"I don’t mean to decry other outlets, whether print or digital, but some of them seem to have pretty handwave-y standards for accuracy testing. You’ll see reports ranging from incredibly vague descriptions of a pistol being very accurate using naught but adjectival words and nary a number in sight, to mentions of a group size at a certain distance without much reference to whether this was obtained from a rest or by a shooter standing on their own hind legs or what have you.Absent a mechanical rest, the largest variability in a pistol's accuracy is the torque on the trigger nut. When I was working at Coal Creek Armory we had a part timer who was a law school student by day, with a side hobby that included a list of junior and collegiate level bullseye titles as long as your arm.
Here at Shooting Illustrated, we have a standardized protocol that hopes to be more informative than that. Ideally, each handgun tested will be tested with three different loads—preferably of three different projectile weights and types, if possible—from three different manufacturers. We’ll provide chronograph data, and each of the three loads will be fired for five, five-shot groups and that information will be passed on to you, the reader."
He got sent out on the range frequently with customer guns that were supposedly inaccurate, only to bring the target back to the customer and pronounce that there was nothing wrong with the pistol's accuracy...
