My work involves handguns, rifles, shotguns and occasionally fully automatic weapons, but most of my teaching and just about all my competition revolves around the former. In classes, I demonstrate shooting. Just before the students shoot their qualification, I and the rest of the teaching staff will demonstrate the course of fire for them. The instructor is expected to shoot a perfect score, right?
Well, I usually do, but there are exceptions. Last week in Texas, teaching for Eric Lamberson in greater San Antonio, I got sloppy and let one .45 bullet stray out of the center zone, finishing with a 299 out of 300 possible points.
I certainly can’t blame the gun. I was testing a new 1911 variation, the Springfield Armory RO-Target, for the online gun magazine thearmory-life.com. Now, my lovely bride shoots with me a lot and will tell you the single pistol I shoot the best is the fore-runner of the RO-Target, the original Springfield Range Officer .45 that I’ve owned for a decade. I’ve been shooting 1911 .45s since 1960. That didn’t keep a lapse of concentration from letting a bullet escape the “down-zero” zone.
One of my favorite pistols is the double action Beretta 92 9mm, and my shootin’ buddy John Strayer insists that I shoot it better than anything else. Yet a few months ago in the same type of demonstration, I dropped a point with one of those.
I’ve won a bunch of prizes and guns with Glocks. In 2018 I came in High Lawman at the Polite Society shoot run every year at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference. Yet this year, I got careless with my pace of fire and lost two points with the same Glock 19 9mm in the photo above that had given me perfect scores there a couple of years in a row.
The bottom line is something I’ve told my students for decades: “It’s not about the gun so much as it’s about the shooter, and it’s not even as much about the shooter as it’s about consistent application of proven technique.”
But, hey, all this is about a sample of one. I’d like to hear from you readers. What firearm do YOU consistently shoot your best with?
1911. I’m not much of a marksman, but I can fake it with a 1911.
I managed to pass the State Police qualification round with a borrowed Beretta 92. It was a competent gun that performed well for me, but I turned it back in when I was done with it and never had the urge to pick up another.
I inherited a CZ52 in 7.62 Tokarev. It has a big chunky grip that’s too vertical to be really comfortable for me… it’s not quite the “point and shoot” of a 1911, but I’m reasonably accurate with it, and it’s bags of fun to shoot. The ammo I’ve been shooting claims 1,580fps at the muzzle. Other people at the range will stop and look when I start shooting.
I own several revolvers. They’re all decent guns in proper working order. I am hilariously inept with all of them. Obviously, the problem is with me, not the guns… but I *like* revolvers, and it’s an ongoing matter of frustration that I shoot them so poorly.
If I perform the fundamentals of shooting, I can shoot well with almost any pistol. I will be 69 yrs. old this week, and a little over a year ago, I passed the FBI pistol qual. with 96/100 (90 pts. required to pass). My EDC for the past 5 years is the 9mm Springfield 1911 Range Officer Champion. I’ve owned and shot quite a few handguns since 1979 when I first began reloading, but the 1911, and in particular this one, seems to be “right” for me. YMMV.
Ruger P Series .45ACP is most accurate for me.
I have a P90 and a P345 and I hit with both of those.
1911s…. Love them, but not as accurate.
Glocks Hi-points and Kel-tecs…OK
Revolvers, not as accurate as the Ruger P series…
Odd, that.
any S&W “K” of “L”-frame, 4-inch, and/or Colt’s “E”-frame Official Police. Never met a revolver I didn’t like, save, perhaps, any made up, wholly or in part, of scandium or titanium.
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