Me too and I have a theory as to why. Some say a long barrel and sight radius leads to easier sight alignment and better accuracy. This may very well be true, BUT my world that long barrel accentuates the error in my shooting. A 1 degree error in windage with a 2" barrel just compounds as the barrel gets longer. Does this make any sense?
Couple bits.
One--some people find shorter barrels easier to shoot for reasons related to eyesight. Trying to maintain the correct focus is a lot easier with less-than-perfect vision. In other words, long sight radii are literally harder to shoot.
Two--longer sight alignments have the same effect that a red dot or scope can have. Namely, you're able to see your wobble. When you can see your wobble, it leads you in the direction of all sorts of terrible trigger habits (chicken finger, jerking, forcing shots, etc). You don't miss so much because you aim poorly or have miserable sight alignment, most people miss because of poor trigger control.
riverrat38 said:
My own take on the sight radius influence is that it only matters if I can hold and shoot as study as I can see the sight-target alignment. Otherwise, sight radius is not the limiting factor. Using a bench rest would change the situation. Now, the sight radius becomes the limiting factor. For me!
An example is when I see a red Laser dot "dancing" around all over the paper on someone else's lane. The fact that the dot might be spot on the point of impact will not help the shooter get tight groups.
The problem is that pretty much everyone that shoots a handgun doesn't actually realize how their sights work.
Folks typically think about sights as operating in three dimensions. That is to say, they show your point of aim at a certain range--you have an X, Y, and Z axis (up and down, left and right, and distance*).
But there's a fourth dimension: time. The sights only show you where you are aiming
now. Unfortunately, where you are aiming now is irrelevant.
What this leads them to do is a lot of silly stuff like trying to snatch a shot, or over-hold, or shoot on their second settle (if you wait for the sights to settle before you start squeezing, you're "settling" for your second-best hold).
So frankly, forget your hold. It honestly doesn't matter--most good shooters aren't good because they have very steady holds, they just shoot better than their hold would appear to allow. Aim with the trigger. What you want to do is have your best uninterrupted trigger pull coincide with the sights settling onto the point of aim. When you do it right, and manage to keep your eyes open (most people literally shoot blind--they blink as the shot breaks), what you'll see is the sights drifting into the 10-ring, as if by magic, right when the hammer drops.
The hard part, and what the real trick is, is reliably performing this act of faith.
*And a lot of people don't really get that. POI intersects POA at two distances since the bullet's trajectory follows an arc and the sights correspond to a line. And a gun that shoots low at 7 yards will be spot-on at 50 feet since the sights are on top of the bore, which is somewhat counter-intuitive.
Some guns fit people better than others...it's really that simple. You should see the faces on people punching targets at 50 feet when I pull out my pocket carry P3AT and clover leaf the shots. That's not suppose to happen! Sometimes it just does. Consider yourself lucky.
