How much does an extra 1/2” help accuracy?

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wgf

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I wanted to see if the 1/2” difference between my Glock 17 Gen5 and my Glock 19x barrel length made a difference for me. These targets were both shot a 10 yards with an Isosceles stance. I used my own reloads 115 grain Berrys copper plated bullet. 25 shot group , same sight picture. I don’t see a difference, maybe I should have tried 25 yards? I see I need to bump my rear sights a little to the right. A9619D31-2449-4FE6-9F7D-C7EC55DE59A0.jpeg CC39EED9-E68A-41C2-93A1-93989AAF6ED5.jpeg
 
Shot my 19x so much better than my 17 I sold the full size and keep the 19x as my "full size" 9mm Glock.

Love to see a 4" full grip 21 some day too.
 
I wanted to see if the 1/2” difference between my Glock 17 Gen5 and my Glock 19x barrel length made a difference for me. These targets were both shot a 10 yards with an Isosceles stance. I used my own reloads 115 grain Berrys copper plated bullet. 25 shot group , same sight picture. I don’t see a difference, maybe I should have tried 25 yards? I see I need to bump my rear sights a little to the right.View attachment 985648View attachment 985649

You will probably see the biggest difference in accuracy with an upgraded trigger. Maybe a lighter striker spring, trigger return spring. Maybe a little polishing. That stuff will help your accuracy shooting your Glock. Dry firing will help lots. Action shooters use dry firing to hone their trigger skills.

The sights don't need to move. Your trigger finger needs to pull straight back. If I picked up your Glock my shots would be down and to the right.

Hope that helps!
 
Ayoob wrote an article a while back about shooting a shorter-barreled Glock as well or better than its longer barreled brethren. (I do not recall the model numbers just the gist of the piece.)

The 19 is right at the size where the sights still stay well in focus for me and the balance point is good in my mitts, maybe it works the same way for you with your 19X. :thumbup:

And yes, working on and improving Glock triggers can make a huge difference. Once I put an Apex kit on my 17L that gun felt and shot much better for me. :)

Stay safe
 
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1/2" isn't enough to make a difference, I can shoot my 3.6" 320 X compact as well as my 5" 320 Legion. Shooting the shorter barrel helped me a lot, as did shooting snub nose revolvers.
 
I do shoot my Glock 21 slightly better than I do my Glock 27. I scored 100% with both on quarterly qualifications, but the group sizes were a bit smaller with the 21.
 
I wanted to see if the 1/2” difference between my Glock 17 Gen5 and my Glock 19x barrel length made a difference for me.
Always in interesting question. I'm able to shoot my G19 and my G34 better than my G17...I think it has more to do with balance than anything else

I don’t see a difference, maybe I should have tried 25 yards? I see I need to bump my rear sights a little to the right
I see a difference, but it says more about the shooter than the pistols.

I don't think you need to bump your sights over either. The old rule of thumb was not to make an adjustment smaller than the group you could shoot

Groups at 20-25 yards will be more telling. You don't need to shoot 25 rounds groups...3-5 rounds are usually more representative of a guns/shooters capabilities
 
I have a weird theory why I shoot a G26 / 27 better than their larger cousins.
My theory is that the shorter grip frame forces me to use a perfect grip. Where the large grip area allows for possible slop in my grip.

Who knows, I base my carry guns on guns I can hit my 25yd gongs with. For me that's my Glock 19, Glock 26, Ruger LC9s Pro, and Fn Hi Power. Have a bunch of single action and DA revolvers that I can regularly hit with at that range but prefer carrying an auto.
 
Any difference in the accuracy between the two pistols would have nothing to do with the respective length of their barrels, but more to do with trigger pulls and inherent accuracy of each pistol.

Shooting at 10 yards and not using any sort of rest makes any sort of accuracy comparison a wild speculation.

I have done a fair amount of accuracy testing of my Glocks just to see what the most accurate load/barrel/sights/trigger combo is for GSSF matches. My testing was very informal and not very scientific, but it was at least at 25 yards with a sandbag rest. Barrels can make a huge difference in accuracy, but I've found that the shorter barrels are generally more accurate in the Glocks. And ammo also greatly affects accuracy. I have stopped carrying certain self-defense commercial loads since they were wildly inaccurate in my carry pistol.

My stock Gen 4 G29 shooting handloads and barrel length of 3.77"...

7eSJkotlQ0m4-aGzFFcCEg.jpeg

Same pistol using a Lone Wolf.40 S&W conversion barrel...

Ae2qQeXTSDqcaoltppjoNA.jpeg
 
My Gen3 17 and Gen3 19 both have the WC Vickers Elite F.O. front & blind battlesight rear sights. The 17 has an APEX Action Enhancement Package trigger, and the 19 has an APEX firing pin block plunger and an APEX connector. The 19 also has the trigger assy takeoff from the 17.

There really isn’t much difference between these two guns shooting at the distances I typically shoot at. I’d like to set up my 19X with the WC Vickers Elite sights to really compare these three guns, I have Glock iredescent sights on it now, not crazy about them.
 
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I don't think it makes a tinkers damn of a difference generally speaking, actually I shoot my 19 noticeably better than I shoot my 17. I always tend to group a lil left with my 17 and I think it has to do with my grip. Actually I know it does. The 19 fits my hand better thus I shoot it better. Another strange thing, I used to shoot my 26 better than my 17. I don't think a half inch makes any difference in my opinion.

eta: I have also noticed my 17 is a lil more bouncy and is a lil harder to control than my 19. Not that it's "hard" to control. It's just that the 19 just stays on target and my wife tells me it doesn't even look like it's moving, as if I'm shooting a .22lr. Pretty much exactly what I want to hear, lol. But my 17 is just not balanced as well, for me anyway. Still love my 17, wouldn't trade it for 10 19's, the 19 is just a sweet shooting 9mm
 
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Same here, But it was my G-26 that I shot better then my G-19, I sold the G-19 and never looked back.
Son has G45, I have a G17..I sure can't tell any difference. G45 'seems' a little lighter, front of gun, for obvious reasons.
My G48 is WAY more accurate, for me than the G26 I had..kinda extreme barrel lengths. My G48 and G17 accuracy wise, FOR ME, is a wash also.
 
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I wasn’t trying to measure the accuracy of the guns. I wanted to see if the 1/2 made a difference to for me. I also wanted to hear what other shooters experienced. Seems like most people don’t seem to notice the difference for even a couple of inches shooting fast at 10 yards or so. The 1/2 is a notable difference for me while carrying concealed.
 
OP’s milking the grip and pushing the trigger (right hand shooter).
Also need to drift sights slightly right...
 
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At the risk of over generalizing...the longer the sight radius, the better the precision.
Especially for shooters over 40.
G19x — 5.98”
G17 — 6.50”
G34 — 7.55”
 
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At the risk of over generalizing...the longer the sight radius, the better the precision.
Especially for shooters over 40.
G19x — 5.98”
G17 — 6.50”
G34 — 7.55”

Sight precision does not necessarily equal greater accuracy, however.

It is common knowledge that the shorter barrel Glocks typically exhibit greater accuracy than their big brothers.

Here is an interesting observation on that from Massad Ayoob...

https://dailycaller.com/2013/03/07/massad-ayoob-combat-handguns-vs-snubbies/

"When the “baby Glocks” came out in the mid-1990s, shooters noticed that they were remarkably accurate for their size, indeed, often more accurate than their big brothers. My two came out of the first production run for a gun magazine article, and I liked them so much I bought them both when the test was over. My 9mm Glock 26 subcompact averaged around 2.5″ for five shots off the bench at 25 yards, a little better than my full size Glock 17 in the same caliber. My .40 S&W Glock 27 once gave me a 1.5″, 5-shot group with 155-grain Winchester Silvertips, distinctly tighter than any load ever did in my full-size .40 S&W Glock 22. It was theorized the double-captive recoil spring Glock put into these super-small pistols (and would much later install in all the Gen4 guns) was holding the barrel locked more uniformly before the bullet departed the muzzle.

I usually shot the bigger Glocks when I chose the brand in competition, just because I thought they’d be faster since they fit my hand better and had a longer sight radius. I began to question that when I won a couple of matches with the G30, a “police shoot” and an IDPA match shooting against full-size 1911 .45s in the Custom Defense Pistol division, and won an IDPA Stock Service Pistol division event with a Glock 26 that I shot just for the hell of it. And then I saw an interesting phenomenon in GSSF."
 
And yes, working on and improving Glock triggers can make a huge difference. Once I put an Apex kit on my 17L that gun felt and shot much better for me. :)
I have always wanted to try an apex but overall I don't have any complaints about the Glock triggers, after about 1K rounds it feels right as rain. In fact I think the glock trigger is almost perfect, my 17 has a lil mush to it but not bad, I wonder what if anything the Apex could add to my shooting. Maybe time to try one....
 
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Sight precision does not necessarily equal greater accuracy, however.

It is common knowledge that the shorter barrel Glocks typically exhibit greater accuracy than their big brothers.

Here is an interesting observation on that from Massad Ayoob...

https://dailycaller.com/2013/03/07/massad-ayoob-combat-handguns-vs-snubbies/

"When the “baby Glocks” came out in the mid-1990s, shooters noticed that they were remarkably accurate for their size, indeed, often more accurate than their big brothers. My two came out of the first production run for a gun magazine article, and I liked them so much I bought them both when the test was over. My 9mm Glock 26 subcompact averaged around 2.5″ for five shots off the bench at 25 yards, a little better than my full size Glock 17 in the same caliber. My .40 S&W Glock 27 once gave me a 1.5″, 5-shot group with 155-grain Winchester Silvertips, distinctly tighter than any load ever did in my full-size .40 S&W Glock 22. It was theorized the double-captive recoil spring Glock put into these super-small pistols (and would much later install in all the Gen4 guns) was holding the barrel locked more uniformly before the bullet departed the muzzle.

I usually shot the bigger Glocks when I chose the brand in competition, just because I thought they’d be faster since they fit my hand better and had a longer sight radius. I began to question that when I won a couple of matches with the G30, a “police shoot” and an IDPA match shooting against full-size 1911 .45s in the Custom Defense Pistol division, and won an IDPA Stock Service Pistol division event with a Glock 26 that I shot just for the hell of it. And then I saw an interesting phenomenon in GSSF."
That’s the Ayoob article I saw. Pretty cool stuff.


I have always wanted to try an apex but overall I don't have any complaints about the Glock triggers, after about 1K rounds it feels right as rain. In fact I think the glock trigger is almost perfect, my 17 has a lil mush to it but not bad, I wonder what if anything the Apex could add to my shooting. Maybe time to try one....
The 17L had the little trigger tab stick out just a tiny bit, the result was annoying when shooting. The Apex lies perfectly flat so that annoyance is gone :thumbup:.
My 43X trigger is the same way. Not quite as bad, but annoying. :thumbdown:.

Stay safe.
 
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