

Once again, we’ll attempt to tell you how easy or hard we found each pistol was to shoot, and the ease with which we could group with them. The accuracy results given in our table were not intended to give the ultimate accuracy of the pistols, but just one shooter’s relative ease in getting the most out of each of them. Each and all of these high-dollar target pistols will outshoot anyone’s ability to hold. These test targets may be loosely described as being one ragged hole at some long range.

We preceded that statement with a note to the effect that most of these costly target pistols are tested in machine rests before they ever leave the factory. We shot them by hand to get the results of one shooter’s ability to group with them.

We’ve received a few letters from GT readers who failed to read our statement on testing these guns’ accuracy. We wanted to continue expanding the test class by adding two more products, Walther’s GSP, $1,500, and Hmmerli’s SP20, also $1,500, to the mix. Our last test in this category found the Pardini Nygord Master, $1,095, to offer more value than competing units from Benelli and Hmmerli. We’ve found real differences in the execution of vital areas of Hmmerli, Walther, Pardini, Smith & Wesson, and Benelli handguns-enough for us to recommend some of the cheaper (if you can call $1,000 cheaper) units over some costing nearly twice as much. The answer to the last question is no, as recent testing of several pricey. We want to know, How good does a gun have to be to cost $1,500 to $2,000, and can it ever truly be worth such an outlandish price? Perhaps even more important, we wonder, Won’t every gun in that price class be as indistinguishably good as another one? Most shooters will never need or want such precision shooting tools, but we are still curious about them. Shooters who want unabridged performance in their handguns know there’s a niche of Olympic-class firearms wherein a good trigger simply isn’t good enough, and a comfortable-enough grip still may not be perfect enough to allow hole-in-hole accuracy.
