Revolver vs semi auto - yet again - accuracy

"any auto pistol" covers a really large range of guns. There's a LOT more gun designs out there than just the variations of the Browning tilt barrel service pistols.
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Yes - it does, however for the sake of brevity, sometimes it's impossible to be more specific.
If you start eliminating guns, based on price, design, rarity and/or other specifics then no one is going to want to read the three page long post! ;)

How about - Glocks vs S&W revolvers?
Or Sig vs Ruger revolvers (excluding the 210).


The avg semi- auto service pistol these days is not designed for accuracy. That is not its intended purpose. It is intended to be accurate enough at combat distances.
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Exactly - that's exactly what I'm talking about!
If you walk into a gun store and select a gun off the shelf -a center fire (not .22 rimfire) for a reasonable price, say $700 or under - that's has to be accurate - what would it be?
Revolver or semi auto?
All I'm getting at is that a revolver is made to be nice and tight so it functions. That has the side benefit of making the revolver nice and accurate.
 
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Exactly - that's exactly what I'm talking about!
If you walk into a gun store and select a gun off the shelf -a center fire (not .22 rimfire) for a reasonable price, say $700 or under - that's has to be accurate - what would it be?
Revolver or semi auto?
All I'm getting at is that a revolver is made to be nice and tight so it functions. That has the side benefit of making the revolver nice and accurate.
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It would be a 1911 because I shoot them better than revolvers. It does not matter if the revolver is inherently more accurate then the 1911 because I am the one doing the shooting and that is the platform I am most consistent with. At one time the answer would have been a Sig P228/226. :D

That's what I am talking about. LOL

PS I rarely if ever buy one gun over another due to its inherent mechanical accuracy. Most of the time I am buying guns for their subjective ergonomics and their build quality. YMMV
 
If you walk into a gun store and select a gun off the shelf -a center fire (not .22 rimfire) for a reasonable price, say $700 or under - that's has to be accurate - what would it be?
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You aren't gonna find any service caliber semi autos that will "out group" a GP100 or 686 by any significant margin but there's a couple that'll dang sure test the Indian's skill.
 
You aren't gonna find any service caliber semi autos that will "out group" a GP100 or 686 by any significant margin but there's a couple that'll dang sure test the Indian's skill.
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You got that right.... If you choose correctly it will take a better Indian than I am to demonstrate the difference consistently.

I bet if you when to your local range or even gun club you will be hard pressed to find 5 people out of 100 that can do it consistently.

PS a Kimber would not be one of them.... LOL
 
PS a Kimber would not be one of them
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Sure they would he just said accurate nothing about feeding rounds. lol

I bet if you when to your local range or even gun club you will be hard pressed to find 5 people out of 100 that can do it consistently.
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I can every monday night;)
 
Well this last weekend i set up a14" steel plate at 100 yards and hit it 3 for 3 times with my stock g23, first time i ever tried it, might have been lucky but i don't need to be any more accurate than that. I'll have to try the same thing with my brothers s&w 65-2 revolver.
 
The avg semi- auto service pistol these days is not designed for accuracy. That is not its intended purpose. It is intended to be accurate enough at combat distances. They can be tighten up but at a cost but the constraints in your OP restrict that.
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What a load of fertilizer the above is. You want us to believe that S&W puts all the effort for accuracy into the revolvers they build and the semi-autos are well, whatever it is, is good enough???? :rolleyes:
My opinion is, its all BS by the truck load.:cool: and EVERYONE is entitled to their opinion
 
I originally stated:

The avg semi- auto service pistol these days is not designed for accuracy. That is not its intended purpose. It is intended to be accurate enough at combat distances. They can be tighten up but at a cost but the constraints in your OP restrict that.

To which you replied:

What a load of fertilizer the above is. You want us to believe that S&W puts all the effort for accuracy into the revolvers they build and the semi-autos are well, whatever it is, is good enough????
My opinion is, its all BS by the truck load. and EVERYONE is entitled to their opinion
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What a helpful insight you have added to the discussion. :rolleyes:

Lets look directly at S&Ws current service semi auto service pistol the M&P. Do you think that accuracy at 25 or 50 yards was a huge consideration in their design? I do not and anyone who watched its development would not come to that conclusion either. What they where trying to do is to create a piece of tactical plastic that could compete at a price point with Glock in the LEO service market. Are you actually arguing that 25 or 50 yard+ accuracy was something worth doing even it it increased the production cost of the gun making it less competitive?

I am not saying the current M&P and guns like it are inaccurate. There were accuracy issues with the M&P in 9mm when it first came out. It is my understanding that the gun would unlock too soon causing poor groups at 25 yards in some guns. After the changes I believe that the M&P is a pretty accurate service gun.

I think I have gone out of my way to state that almost every gun on the market is inherently more accurate than vast majority of shooters. It is just that in a service pistol like the M&P long range accuracy is not a major selling and therefore not a major selling development point. The initial design flaws of early unlocking to me perfectly illustrate the good enough mindset going into the avg service semi-auto theses days. Now I give S&W credit because they fixed the issue but we are talking about an issue causing 4"+ groups at 25 yards from a rest. If it was not that bad I doubt they would have done a redesign.

It is not that S&W put in a lot more effort into revolvers it is more about the costs which come from more precise manufacturing and assembly which is required by a semi-auto design. Revolvers due to their design which has not really changed much over the years are easier to make more accurate due to the fact they are less complex. I think this is the answer the OP was originally looking for. It costs a lot of time and therefore $$$ to make all the moving parts of a semi-auto work as well in terms of accuracy as a avg revolver.

This does not mean that a service pistol cannot be accurate two that come to mind are the 92Fs and the P226. Both are very accurate service pistols but again accuracy was not the major priority of the design. Reliability was!!!

You seem to have missed the context of my statement which lead you to post your rant. Of course you are entitled to your thoughts on the matter but with statements of this quality I will stick to my "guns" on this one... :cool:
 
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You want us to believe that S&W puts all the effort for accuracy into the revolvers they build and the semi-autos are well, whatever it is, is good enough????
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You're missing the point and are going to get lost wandering into the BS as you have.
It's not that they put all the effort into the revolvers it's that making an automatic with a barrel that's not rigedly mounted to the sights requires more effort to make as accurate as a gun that has the sights mounted to the frame. Tightly fitting the barrel and slide so that they lock up tight while retaining the reliability desired in a service pistol requires more hand fitting which adds cost, so S&W certainly builds in added tolerance to insure reliability at the cost of accuracy.
 
You're missing the point and are going to get lost wandering into the BS as you have.
It's not that they put all the effort into the revolvers it's that making an automatic with a barrel that's not rigedly mounted to the sights requires more effort to make as accurate as a gun that has the sights mounted to the frame. Tightly fitting the barrel and slide so that they lock up tight while retaining the reliability desired in a service pistol requires more hand fitting which adds cost, so S&W certainly builds in added tolerance to insure reliability at the cost of accuracy.
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Exactly and said in much fewer words than I used.

I will again argue that most shooters cannot shoot to the limits of their pistols so the question is sort of moot. Using the OPs criteria however and if you have the skills, a mid priced production service revolver will be more inherently accurate than mid priced production service semi-auto due to the complexity differences in the two basic designs.
 
In 99% of off hand applications it will be all about the Indian not the arrow... Most guns are mechanically more accurate than the shooter.

If you are shooting off a mechanical rest whats the fun in that? LOL

Couldn't agree more
 
I will again argue that most shooters cannot shoot to the limits of their pistols so the question is sort of moot.
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So you don't shoot good enough to know what shoots good? :confused:
Kinda a conundrum :p
 
accuracy

Inherent accuracy....what the gun will do when locked in a ransom rest?
We could talk forever but the argument that the barrel and sights being locked together, a la revolvers, results in superior accuracy is compelling. It may be worth considering, though, the idea that the cylinder with its cartridges in a revolver is not as tightly locked to the barrel when ignition occurs as the cartridge is in the breech of a semiauto. It may be that there is little effect; I don't know.
"Shootability", however, is a different consideration. I know that the OP referenced stock guns....however, any gun can be accurized, revolver or semi-auto. With that in mind....it is worth noting that all national records in conventional pistol shooting are held by semiautomatic pistols.
Pete
 
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If it hasnt been addressed already. I say distance will play a key factor in the accuracy war. Its well know that a semi barrel will move to some extent where a Rev is fixed. At 15yds this will have little to no effect. At 100yds that .001" in movement equates to several inches. Prior to that the SA may have some advantage in grip angle and fit to the hand. But, for 99.9% of us its the Indian not the arrow that is dictating accuracy. Unless you are shooting a very poor quality handgun.
 
it is worth noting that all national records in conventional pistol shooting are held by semiautomatic pistols.
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IMHO - - & I could be wrong - - I believe that's due to the games being geared towards a semi auto more than a revolver.
 
The revolver is generally more accurate off the shelf except for .22 L.R. The autos used in bulls eye competition are not off the shelf guns. The semis seem to be more accurate than they were years ago. The single action trigger on a S&W rev. is so much better than any semi that the trigger pull alone makes it easier to shoot well, add the fact that it's more accurate too and there's your answer. The rev. hands down.
 
"Shootability", however, is a different consideration. I know that the OP referenced stock guns....however, any gun can be accurized, revolver or semi-auto. With that in mind....it is worth noting that all national records in conventional pistol shooting are held by semiautomatic pistols.
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I think that Jerry Miculek might argue that statement. 12 rounds with a reload in 2.96 seconds and all the championship titles he has using wheel guns.
 
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