I test handguns at a distance not less than 25 yards. I've gotten grief from shooters who complain that I'm asking too much. After all, the vast majority of defensive encounters happen inside seven yards, so why shoot farther? According to them, I should only test "hunting" handguns at 25 yards or more.

One of the author's pet S&Ws punched this outstanding group--over a sandbagged rest--at 25 yards. At 21 feet, however, such a performance wouldn't even be worthy of comment.

To be polite: Stuff and nonsense. I suspect those complaining can't shoot. If you'll pardon my French, it's a piss-poor handgun that can't shoot one-hole groups at seven yards. I mean, 21 feet. Come on! If you plan to have any kind of a future as a competition shooter, you'd better be able to put your shots into one hole at 21 feet.

Not to pick on particular guns, but I could probably shoot a cloverleaf at 21 feet using a Lorcin or Jennings. I suppose if I did take up short-range shooting I'd have to measure groups with a dial caliper to discern any differences. Oh, I can see the whining now: "The Brand X handgun shot groups of .792 inch, while the Brand Z only shot groups as small as .811 inch," and after that someone would write in about how I was making a mountain out of a molehill of "only" .019 inch of difference.

No, at 25 yards you can start to see a difference in relative accuracy between handguns that you cannot at 21 feet. Not that there is anything sacred about 25 yards, despite the swarms of Camp Perry competitors who are all smiling. A friend of mine, a custom gunsmith of national recognition, uses 28 yards as his testing distance. Why 28? Because it is 1,000 inches. (Actually, it's 1,008, but even Ned isn't that persnickety.) With a thousand inches as his target distance, he can then easily figure the sight adjustment he needs to make, using the sight radius of the handgun he's working on as his divisor.

Well, if 25 is good, wouldn't 50 be better? Yes and no. Fifty yards would be a better measure of accuracy, but it would also be a better measure of how long my boot soles last. In my first 1911 book I machine-rest-tested two dozen pistols using a dozen different loads. With the average of four groups as the accuracy mark, adding in settling-in groups and the occasional "oh darn" group, I figure I walked more than 40 miles in the months those tests took. No, 25 is enough for me, and enough to tell me what I need.