How to choose between two handguns

[Luke]

A little back story, I firmly believe the Indian is more important than the arrow. BUT I bet that Indian shoots better with a new Mathews and carbon arrows . Unfortunately, I have been chasing the right pistols for a long time, never coming close to mastering any of them. Finally, I said screw it and I was going to get a glock 17 and a 34 and shoot them until I "mastered them". So I bought a gen4 17, Dawson sights and a trigger for it (back to the factory trigger now.. That's a thread in its own..) and I shot that for a while while I was looking for a 34 to purchase as well.

And here is were it all falls apart. One of our friendly members listed a M&P9 for sale for crazy cheap, and I may have accidentally bought it. The game plan was to buy it and trade it for what I wanted, essentially getting a good deal on the one I wanted. I accidentally shot it today and realize how much I like it. This is my second M&P, I recently sold a pro 9. I'm so confused on which one to keep and "master"


Now for the questions!

What are good drills to determine which gun is better for you? I know how it "feels" isn't always true so I'm relying on a timer for this one. My thinking is any drill comparing the two would work? Are some drills better than others?

How much of a role do sights play? 17 has Dawson .115 rear and .105 front, m&p has trijicon HD's. Is this two big of a difference to run them head to head? I thought I would have the big giant HD's (hence the small Dawson's) but, I actually like it.

I suffer from slight left shooting on the 17 (2-3" left of center at 25 yards, sights are centered in the only one whose shot it, I'm sure it's me not the sights/gun)

M&P has a shorter rounded trigger guard and makes it harder to get my grip

I shot the DOTW (the uspsa classifier one, drill #122 I think) today with both cold and I scored better with the M&P but time was basically the same. The C zone hits with the glock were off due to trigger jerk.

I'm tired of switching between different ones and I want to stay with one for a long time, but which one?


Haaaaalp

[Hatchetman]

Are you sure that the energy you are spending trying to figure out which stack of mattresses has the fewest number of peas under it wouldn't be better spent just choosing a platform and shooting the snot out of it? It's not like you can only own one gun or only practice with one gun, and I've never been a fan of blaming the equipment for my lack of expertise. Perhaps it's a manifestation of my ruthlessly utilitarian nature, but I think your introspective energy can be better spent on mastering whatever is in your hand at the moment.

[Luke]

But how do I choose which one to master??

I feel like I am currently shooting the M&P better.. But is it the sights? Trigger? All mental?

I want to pick one gun and master it and make it to the A or maybe even a M! But which one..

[1slow]

Pick the set of tradeoffs you like best and shoot that gun a lot.

[GJM]

I don't really think it is that important how well you shoot one gun versus another. Fall in love with the process of getting better, learn fundamental skills, performance track your progress. As long as you keep getting better, you are on the right track. The advantage of one gun is it avoids wasted time switching, that can be better spent learning. That said, almost nobody shoots the same gun from start to A or M.

As Surf has discussed, the Glock is very easy to shoot OK, and very hard to shoot great. A good thing about the Glock is it is like a blank piece of paper, and it is all about you. What does that mean about your situation, only you can decide. If you get to a point where you are no longer progressing, or are not having fun, a gun switch may or may not change things for you.

[breakingtime91]

I don't really think it is that important how well you shoot one gun versus another. Fall in love with the process of getting better, learn fundamental skills, performance track your progress. As long as you keep getting better, you are on the right track. The advantage of one gun is it avoids wasted time switching, that can be better spent learning. That said, almost nobody shoots the same gun from start to A or M.

As Surf has discussed, the Glock is very easy to shoot OK, and very hard to shoot great. A good thing about the Glock is it is like a blank piece of paper, and it is all about you. What does that mean about your situation, only you can decide. If you get to a point where you are no longer progressing, or are not having fun, a gun switch may or may not change things for you.

that is really good advice, well said.

[okie john]

I don't really think it is that important how well you shoot one gun versus another. Fall in love with the process of getting better, learn fundamental skills, performance track your progress. As long as you keep getting better, you are on the right track. The advantage of one gun is it avoids wasted time switching, that can be better spent learning. That said, almost nobody shoots the same gun from start to A or M.

This.

It can take a lot of shooting to develop a realistic idea of how and whether you shoot one make and model "better" than another. Just because you shoot a specific drill better a few times with Pistol A than you do with Pistol B doesn't necessarily mean those numbers will hold up over time. You'll pretty much always shoot each make and model a little differently for one reason or another, but in the end it will probably be a wash as long as both weapons are of equal quality.

It sounds like you have an M&P now. Why not make a commitment to put 5k rounds through it before you consider switching and see what happens?


Okie John

[Luke]

Current gat is a gen4 17. The M&P is the mistress. Pretty sure theres going to be a divorce and ill marry the mistress.

[fixer]

May not be helpful for your circumstance...but I can relate as I think we can all relate. If you are like me and time is the single largest obstacle to shooting better, you need all the help you can get; and picking the right pistols that jive with your hand size, concealment needs, trigger qualities, safety features...is a large and daunting task, but a completely necessary one.

I narrowed my collection down from a myriad of different strikers and da/sa and single actions and revolvers to a single DA/SA platform and a single striker platform.

I want to be good at both platforms so I practice both. I like and enjoy shooting both platforms--a lot.

I stopped fretting about 'which one' a while back and decided--'both'. So in your situation, you might need to continue practicing with the m&p and the glock. There may be a point where you plateau with one vs. the other assuming the same amount of practice effort.

However if you are determined to find the pistol that is the winner of your pepsi challenge, then what I look for:

is there a meaningful (perhaps statistically significant) difference in performance between the two--in a given set of drills?
which one gives you more options for concealment?
which platform can you consistently perform well with when you are 'ice cold'.
does one platform have short comings in accuracy at long or short distances?
In short, do you have to work harder at maintaining acceptable performance (however you define that) with one or the other.

[rob_s]

Pick the one that you like to shoot.

Getting out to the range and practicing/shooting is way. Ore important than which one affords you the best reload time or group size.