Good handguns

ImportConvert

The barrel doesn't matter as sloppy as the lock-up tolerance is in that pistol. A ten-thousandths of an inch in a barrel isn't going to matter unless the lock-up is perfect to begin with. I had a .22 rifle that was madein the 40's and it looks like the rifling was carved by a blind slave-labor child. It will still hold about 2" at 50 yards with me just leaning up against a tree. That chatter also happens to be in the last 1-3" of barrel, as well. The secret to handgun accuracy is CONSISTANT lock up at the front and back of the hood, as well as the muzzle/slide of a handgun like the XD. Slide/frame lock up is important as well, but only accounts for about 5-10% at most. However, the "M" barrel in the XDm is about like putting Penske adjustable shocks on a mid 90's ford taurus with no other modifications. It's there for marketing purposes...and mabye the .001 smaller group it can get you.

*Note, CONSISTANT lock-up is key. Not TIGHT lock-up. My Wilson Combat had a VERY well fit interface between the lugs/slide, etc. The frame/slide clearance was .002" nominal, as measured with my calipers.

My factory SIG still shot a group that was about the same size using duty ammo. (1.17CTC for the SIG at 25 yards, while the Wilson was .7" at 15 yards. The WIlson shot that group with Ranger T-series, while the SIG was fed GoldDots. bonded bullets are not normally nearly as accurate as conventional jacketed bullets due to variances in the plating/jacket thickness of the bolded bullets, making this even more impressive to me.)

Also, my Les Baer, rest it's poorly made soul, was tight as a drum, to the point where you could barely rack the slide. All this did was cause malfunctions. It didn't do a darn thing for accuracy that the WIlson couldn't match.