What do you settle for?
A lot of you know I can't leave well enough alone. I have high expectations as far as accuracy. I have been told that at times my expectations are unrealistic. I guess an explanation is in order. I see a lot of people hunting with Glock G20 and G40 handguns now. I will go along with that. They are a good way to start handgun hunting without spending a fortune and within their limitations with good ammo they work. Now with that said I haven't seen an out of the box in either that would consistently shoot under 2" 5 shot groups at 25 yards with any ammo. My G20 needed help. I expect them to shoot 2" at 40 yards and think that is reasonable. To get that means tightening up everything. It means good sights. It means a decent trigger. It means a committed barrel which means that the rifling can't be polygonal.
All of this applies to all Glocks. I have proven that modified, they can shoot 2" at 100 yards. Most of the time that isn't where they are used, so if we can improve them to do that at 40 yards then in their working range of 70 yards we are able to make precise heart shots. What has me thinking this morning is my personal G20. Unsatisfied with what the stock guns do, I decided I liked the platform enough to spend what a whole new gun cost to improve it. I started out with a SS slide that had tighter tolerances than the stock slide. I went to a custom barrel that is broach rifled. I fit the frame and slide then squared the barrel hood to the ejection port so the lockup is the same every shot. There is more to this but you get the gist of it. I put Williams adjustable fire sights on it. When I got done I had over the price of a whole new G20 in this upper.
The proof is in the pudding. My favorite 10MM deer load shoots a 165 grain Gold Dot nearly 1400 fps and at 25 yards will put 5 shots in an 1" when I do my part. Scary thing is that it isn't the most accurate load. Using 200 grain XTPs at just under 1200 fps it will stick them all in one whole. I haven't used one of the 200 grains on deer yet but I know a well placed shot will punch a tag. In the grand scheme of things what does it all mean? Handgun hunters that I have been around seem to pursue perfection. Whether in this example of my G20 or in revolvers (I am just as bad with them) or single shots of which I also go a little nuts perfecting them. The fact is the longer I do this the more I demand from my equipment.
Col Townsend Whelen said in a very famous quote "Only accurate rifles are interesting." He missed it. The same applies to handguns. I want a handgun to shoot so good it does what it does with boring regularity. If it isn't accurate enough it is interesting because now we have to make it so. Just my morning musings.
I played with Glocks for many years.l and am a certified armorer. (Big whoop - it's an easy 8 hour course).
My experience was the longslides in factory form were the least accurate, and it all had to do with lock up. My subcompacts, particularly the ones with the double nested recoil springs shot much better. I had a model 27 40 S&W that shot like a laser beam and I killed at least two deer with it. The double recoil spring I am convinced made a difference.
In my tinkering, the way to improve accuracy was an aftermarket (Graham I believe - it's been a while) "match grade" locking tab in the frame, a fitted match grade barrel and a stout recoil spring. A 3.5 # connector also helped. Even with all that, they were barely 2 inch guns at 25 yards.
This was long before the factory long slide 10mm came out. No experience with it.
In terms of caliber, the 9mm and 45 pretty much tied for accuracy (maybe a slight edge to the 45s) with the 40 S&W a distant second. Glock 23s in particular, shot lousy and again I think it was mostly poor lock up.
I eventually gave up Glocks and stick to HK exclusively now for semi-autos. They are just as reliable, if not more so, very accurate (approaching match grade), and 45 Super approved, all out of the box! I have a new 6" Elite in 45 that I am fixing to start testing and I bet it needs nothing but good ammo.to be hunt ready.