Guideline for Handgun Barrel Lengths

[jamesjames]

I've been shooting for 4 years, so I'm a relative newbie. Recently, I had an epiphany where I finally began to understand handgun barrel lengths and their general uses and was wondering if anybody ever ran across a useful guide like this for newbies or enthusiasts?

I want to put this out there just to get some feedback. My apologies in advance if I don't mention every possible application for a barrel of a certain length. Would this kind of information have helped you early in your process of learning about handguns? These are just general categories for the barrel lengths and their accuracy, your mileage may vary. Well, here goes:

Handgun barrel lengths and their uses:

Barrel length.................Description/type...................................................Effective range (tight groups)
2-inch and shorter.........Concealable for personal defense at close range .......................0-7 yards
3-inch .........................Kit gun, Bar B Q gun, utility gun for walking in the woods...........12 yards
4-inch..........................Service revolver or pistol (preferred LEO length).......................15 yards
5-inch..........................Combat pistol (preferred military barrel length).........................20-30 yards
6-inch and longer...........Target and Hunting.............................................................25-75 yards

In your reading and research you may have run across this information stated in a concise way. So far, I have not. I can't say that the information would have been helpful to me early on, but when I was starting out a knowledgeable friend gave me the general advice of 4-inch barrel length as a good, all-purpose gun and that was very helpful to me in the beginning. Understanding the difference between a combat pistol and a service pistol has been a personal revelation for me. I now understand that each barrel length has its specific uses. For me, anything over 5 inches is better done with a rifle.

 

[antiquus]

There's also power considerations. Look up Ballistics by the Inch on the web - on a phone ATM or I'd post it.

 

[rcmodel]

Your effective range shown is far off base.

I won a lot of beer money in the service shooting a 2" S&W snubby or .45 ACP 1911 at 100 yards using .50 cal ammo cans for targets.

I have a 6" Model 19 S&W that would put you in grave danger at 150-200 yards.

rc

 

[Jim Watson]

Darned right. My old 6.5" .44 was a force to be reckoned with at the 200 metre ram line in metallic silhouette shooting.

 

[coyote]

hey, give a guy a break. i believe he's talking general practical accuracy by the average joe, not what experienced guys can do for show.

 

[moxie]

Fact is, with a little practice, average guys can hit 8" steel plates with a 2" snub at 50 yards. Or more. That's practical accuracy.

For a demo, check out hickok45 on youtube. Granted, he's exceptional. But the average guy can certainly come close given the right amount of dedication and practice.

Practice is the important factor, not barrel length. I know a lot of guys who can outshoot, with a snub or 4", guys with 6", even 8 3/8" barrels. Even out to 50 yds. Or more.

 

[Pingy]

Not too bad for a general guide, I think it might help someone looking to purchase a pistol, sure. I think the length and use is pretty helpful but not really the range. Only reason I say this is because in my opinion pistols have less to do with practical accuracy out to any given range than user ability. For example, I've seen people on the pistol range in the Marines who shoot 2 feet down and to the right at 25 yards with an M9 simply because they jerk the trigger. Others throw lead everywhere, and a few make really impressive groupings. I think effective range has much more to do with fundamentals of marksmanship than it does barrel length. I couldn't even tell you how the "average joe" shoots, because it seems to vary so widely between individuals when it comes to using pistols. Thats just my experience though and may not necessarily be correct.

 

[coyote]

yes, trained shooters can do amazing things at longer ranges. and the totally untrained can't hit the barn.

hang around a handgun range and see what an unenlightened gun owner can do: most are lucky to hit the paper at 50 feet. hell, many are proud just to hit it half the time at 7 yds.

i think the OP's chart does a pretty good job of describing what an average shooter (who has had a little bit of range time) really does, verses what he might do if they thoroughly learned the craft.

this could include gun owners who might go to the range a couple times a year, folks like: the average aware home-owner, security guards, non-"shooter" police, store-keepers, military who are issued handguns, maybe even your wife or next door neighbor, et al.

i think the fact that you or i can hit dinner plates at 100 yds all day long with a 1911 is besides the point when talking in generalities.

 

[jamesjames]

I'll agree that you are all exceptional shots, and that you can knock a gnat off a newt's nose at night. but that's not the point of this thread.

Handguns are designed for a variety of uses. The average shooter shooting in a self-defense situation would make reasonably accurate hits in the distances stated above using the barrel lengths stated above.

I just never considered the nuance of barrel length before. A friend asked me what I thought the difference was between a service pistol and a combat pistol. I said the combat pistol seems to be based on the 1911 with 5-inch barrel. Today's Beretta 92 (M-9) continues that tradition. But the LEO service pistol is generally considered to be a 4-inch barrel. I figured that military handgun combat distances were longer than LEO combat distances. LEO have to operate in closer, urban quarters, while military distances are generally greater on the battlefield. But both need to clear holsters quickly, so neither is a 6-inch hand cannon. 6-inch and longer barrels are great for hunting and long distance targets, especially scoped. But 6-inch barreled guns are lousy CCW guns.

As I've looked at different platforms over the years, I've slowly learned the utility of different barrel lengths. But I never thought about how they all are part of a continuum of designs until now.

 

[Geckgo]

Maybe his idea of a tight group is not an 8" pie plate. Either way, 7 yards is kind of a joke, but for someone shooting their first handgun, I guess a pie plate at 7 would make an okay target. At my pistol range, the closest target is 10 yards and I see guys splatter all around the 8" group range all the time, regardless of what they are shooting. I'm not a crack shot by any means. At 10 yrds I try to keep it in a 3" circle with my XD and try to keep 'em all on a piece of computer paper at 25 yards. 50yrds is strictly for fun. Then, I shoot only offhand with my pistols, I wonder how many advertise bench shots.

 

[coyote]

i give up. ok, you guys win. maybe we should drop talking about real self-defense and instead discuss best possible conditions.

from my 40-plus years of serious shooting, i'm under the impression that most well-trained shooters when attacked would have a hard time getting nice tight groups, even at the shortest of distances, in bad light when afraid for their lives.

hell, i've seen good shooters group poorly in perfectly relaxed and safe conditions.

i guess i think of a defense shooting likely to happen in low light, in the cold, with bad guys coming after me at spitting distance, probably well armed, i'm a bit stressed, and i only have my EDC handgun to defend myself.

i somehow doubt i'd be attacked on a pleasant warm sunny day out in the great wide open, by a single bad guy standing absolutely still, while i'm allowed to calmly take slow-shot after slow-shot at him. but at least that way i can make full use of how my firearm groups in the best of conditions at the range.

.

 

[moxie]

Agree with pingy. What he calls fundamentals I called practice. Bottom line is putting in the time necessary to become competent with the gun is what makes the difference, not barrel length. All things being equal, adding a few inches of barrel won't make the groups tighter. Just won't. Conversely, taking a few inches away won't necessarily make the groups bigger. Just won't. Adding an inch to a barrel as in the OP's chart simply does not double the effective range as the chart indicates. Just doesn't. The idea of 4" service vs. 5" combat is really specious. One of the most ubiquitous police "service" pistols, the Glock 17, has a 4.5" barrel. My "combat" gun for many years in the AF was a 4" barrel S&W Mod. 15, the "Combat Masterpiece." The Beretta 92/M9 is 4.9" and is used by the armed forces now as well as many civilian police agencies.

 

[Ankeny]

Fact is, with a little practice, average guys can hit 8" steel plates with a 2" snub at 50 yards. Or more.

A little practice?

 

[Nushif]

I think the problem why people are this harsh is because the premise is flawed.

Barrel length in 90% of all cases probably (somewhere around there) is not what determines how well the average shooter can shoot. A good trigger goes a much, much longer way, so correlating any one factor to how well the average shooter can shoot is well ... not very ... scientific? accurate?

Ya dig? People are saying no to this idea because it's inherently flawed in terms of scientific accuracy.

the difference being correlation and causation.

 

[USAF_Vet]

My wife, who isn't much of a shooter, took my 4.5" Hi Point .45 to the neighbors range the other day and from my .22 rifle marker, put 2 or 3 rounds into a target at roughly 100 yards. Now, for someone who doesn't shoot to take a gun she's shot only once and drop 3/18 into a target at 100ish yards, that's impressive, and it kinda blows up the metric in the OP. Now, I tend to shoot the same gun in the range of the posted metric, with a heck of a lot better accuracy. I would agree with the assertation that the posted metric is average accurate distances from average shooters. Atypical target shooters plinking with a snubby at rifle ranges is probably not who the metric is outlining.

 

[moxie]

nushif,

Well put!

 

[BossHogg]

I have to agree with rcmodel that your effective range is off base. All my 3in J-frames would be offended at that 12 yard range. In fact all my guns can out shoot me.

That list may be good for someone who only shoots once or twice a year, but any amount of practice will far exceed barrel lenght.

 

[CraigC]

maybe we should drop talking about real self-defense and instead discuss best possible conditions.

Or maybe we should realize that not all handgun shooting is centered around self defense??? Rather than simply preparing for something that will probably never happen, some of us actually get out there and use our handguns. Sometimes daily and at ranges far exceeding what most consider "self defense range". So I would agree that the effective ranges are more than a little conservative. IMHO, if you can't keep all your shots center of mass on a silhouette at 25yds with a 2" snubby, you need to practice more. A 4" revolver makes for a wonderful general purpose implement and is fully capable of accurate hits at 50yds and beyond. Six to seven and one half inches allows a little more precision at greater ranges and would be better as a dedicated hunting weapon.

 

[harrygunner]

The OP is exploring, in his/her own words: "handgun barrel lengths and their general uses".

I think the grouping was pretty good.