I have a nice Mustang that shoots well at 10 and 15 yards. Cloverleafs at 7 yds, opening up to about 2 x 2 inches or less at ten yards. At 15 yards it shoots 18 shots (3 magazins) into 9 x 9 inches. But at 25 yds it falls apart. (Or more likely I do).



It has Novak sights front and rear and has been cerakoted.



Trigger is great after cerakoating.

Ive experimented with Wilson recoil spring and guide and get numerous short cycles or failure to feed. So went back to facotry spring and nylon guide.

The pistol is accurate enough to warrant further work.

Does anyone know a gunsmith who tunes these pistols?

I assume you would need to match barrel diameter with that of bushing diameter (or wyatever you call a bushingless frame).

Feed ramp might need some work also.

Thanks, Andy

I doubt you're going to get that little thing to do much better. For what the gun was designed for, it sounds like it's doing great.

Filmit,

Thats what I thought until I saw a buddys Sig P238 and a Walther PPKS and they are both alot more accurate.

The PPK kicks more and is heavier. Sig is a Colt Mustang made right.

What to do?

they can make head shots at 15 and even 25 yds!!!

(Mine is prettier though)!

Andy

Cloverleafs ? Are you talking about tumbling ?
There are many rounds available now for the 380. Try different bullet weights.

Isn't the Walther PPKS a solid pinned barrel?

Is the Mustang a floppy sloppy barrel ala 1911?

Yes walthers have a fixed barrel. One ones I have had were very accurate. I had a german one hat would shoot into 4 inchs at 50 yards.

Wish I would never had sold it.

i just happen to have a accurized moustang. treated it much the same as a 1911, tighten the slide, new bushing, lapped barrel, trigger job, sights etc. don't think i ever grouped it, but it is actually quite accurate. more than my sig 238.

Bullets dont tumble at 7 yds, just shoot into same hole. Even switching ammo brands barely increases size of group.

Most accurate in my pistol is speer gold dot jhp, then remington FMJ which is cheap and chronos about 880 fps. Gold dot is over 900 fps.

Butchloc, my mustang does not have a barrel bushing, just diameter hole in slide. You may have a Colt 380 style 1911 which has a bushing. So I dont know how to accurize my barrel/slide lock up.

I can try to lap the barrel. Thanks.

Yes the Walther is blow back operated w pined barrel.

The Colt is locked breach and handles plus P ammo no problem.

Andy

Andy, your gun is doing just what it was designed to do...shoot close range targets in a self defense situation.

It wasn't made with a 25 yard target in mind so I don't see the point in accurizing it.

I would spend the money on another pistol

you're right about the bushing. thinking back (i did this one long time ago) we rebarreled the thing. that's just one of my habits when a gun doesn't shoot & I want to keep it, i screw on a new barrel

Assuming the bullets are not losing stability (key holing) than the lost of accuracy is on the shooter. Ignoring bullet drop which should be minimal at short yardage the spread should follow, 1' at 10yds, 2" 20yds 3" at 30 yard and so on. A better grip and trigger work will tighten your group at all ranges. Handgun shooting is an art, it takes a considerable amount of practice to maintain a high level of accuracy. I am a retired LE and range instructor, when I was shooting monthly I could shoot a hole in a target all the way out to 30 yards with a 2" revolver, now since I do not practice I couldn't keep the same pattern with a six", it depends on how much effort you put into it. When I first started many guys would carry the model 36 which had a 1 1/2" barrel, I always had the opinion that these where point blank range guns until I saw some of the better shooters shooting postage stamps at 25 yards.
Ignoring some of the basics for handgun shooting and concentrating on the two most important ones, If the gun is sighted in on a target and proper trigger control is followed, the bullet will hit what you aimed at, simple. Proper trigger control is secondary to sight alignment since you can only concentrate on one thing at a time keep the sights aligned and slowly pull the trigger, if the shot startled you....you hit the target since the sights would have been aligned when the gun went off.

Raamw,

I am routinely making 25 yd head shots on IPSC shilouettes with half a dozen Colts, and have two pistols (a 40 and a 45) that I can make head shots w at 50 yds most of the time. So I dont think the problem is with my sight picture or trigger squeeze. My Mustang trigger is actually better than my friends P239 or PPK.

I DO have a problem maintaining a precise windage beyond 25 yds. If I creep into an isosoleze rather than Weaver or parade rest rather than right foot back foot placement my group shifts to left. Roll over prone is better than prone or sitting. Ive always had this problem.

The short sight radius of the Mustang may be partly to blame. Ive never shot a pistol this small before.

But that does not explain the excellent groups with the SIG or PPK. The PPK sights are not fast at all, and not really too practical to me.

I would like to put a match barrel into it but does not seem to exist.

Ideas appreciated.

Andy

I did not mean to over simplify the art of pistol shooting. Every part of the pie is important
1 grip
2 stance
3 breathe control
4 arch of movement
5 trigger control
6 sight alignment
7 follow through
and I am sure I may have missed something

any time you are able to improve anyone of these, accuracy improves. When you do this repeatedly over an extended period of time muscle memory starts to take hold and that is what you see when you watch competitive shooters. You need to walk before you can run and there is no substitute for practice. The better the peace of equipment the easier it is to get better results. Even with fixed sights great accuracy can be achieved, you may have to choose a different point of aim to get the desire impact .

Handgun are designed for specific purposes, for target you generally want the long barrel large grip revolver or semi. for a concealable weapon, this type of gun would not fill the billet so you give up on most to meet the concealability requirement and a results you may never achieve the accuracy of the larger gun with practice you should come reasonably close.

With the availability of laser if I had access to an indoor range by myself I would set up paper target at different ranges let s say 5yd, 10 yd 15 yds 20yds and 25 yds or more at 5yd intervals.punch a tiny hole in the target put the laser beam (level) so it shines onto the next target and then punch a tiny hole in it and do the same to the next target and so on. Most shooter do better at short range since it is easier to concentrate and the arch of movement doesn't cause a break in concentration and shoot a group, rested even and look at the pattern at the different ranges. I bet you would be surprised at the pattern

We had quite a few shooter complain about being issued a used pistol, they claim it was worn out. At one LE range the range master had a sophisticated pistol shooting vise with a hydraulic trigger piston. If the vise was set up properly most handguns would put multiple bullets through the same hole ( slightly larger than bullet diameter) at 5 yds, as the range increased it would open up a little probably due to variance in the loading or the fouling of the barrel.

The Cylinder and Slide Shop offers re-crowning the muzzle of the Mustang to 11 degrees, plus polishing feed ramp and fitting parts and frame. They have a good reputation and I may try them.

I reduced group sizes a few inches at 15 yds by using a new factory recoil spring and Wilson guide rod that did not work with heavy Wilson spring earlier.

Occasional failure to feed and locking back slide on empty magazine now main issues. It appears to like lubricantion more than a .45 acp, and is alot more sensative about age of recoil spring.

Andy

When we switched to Sig Sauer we had some problems with stove piping and failure to go into battery, Sig canned response was use more oil. Oil is a tricky thing since in a concealed carry people didn't like getting it on their clothes and for those who did poor maintenance on the pistol would have considerable amounts of who knows what collected by the oil. Every auto I used was preferential on different ammo. Rule of thumb use the full power loads and don't limp wrist or soft arm when shooting. If you stick to the ammo that functions the gun reliably then stay with it