Barrel Length

[Eddiejoe]

I have a Springfield Armory XD9 Mod2 with the 4-inch barrel. From 5-25 yards, the gun is fairly accurate and I can usually keep all the rounds in the black using a half-silhouette target. At 50 yards, I have to aim at the lower right-hand portion of the target frame in order to keep the rounds on paper. Forget about keeping them all in the black!
I like the pistol and the performance out to 25 yards.
I realize that 50 yards with any mid-length barrel is a challenge, but that's the point.

Will going to the 5-inch model make that much of a difference at 50 yards?
I also carry the pistol concealed and an extra inch will not be a hardship for me.

Thanks,
Ed

[MandolinMan]

Does the pistol have adjustable sights? If you're wanting to shoot 50 yards you might consider upgrading the sights. That said, I have a hard time believing that the point of impact could change that drastically in the difference from 25-50 yards. Have you shot off a rest?

[Tactical Jackalope]

In short, no. I had a Smith and Wesson M&P 9L that I regrettably sold and it wasn't any more accurate than my compact. They were equally accurate. How accurate do you ask? Very accurate.

[reddog81]

If you have a 25 yard zero the bullet should have an inch or two of drop at 50 yards. If your aiming lower to get on paper there is something wrong with your hold, trigger pull, follow through or some thing like that. Shooting handguns accurately at 25 yards takes a lot of practice. Shooting handguns at 50 yards takes even more practice.

The longer barrel would help with aiming a bit, but it would only be an incremental change and not the difference between a 10" group and a 4" group.

[T. O'Heir]

Barrel length isn't the issue. The ammo used matters, but it's likely more about you than anything else.
Using Federal 115 grain JHP's, the difference in velocity between a 4 and 5 inch barrel is 72 FPS. Using Speer 124 grain Gold Dot Short Barrel ammo, it's 56 FPS. According to Ballistics by the Inch.
"...in the black using a half-silhouette target..." Where on the target?
Shot placement analysis is here.
http://www.targetshooting.ca/docs/Pi...t_Analysis.pdf

[jmr40]

If you have a 25 yard zero the bullet should have an inch or two of drop at 50 yards.

All rifles and pistols have 2 zeros. Since the sights are higher than the bore the barrel isn't held parallel to the ground. The muzzle is pointed upward at a slight angle when the shooter is aiming it. If the bullet and sights coincide at 25 yards that is the 1st zero and the bullet is still traveling up. At some point it will reach it's apex and begin to drop. At some range the bullet will again coincide with where the sights are pointed. This is the 2nd zero.

With handguns most of us only concern ourselves with the 1st zero. With rifles only the 2nd zero.

Most of my semi-autos are pretty close to zero at about 15 yards. But at 25-30 yards are hitting quite a bit high. I've never shot them beyond 30 yards so I can't say about mine at 50. But if you have a 25 yard zero being high at 50 does not surprise me at all.

In theory a longer barrel means a longer sight radius and better accuracy. But there are lots of other factors to consider and 1" just isn't much. For me the extra inch is more of a burden than an asset. If you're comparing a 2-3" barreled revolver to a 6-8" barreled revolver then you have enough difference to matter.

50-75 fps is completely irrelevant as to trajectory. Might make 1/2" difference at 300 yards.

[Onward Allusion]

In short, no. A extra inch on a 9mm will do practically nothing for accuracy. If you have to aim toward the lower right to hit black, then it's your trigger finger that needs the work.

[Eddiejoe]

Thanks everyone for your information!
So, an extra inch of barrel won't improve accuracy if the fundamentals are not there.

MandolinMan asked if I was shooting form a rest. Yes, I was shooting from a sandbag. I understand a machine rest would be better, but I don't have access to one. The sights are fixed.
I was using the WWB 124 grain 9MM NATO rounds.
It sounds like more testing is in order. That's ok by me since it means more shooting!

[Bill DeShivs]

Your gun should keep a 4"-6" group at 25 yards.
Whether you can is up to you. Sounds like you need a lot more practice.

[JohnKSa]

So, an extra inch of barrel won't improve accuracy if the fundamentals are not there.

True. That said, a longer sight radius (not barrel length) will help minimize the effect of small sight misalignment errors.

The benefit is not huge, in fact, it may be so small that other considerations will render it insignificant. But it does exist.

I don't have either gun to measure, but as nearly as I can tell from the somewhat sketchy information on the Springfield website, the sight radius of the XD Mod2 4" model is about 6.5". The sight radius for the XD Mod2 5" model is 7.5"

A sight misalignment of one hundredth of an inch (0.010" inches) would move the bullet away from the point of aim by about 2.8" with the shorter sight radius. With the longer sight radius, the same sight misalignment would be about a fifth of an inch less.

A fifth of an inch is a small benefit at 50 yards, even if you assume that the aiming error is equally likely to go either way and therefore the stated misalignment could increase the size the groups by double the calculated amount. But unless you have a very accurate gun and some really good quality ammo, it's not really likely that you'd be able to detect the difference from a practical standpoint.

Just for fun, let's look at a more extreme example. Let's say we're going to compare a G17L (longslide Glock) to a G26 (baby Glock). I'm using Glocks because Glock kindly provides sight radius information (they call it "line of sight" for some reason) on their website.

In that case, the benefit of the longer sight radius (8" vs 5.3") reduces the point of impact error, at 50 yards, due to a sight misalignment of one hundredth of an inch, by about an inch.

[jetinteriorguy]

Are you resting the barrel/frame on the bag, or are you resting the bottom of the grip while using your normal grip? If resting the barrel/frame that could be the problem.

[tipoc]

I have a Springfield Armory XD9 Mod2 with the 4-inch barrel. From 5-25 yards, the gun is fairly accurate and I can usually keep all the rounds in the black using a half-silhouette target. At 50 yards, I have to aim at the lower right-hand portion of the target frame in order to keep the rounds on paper. Forget about keeping them all in the black!

Others have said it and it's probably true, that you need more time shooting with that gun. You may also want to vary the ammo some as some guns prefer one brand over another. Ball ammo of course the keep the cost down.

Try hitting a 3" bulls eye at 10 to 15 yards standing up. Not from a rest, just standing two handed. At 7 yards use a 2" bullseye. You should be able to keep 10 rounds inside that 2". A flyer may leak out but most will fit. This can help your trigger technique. Aim small, miss small is an old piece of advice.

Even from a bench a person can flinch or jerk the trigger, or anticipate the shot in a number of ways. As you said I think shooting from a bench doesn't stop poor technique.

tipoc

[cw308]

I'm a benchrest shooter 308 caliber in the warmer months but for the cold months I shoot handgun indoors just for fun . Two blown out rotator cuffs makes it difficult shooting handgun . I shoot with my arms resting on a range bag to help . Long story long , I shoot with a Colt New Agent 45ACP 1911 3" it came with CT Laser grips which is a first for me . It does help in seeing problems with trigger problems . If that red dot jumps you need more trigger time . For those of you that are interested in handgun accuracy the laser will aid in seeing what your doing wrong . It's my carry gun just a point and shoot but it adds alittle fun to the practice .

[Aguila Blanca]

Originally Posted by Eddiejoe

Thanks everyone for your information!
So, an extra inch of barrel won't improve accuracy if the fundamentals are not there.

Your problem isn't accuracy. Your problem is zero. A handgun can't be zeroed for 25 yards and still shoot to point of aim at 50 yards -- and barrel length can't change that.

Google up an on-line external ballistics program and generate a trajectory curve for the ammo you're using (with a 25-yard zero) and you'll see what I mean.

[stinkeypete]

practical experiences:
“In the black” for us bullseye shooters means inside a circle the size of a desert plate at 50 feet and inside a small pizza at 50 yards.

For .22 and .45, the point of aim for those two distances are so close, there is no reason to fiddle with the sites for bullseye, and shooting a wide range of cowboy action pistols, any change between those distances for me seemed pretty much within my wobble.

My target .22 pistol is a norinco copy of a Walter TT Olympia with a 4.5 inch barrel and very short sight radius. I have a hard time with the iron sights but with a dot dot sight, it’s my favorite .22. In fact, it’s the one I kept after downsizing a whole lot of .22s.

While my scores with iron sights go to crap, my gunsmith (Grand Master NRA or whatever they call the top level guys at Camp Perry) picked up my pistol and shot a simply astounding 10 rounds, handed the gun back to me and said “nothing wrong here, it shoots as good as mine.” Meaning... it’s not inherently in the gun.

With a much longer sight radius, I shoot iron sights much better for a handful of reasons. My solution is... either a dot sight or... even with my old eyes, I still shoot pretty good. Just not tack-driving anymore

[Morgo]

"From 5-25 yards, the gun is fairly accurate and I can usually keep all the rounds in the black using a half-silhouette target"

Going from 5-25 yards out to 50 requires a considerable increase in skill. Especially if your not already shooting small groups, 2-3 inches, at 25 yards.

The XD9 4" is not really designed for 50 yards shooting, that's not to say it can't but the stock sights and trigger don't do it any favours.