What's your definition of a good grouping size?

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This is something I've always struggled with (especially compared to rifles, which seem to be easier to qualify). Sometimes I read that 10 inches at 25 yards is good, other times people seem to think anything over 3 inches means you're not holding your own.

Being a lonesome military firearm shooter at a gun club full of cowboy action shooters and bolt action deer hunters, I don't have many folks to bounce ideas off of. So, what in your opinion is the generally accepted definition of a good grouping size and at what distance is that applicable?
 
As I said in another thread, I kinda suck. 6-8" at 25 yards is kind of normal for me.

I should probably practice a lot more and try some different guns to see what I like best.
 
Shooting a handgun at 25 yards.
5 inch group = Good
3 inch group = Great
1 1/2 & smaller = Marksman

Shooting a rifle at 100 yards.
3 inches group = Good
1 1/2 inch group = Great
1/2 inch & smaller = Marksman

These are the standards i set for my self & my son when we shoot our firearms. Other shooters standads may differ.
 
One old-hand at shooting at our range:
If you can't cover the grouping with the palm of one hand, it's not a grouping.
 
It depends on what kind of handgun you are shooting. With typical service-grade auto pistols or revolvers shooting double action at 25 yards/m, I would say that keeping all your shots in the -0 section of the body (8" circle) of an IDPA target is good and keeping them all in the head (6" square) is very good. With my S&W Model 41, I can place most of my shots inside a 4" circle at the same distance.
 
The hand size at is a good standard.... start in close and when you can keep them all in a hand or fist size group take it out a little further and start the process again.

Off hand shooting with iron sights I find shooting rifles at 100yards to be pretty close to shooting handguns at 25 yards or so.
 
p210sig said:
Shooting a handgun at 25 yards.
5 inch group = Good
3 inch group = Great
1 1/2 & smaller = Marksman

Shooting a rifle at 100 yards.
3 inches group = Good
1 1/2 inch group = Great
1/2 inch & smaller = Marksman

These are the standards i set for my self & my son when we shoot our firearms. Other shooters standads may differ.
Click to expand...

An interesting standard but one that is much harder to attain with a handgun than with a rifle - at least for me. 1 1/2" grouping with a handgun at 25 yards I find to be a darn sight more difficult than .5 at 100 with a rifle but maybe that just shows how much practice I need with handguns :)
 
It totally depends on the handgun you're shooting. I once had a model 60 S&W that would shoot touching groups all day long from a rest at 25 yards. If I shot it single action and really took my time, I could sometimes make 3shot touching groups, that gun was definitely more accurate than I was. Typically I'd make 3-4 inch groups with it on a full 5 round session.

My semi baby eagle with good ammo was capable of doing 4 inch groups at 25y all day. My Walther p22 was doing 3-4 inch groups with Blazer. The only gun I had issues with was my M&P .40 which I just could not fire accurately, but it wasn't the gun's fault. I had an IPSC guy play with it once, and he made a 2 inch group at 25y no problem.

I think if you can keep your group under 5 inches @ 25y you're doing well.
 
Depends on what I'm shooting. The Nighthawk has to be very good or it is time to go home, by that I mean no more than 2" at 25 yards. My Snake Slayer Derringer I'll be lucky if I hit the broad side of a barn when filtering 45 colt through it, can shoot very well horizontally but vertically cause of the over under barrel is awful. If you shoot something like a Chiappa Rhino with a decent length barrel you should do quite well too. It all depends on the gun and how you feel with it. Practice your breathing skills and just relax on the grip a bit. If you are trying to hard or tensing up you will start to shake.
 
Time taken to shoot does enter into the equation as well. For example once a month I shoot the local clubs Speed Steel match. Recently we had a couple of stages with all the targets at around 20 to 25'ish yards and they were largely comprised of 6 inch rounds with a couple of 8 inch rounds. There's some pretty darn good shooters in this group but from what I saw it is still rare to get 5 shot runs on the 5 targets. Usually there's one or two misses other than the guys shooting revolver who slow down just a hair because they've only got the one spare round to work with.
 
These groupings people mention don't mean much without position and rate of fire.

As mentioned above by another poster, I have serious doubts about some of these groups if they're performed by people at a relatively quick rate of fire (1 shot per second) in a standing, unsupported stance.


I can easily believe 2-3" groups at up to 10-15 yards if you're firing at the abovementioned cadence... but 25 yards? GTFOH.
 
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