effort required towards the end of trigger travel, again leading to control problems at the very moment of sear release).

My Ruger GP-100 has a ten pound DA trigger pull with the Wolff mainspring and trigger return spring I installed. The action has also been polished up.

End result is that though the trigger pull is "high" compared to a striker fired auto, the effort is smoooooooth, consistent, and repeatable. The only triggers I like more than the one on my GP are the one on my Colt DS and on my 1911A1 pistols.

Combine a really nice trigger with a fixed barrel and dialed in adjustable sights and you likely have a very accurate weapon in your hands.

I have yet to hear one nice thing about the SR9's trigger.
 
Comparisons like this come down to the individual persons and the specific weapons being discussed, IMO. You are comparing a much lighter weight gun to a heavier one, a striker fired SAO pistol to a hammer fired revolver (which BTW, do you always fire in DA or sometimes in SA?), polymer frame to all steel.

Everybody is different in what they like, are or get used to and so forth and every gun is different too. Especially when you phrase your question of "auto loader versus revolver", since autoloaders come in a wide variety of configurations (striker fired, hammer fired, SAO, DA/SA, DAO). Even amongst striker fired pistols, you have true DA trigger pulls in something like a Walther P99 AS, pre-tensioned firing systems like a glock, and true SA type releases.

Do I believe that a pistol is inherently more accurate then a revolver, or vice versa? No, absolutely not. It will depend on the combination of the pistol and the shooter. And it seems to me that almost always, any well made gun is more accurate then the shooter is ever able to wring out of it (in other words, the shooter is usually the limitation, not the gun).
 
+1 Nightsleeper ... My two most accurate handguns are my Smith 686+ 4-incher and my Kimber UCII, which is almost eerily accurate and outdoes the Smith on every range trip ... I love wheelguns and occasionally carry a j-frame around my neighborhood, but if I'm going anywhere but for a walk with my dog, I have a semi with me; I just shoot them better ...
 
The GP 100 may have a longer line of sight

I can shoot my K frames as good, but not as good as my IWI Baby Eagle, which has a 4.5 inch barrrel. My compact Baby Eagle has a 3.5 inch barrel, and the K frames take it easily. But the Compact is more accurate than my M60, which has a 2 inch barrel. I am more accurate with a longer barrel, regardless of trigger pull.
 
Its also a little bit tough to say without actually seeing the targets. It could be that the semi is actually more accurate for you, in that the groups might be tighter, we just need to figure out how to center them for you. Which pistol gives you tighter groups, i.e., the holes seem grouped closer together?

When we're talking accuracy at 10 yards, we're talking primarily ergonomics.

Trigger pull weight has already been mentioned.
Also sight radius (distance between front and rear sight), and how well you see the sights generally on each pistol, and the sight picture/system used by each pistol.
Grip and balance could play a minor role.
Ammo probably is not the issue at 10 yards.

Since you're new to pistols, know that at longer distances, say 25 yards and beyond, revolvers tend to be more accurate off the shelf. The only floating barrel semi-auto platform that's made its way into bullseye competition (50 yards) is the 1911. I don't think anybody uses them for long range silhouette, mostly revolvers. The reason for that is that the sights are fixed relative to the barrel, whereas a semi-auto never locks up the same way twice. At short distances this is not an issue, but at long distance its a problem. Also with a revolver its easier to work up a perfect load.

If I had to make a blind guess, its that the revolver has a longer sight radius and you generally see the sights better.
 
Here are two targets

Its also a little bit tough to say without actually seeing the targets
Click to expand...

Here are two targets. The one on the top is from my SR9 and the one on the bottom is from my GP100.

SR9
sr9t.jpg
7 yards

GP100
gpt.jpg
10 yards
 
Here's the bottom line. Virtually every handgun made -- revolver or semiauto -- is more accurate than you are. When gun writers talk about a gun's accuracy they're talking about the gun's consistency putting rounds at a specific point of aim from a standardized distance (often, but not always, 25 yards), while the gun is rested or even fired from a device that is designed to eliminate all movement. Thus, accuracy is determined by firing the gun under ideal conditions.

When a person fires a gun the conditions aren't ideal. If you're firing off hand without resting the gun, you introduce variables that include hand shake, possible flinching, and shifting points of aim caused by your vision. NO shooter can duplicate off hand the rested conditions that gun magazines use to report on accuracy. Thus, if a particular gun is cited as producing 2" groups at 25 yards, I can virtually guarantee that you won't be able to replicate that degree of accuracy by firing the gun off hand. Most shooters, and I'm one of them, would be delighted to produce a group equal to the size of the palm of your hand at that distance. I can occasionally do that on a good day and more often, cannot.

So, my advice to you is not to worry about your gun's inherent accuracy. If you shoot your revolver more accurately than you shoot your semi auto it has nothing to do with the gun's inherent accuracy. It has everything to do with how well you visualize the target with the two guns and and how well you control movement when you fire them.

Personally, I'm a revolver guy and have told myself for years that I shoot revolvers far more accurately than I do semiautos. That certainly was true for a long time. Recently, however, I acquired my first 1911 and was amazed at how well it shot for me. Not due to the gun's inherent superior accuracy, mind you, but due entirely to my ability to visualize its front sight (Novak) and to keep it still while pulling the trigger.
 
I'm much more accurate with any of my revolvers, over any of my semi-autos. Got me as to why, but it's always been true for me. It's the same when quick shooting as well. ... the groupings are much tighter with the revolver.
 
My observations on your targets is that with both guns you have (roughly) the same vertical error spread. However, the semi you have much more horizontal error.

If the semi were really inherently less accurate, we'd expect to see more of a vertical spread than the revolver too, i.e. it should be a more random pattern of error.

So very likely, you are doing something different with the semi, and at 10 yards both guns are probably equally accurate.

I coach mostly 1 handed shooting, so maybe someone else can give you suggestions as to why (assuming you're shooting 2 handed) you having the horizontal errors (left and right) with the semi-auto. I have some guesses but wouldn't want to steer you the wrong way.

Also, please measure and post the difference in sight radius on the 2 guns, and describe the sights, front and rear in detail.

Since you are "new to handguns" I want you to know that nobody here has given you misinformation, but if you should someday become interested in competitive target shooting, some of the things said here were maybe misleading. Top target shooters can out shoot what even a good weekend shooter might do from a sandbag rest, and have the skills to be more accurate than most mass-produced guns...and have to purchase rarer, more accurate guns to compete at the highest levels. If you have such an interest, you might like to check out http://www.bullseyepistol.com/
 
Shooting speed

I have a GP-100 and a Baby Eagle 9mm. I noticed I am more accurate with the revolver but I think it is because I shoot the revolver slower than the semi. I tend to shoot faster with the 9mm so I am not taking the time to really line up the site again like I do when I am shooting SA with the Ruger.
 
Accuracy

About inherent accuracy - in Bullseye ("Conventional Pistol") match shooting - where a premium is placed on precision shooting - the 1911 has dominated the .45 stages for decades. In the Centerfire stages, autoloaders rule be they .32s, .38s, 9mms, .45s.
If revolvers gave better scores, shooters would have kept using them in that game of Xs. Some of that is, of course, because an autoloader is easier to shoot during sustained fire.
About silhouette shooting, revolvers dominate mainly because appropriate chamberings are more readily found, cartridges with loads that will reliably knock over a steel ram at 200 yards. A .45ACP is not a good choice for such shooting. There is, also, no sustained fire in silhouette matches so the best aspects of the revolver can be used to best effect.
Pete
 
stevieboy got it right. Accuracy isn't how well you shoot a particular gun, it's how well a particular gun CAN shoot. This is determined by removing as many variables as possible, and this includes the shooter if a mechanical rest can be used to test the gun and particular load. I have had many custom guns made for me by outstanding gunsmiths. It is a rare day I can duplicate the test target supplied with the gun from the gunsmith. What most people mean by "which gun is the most accurate" is "which one I shoot best".
 
When shooting a good revolver with a 5" barrel by cocking it first, I am more accurate with a revolver. Probably because of the fixed 5" barrel more than anything else.
 
There is no answer to the thread. Many of the posters have already said it depends on the shooter. Stevieboy stated, that guns are more accurate than the shooter. Hes right. For some people a semi-auto is the gun. For some people the revolver is there favorite. Its what the person shoots best. I shoot revolvers the best. But because I shoot only double action, some semi-autos that are double action only I shoot good with two. Again, what works for one person may not work others.

Thanks,
roaddog28
 
I think some of you misunderstood

I am not saying that a revolver is more accurate than a semi-auto, I am just saying that "I" am more accurate with the revolver than the semi-auto. Even though the revolver weighs twice as much as the SR9 and the trigger pull is more than twice as heavy, I can hold the GP100 steadier on target through the trigger squeeze and follow through. Like I said earlier, I thought there would be a learning curve when I went to the revolver, but I just feel more comfortable with it and feel like I can shoot better with it than the SR9. Most of my shooting with the GP100 has been DA, just so I can train myself to shoot better that way. Shooting DA I really have to concentrate on a good grip and a steady, smooth trigger squeeze.
 
am not saying that a revolver is more accurate than a semi-auto, I am just saying that "I" am more accurate with the revolver than the semi-auto. Even though the revolver weighs twice as much as the SR9 and the trigger pull is more than twice as heavy, I can hold the GP100 steadier on target through the trigger squeeze and follow through. Like I said earlier, I thought there would be a learning curve when I went to the revolver, but I just feel more comfortable with it and feel like I can shoot better with it than the SR9. Most of my shooting with the GP100 has been DA, just so I can train myself to shoot better that way. Shooting DA I really have to concentrate on a good grip and a steady, smooth trigger squeeze.
Click to expand...
Then the GP100 is more accurate for you to shoot. As you practice more and more with your SR9 you will become better. I have always been more accurate with a revolver. Thats because I have practice and practice shooting double action only. I know some other poster will say the sem-auto is more accurate. It depend on the operator. And that varies.

roaddog28
 
I think shooters often forget about how the weight of the gun may effect a shooter's accuracy. The SR9 is about 26 ounces. The Ruger is 40 to 45 ounces, depending on barrel length. A shooter's movement (wobble, flinch, etc.) is a bit less pronounced in a heavier gun because it takes more force to move a more massive object. My best example of this is my Ruger LCP. It is a very lightweight pistol with a fairly long and heavy pull. This makes it difficult for me to shoot as accurately as a similar sized, but heavier Sig P238. There are obvious limits to this because a handgun may be too heavy for some shooters due to strength.

As others have mentioned, the trigger, balance, ergonomics, and other factors also play a part in the accuracy of a particular shooter.
 
Congratulations,you are a revolver person.

Soemn people shoot revolvers better then semi auto's.

You belong to that part of the sport of handgunning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top