Massad Ayoob vs. the machine

Our Law Enforcement Editor Says That He Can Shoot Nearly As Well As A Ransom Rest. Our Shooting Editor Said Nonsense. We Did What Neutral Observers Are Supposed To Do - Egg On The Fight.

BY MASSAD AYOOB

There's no question about it. Chuck Ransom's machine rest was a landmark development in determining the pure mechanical accuracy potential of a handgun. It remains the gold standard today. If you have access to a Ransom Rest for accuracy testing of a handgun, by all means you should use it.

Unfortunately, the Ransom Rest is not always available. You may be like me and not own one. You may not have time to set it up correctly, which as Shooting Editor Charles Petty will explain in an accompanying article, has to be accomplished to some pretty exacting standards.

You may have a polymer-framed pistol, which the conventional wisdom says can't be tested properly from a machine rest. Or, like me, you may "test while you travel" and not have the machine rest with you even if you own one. When that happens, the traditional fallback is firing two-handed from a bench-rest with a solid two-hand position.

How many shots? In Africa, most sportsmen shoot "pairs." Firing only two shots saves ammo, which is ridiculously expensive on the Dark Continent, and the theory is that for a hunting gun, no more than two shots are likely to be fired at once in the field anyway. Some shoot 10 round groups, which makes sense for a match gun that will be fired in 10 shot strings in competition.

One of my colleagues likes two full cylinders per group with any revolver, or "twice around the wheel" as he puts it. Most, however, have settled on five-shot groups. That's what I shoot.

Many years ago, I noticed that when I had fired a five-round sequence and measured it, the group would never be as tight as five from the same gun with the same load with a Ransom Rest. However, my best three shots generally would be about the same.

As time went on, I became comfortable shooting five shots hand-held from the bench as precisely as I could. Those I knew I had blown--called flyers--would not be counted against the gun. The goal was five shots that broke with the sights dead on target as far as the fallible eyes and brain of the shooter could ascertain.

Then, the group would be measured twice. The whole five shots showed what the gun and ammo combination could do for that shooter at that distance with unlimited time in a condition of calmness. The second measurement was the best three shots, for the reasons stated above. Both measurements would be published.

The purpose of the "best three" measurement was elimination of human error as much as possible when a machine rest wasn't available.

Mulligan Shots

The idea caught on with one or two other gun writers. One used the term "giving the gun a Mulligan," which seems to have stuck. Not being a golfer, I'm not sure exactly what a Mulligan is, but if it means throwing out something that is prejudicially bad, I'll buy into it.

If the job is to find out how accurate the gun is without a machine rest, the five shots that feel perfect with the two worst thrown out seem to allow for human error that is subtle enough that the shooter doesn't pick up on it.

When such a test appeared in an article, I always qualified it. The three shot measurement, I said, was a "predictor" of what the gun could do in a machine rest. An approximation. Ballpark. A shorthand approach to testing for intrinsic mechanical accuracy.

Our editor-in-chief, Cameron Hopkins, has for 18 years made American Handgunner the magazine that has told the truth, that re-examined and sometimes helped redefine old values, and which looked deeply into the issues. He has an analytical mind. "How close an 'approximation'?" he wanted to know. "How accurate a 'predictor' ?" How precise was that "shorthand," anyway, and just how big was that "ballpark"?

We decided to find out, and assigned Charles Petty and I to do a joint test. Charlie and I would select four handguns, two of mine and two of his. I would bench test each my way, and then the guns would go south to Charlie to be locked into his Ransom Rest.

We would both use identical ammo from the same lot, each firing five groups of five shots each with each gun/cartridge combo. I would measure mine both "all five" and "best three" and Charlie's targets from the machine would be measured for all five.

Bench Protocol

Some shooters use sandbags for bench-rest shooting. Some use a Millett rest or an Outer's Pistol Perch. All make sense and help stabilize the shooting platform. However, like the Ransom Rest itself, they aren't always available.

It was winter in the frozen wastelands, so I went to the 25 yard Manchester Indoor Range in Manchester, N.H. and shot under the supervision of owner Jim McLeod. I simply pulled a chair up to the plastic bench, braced solidly thereon, and got on with it. I was able to get my forearms solidly rested on the support, too.

Each five-shot target was duly marked, to be measured later. In one case (S&W revolver) I only packed a 20 round box of ammo and had to return later to shoot a make-up target to get "five of five."