Another handgun purchase advice thread

[ugly old guns]

I own a Steyr ma1 in 40 s & w. It is my ccw, due to its size and capacity. 12 + 1. I like it. It feels like it was made for my extra extra large hands. The only problem I have is that my shooting experience with it has been mediocre at best.
At 7 yards, all rounds wil be within 3 inches of point of aim.
at 12 yards, all rounds should be on a standard 11 x 14 target sheet.
At 25 yards, 75% of rounds are on the same target.
The emphasis of all patterns seems to be slightly left, about 35% of hits at the right elevation, but three inches left at all distances.

With a 1911 , at 25 yrds, all are in the same 10 inch circle.
at 12 yards, all are in 6 inches, and at 7 all rounds are touching. The rounds seem to have no pattern, with fliers going to no discernible pattern.

ANY IDEAS? I have only put 500 rounds through this pistol. Should I trade it for something that may shoot better, like a used Sig 226? Or is there something different to shooting a DAO striker fired pistol? Something beyond the same breathing, triggger squeeze and not jerk drill I have used successfully on my other guns.

Oh yeah, the manufacturing date on this ma1 was in January of 2006, and it has had ZERO malfs, of any type, with mixed ammo brands and types. I trust it to go bang, every time.

 

[Pat-inCO]

Have someone that is Left handed shoot it. If they get the same results, adjust the sights. If theirs start plinking to the right, it is pushing.

Another way would be to shoot off of some sand bags.

 

[searcher451]

Most definitely place the gun into some other trusted hands and see what experiences they have with it. Sometimes the easiest solution is the one most often overlooked, especially when the urge comes to buy yet another gun that just might somehow feel better. It might be the gun; it might be you. But this would be the simplest way to take a first step in finding out. The Steyr is a nice gun; hope it works out for you. Good luck.

 

[jcjacobvt]

My hands are large also. Having shot factory gripped S&W semi-autos for many years, I changed the grips to Hogue grips on my competition guns and my groups were tighter and my scores went up 30 points. All my guns now are Hogue Gripped.

 

[Beatnik]

Isn't 7 yards the practical upper limit for defensive shooting distances?
All in all, I'd say that's some darn good shootin', tex.
I'm glad you like your Steyr. I like my M9 a lot. Keep it and tell other people about it, and Steyr might start producing an SA1 version. Then buy another gun.