Short Sight Radii

[Danny Bear Claw]

With my matched pair of Vaqueros with 7.5 inch barrels I can shoot 3.5 inch groups one inch low at 25 yards.  With my 5.5 inch Bisley Vaquero I shoot 4.5 inch groups at the same range.  With my 3.75 inch Birds Head Vaquero I can shoot 5.5 inch groups.  With my 3 inch Sheriff's clone I can hit the side of a barn, if I'm standing inside of it.  Now I know these old eyeballs of mine ain't what they used to be, but I'm wondering if other Pards have the same trouble putting rounds in the black with the shorter tubes like I do.  I'm also wondering if I practice more with the short barrels will my groups improve?
I prefer the long barrels on single action revolvers, but sometimes ya just gotta go with the style points ya get with a short guns.

[Micheal Fortune]

The longer right radius helps some people, but you need to find out what your pistol shoots.

Put each one on a pistol rest, if you could clamp it down it would be better, and shoot it to the same point of aim 3 shots at the same yardage and see what you get.

Some pistols just shoot a bigger group than others, even consecutive serial numbers will shoot different groups sometimes right out of the box.

You can take a 2 inch snub nose and hit 10 inch paper plates at 100 yard if you practice enough.

The only thing the length of the barrel affects is velocity and balance.  The longer sight radius just lets you aim it easier.

[Delmonico]

With Iron Sights the longer the sight radius the easier to tell errors in the sight picture.  Most folks shoot better with a longer barrel as long as it don't get so long and heavy that ya can't hold it steady.

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[Bear Rider]

As you get older, there is another factor that enters into the equation -- your depth of focus. some people can't naturally focus on the front sight of a longer barrel yet can do so on shorter barrels. For others, the situation is reversed.

Not insinuatiing that you are an old fogie, of course. 

[Book Miser]

Gotta agree with Bear Rider, re the vision thing.

I've taken to wearing my "computer" glasses (single vision lenses, focused at about 24 inches) for shooting, with great improvement.

Putzing with the Mark II in bullseye shooting, I tried the Merit Optical Attachment, but I find that the 'puter glasses are a better choice. Not to mention which the Merit would not be welcome or usable in CAS. (I am right-handed, but left-eye dominant. I sight pistols with the left eye, but I refuse to try shooting long guns weak-side.)

There's a gulf of difference between paper-punching and CAS shooting. Whether your wheelguns shoot a 3.5" group or a 3/4 inch group is not the main factor, unless your club puts up some really teensy targets. The big deal in CAS shooting is target acquisition, and consistency of grip. The latter is especially important if you shoot duelist or gunfighter.

At present, I am shooting unmatched revolvers: a Blackhawk and a Bisley Vaq.

Last shoot I attended was not one of my better efforts. Grizzly Joe happened to be timing me on all six stages, and after the match, he told me that all my pistol misses were with the Bisley. This leads me to think that the slightly smaller pull length of the Blackhawk helps me. (Another data point is that I used to own a Colt King Cobra, and couldn't shoot it all that well, the grip being far too big for me.)

So, my advice would be to look beyond sight radius.

My 2 cents' worth.