Robert K Campbell - The Accurate Handgun

TO MY SONS.

ALAN IS A BETTER METALWORKER

AND GUNSMITH THAN I EVER WILL BE,

AND MATTHEW A BETTER THINKER

THAN I EVER COULD BE.

TO MY WONDERFUL GRANDCHILDREN.

AND MY DAILY INSPIRATION, JOYCE.

LOVE YOU ALL.

There are many good reasons for owning a handgun. Personal security and a strong sense of self-preservation are among the top ones. Some will practice as little as possible; others will strive to be all they can. This book is for the latter and less crowded group. Some engage in competition, testing the limits of the handgun and ammunition and, most of all, the shooter. These athletes achieve feats of skill and marksmanship that set them apart from most shooters. Some of us appreciate the challenge of hunting game with a handgun and try to master it in turn for small, medium and large game. In every pursuit from plinking dirt clods and tin cans to long-range silhouette accuracy is important. I have always been more interested in accuracy than speed and power. A few well-placed big bore bullets in a target mean more to me than a cluster of fifty bullets in a target. A balance of speed, power and accuracy is essential in personal defense, but accuracy is the most important. A miss is a miss; and a slow hit is sometimes as good as a fast hit, but a fast miss is irrelevant.

The handgun is primarily a defensive instrument. All other roles are secondary. Just the same, each individual handgun has a certain appeal based on its attributes and performance. A quality .22-caliber handgun will provide many hours of pleasant recreation. The 1911 .45 is a war winner and the finest personal defense handgun available, and also very accurate in the best examples. Magnum revolvers, such as the Ruger GP100 and Colt Python, have amazing accuracy potential. If you are intrigued by the accuracy potential of such handguns I believe you will profit from studying this book thoroughly. This work is a compilation of much of what I have learned concerning handguns over the past five decades. I hope you enjoy reading it and applying the knowledge found in its pages.

Bob Campbell

This old bullseye gun captures the spirit of handgun accuracy.

Accuracy is a both a measurement and a pursuit. We pursue accuracy and try to find a quality measurement for it that fits our needs. A useful measurement of accuracy is sometimes difficult. Its true value is zero zero deviation from the center, zero deviation from the target or the desired flight path.

A clock or a pocket watch is deemed to be accurate when it keeps time regularly. We have all had the dying mechanism that ceases to work or the cheap watch that would not keep time. These timepieces have their own measurement of accuracy. Common timepieces sometimes gain or lose a few seconds a year, but atomic clocks do not. Handguns are declared accurate when they have a high level of expectation of hitting the target in trained hands. They are considered good quality when this accuracy is consistent.

Handguns and timepieces are measured by the accuracy they provide.

The search for accuracy contains mysteries and head-scratchers, like this Smith and Wesson .45-caliber revolver group of five shots placed well, and the sixth shot thrown wildly yet with regularity.

Some handguns are more accurate than the shooter can hold; these are certainly considered accurate. Others are so inaccurate they are practically worthless for anything save for use as a club to dissuade an opponent at intimate range, or perhaps simply as mere fashion accessories. There are two types of accuracy you should be concerned with as a baseline of measurement. These are intrinsic and practical accuracy.

A combination of ergonomics, trigger action, and quality of manufacture make for an accurate handgun. In combat shooting accuracy is relative.

Intrinsic accuracy is the mechanical ability of a handgun to place its shots into a tight group at a given range. A handgun in a factory fixture can be tested for accuracy. The result is better than what you or I could demonstrate on the firing range, although a trained shooter will come very close to these results at times. A handgun without sights or grips would still prove accurate in this firing fixture as the human element is removed from consideration. By the same token, ammunition is often tested in a firing fixture bearing little resemblance to a firearm. These fixtures are heavy and, while they have a chamber and a barrel, there is little else to resemble a firearm. Both the human element and the mechanical element are removed from this type of ammunition testing. The ammunition is evaluated purely on its own merits. This type of testing is important in an institutional setting. During my long shooting life I have yet to use a machine rest. I prefer to stay in touch with reality. I have the greatest respect for the ballistic scientist and his methods. But he has done his work and now I will do mine. I am not capable of setting up a laboratory on the range at least not with my modest resources so I am not going to use a machine rest or a firing fixture. But I am appreciative of the work ballistics experts do and am going to make the most of the research they provide us. Such research has led to improvements in handguns and accuracy. Yet, its up to you to test the practical limits of your own handguns accuracy.

It is important to follow a consistent procedure from the first shot. This young shooter is receiving instruction from his dad, an NRA instructor and veteran.

The second type is practical accuracy. This is the level of accuracy that a trained shooter will be able to demonstrate with the firearm. A firearm without sights has plenty of intrinsic accuracy but I would not be able to use it to connect with a squirrel in a tree at 10 yards or a deer at 50 yards. Practical accuracy can be defined as the percentage of intrinsic accuracy you are able to demonstrate firing from the solid benchrest position. There are even more angles to this accuracy testing. As an example, when firing off of the benchrest, I am able to control a heavy trigger. A grip frame that is too large for my hands can be addressed with the H grip, which is offset and far from ideal, but I am able to fire the handgun fairly well from the bench with this grip.

Firing offhand is another matter. Some handguns retain a high level of accuracy potential in offhand fire. Others are an aggravation. This qualifying of accuracy has been a lifelong pursuit I find immensely interesting. Some handguns are well-made of good material and very accurate but incapable of placing the bullets in the same hole time after time. There are measurements of accuracy that are useful in comparing one handgun to another. There are also basic requirements of accuracy that have been set in place for over a century. The standard measurement of handgun accuracy is a five-shot group from a solid firing position usually a benchrest, but sometimes a barricade position and then measuring the dispersal of the group. Measure the group from the inside of the most widely spaced bullet holes and come up with a group size. A good shot with plenty of practice can shoot the handgun with accuracy that is right up to the handguns potential.