[peetee32]

i had some time to kill so i grabbed some gun mag off the rack, and was looking at the various reports of how each guns shoots with various ammo at various distances...

are they taking these shots from a bench with the gun supported?
are they shooting double or single action?

just wondering

[trickyasafox]

many use a ransom rest- which holds the firearm and eliminates shooter error. others use bags and almost all are supported. Usually the writer states the manner in which the pistol was fired in the caption next to the groups.

[TimboKhan]

The ransom (or similar) rest is used to show accuracy of a given gun/load over a given distance without human error being part of the process. Occasionally guys will just shoot for their best group. Say what you want about gun writers being shills or whatever, but they get to shoot a heck of a lot more than most of us, and it follows that on average they are probably pretty decent shots.

[The Lone Haranguer]

The text of the article will usually disclose how the gun was held or supported.

[peetee32]

maybe i'll go back and take a look at the articles. i was wondering because the revolvers showed pretty impressive patterns at 25yds.

in my head i was just thinking of some guy standing there unsupported firing off all shots in double action and how impressive that would be.

[krs]

Locate a Bullseye pistol match in your area and go there to watch. Although bullseye could never be called much of a spectator sport you'll be very likely to see many shooters firing groups (what you called "patterns") as good or better standing up unsupported and using only one hand at longer ranges than those articles shoot over.

Read all about it: http://conventionalpistol.blogspot.com/