Hammer fired is superior, part 1
A lot of shooters will take a modern polymer striker-fired pistol to the range, shoot a few magazines, and find their shot groups are sitting slightly low and to the left on the paper target. Then they will pick up an old, heavy steel 1911 and effortlessly punch the center completely out of the bullseye. The immediate reaction is to credit the crisp, light trigger pull of the 1911 for the sudden increase in accuracy. While a good trigger absolutely helps you shoot better, there is a much deeper mechanical sequence happening inside the gun that is quietly saving your accuracy. It all comes down to the physics of lock time.
Lock time is the exact measurement of time between the millisecond the sear releases and the millisecond the firing pin actually strikes the primer of the cartridge. It is the mechanical delay built into the lockwork of the firearm. From a shooter's perspective, lock time is an open window for human error. The moment you pull the trigger and hear the click, your brain thinks the gun has fired, but the bullet hasn't actually left the barrel yet. If you flinch, jerk the trigger, or push the frame of the gun during that microscopic delay, you will physically move the barrel off target before the primer ever detonates.
When you look at a traditional single-action hammer-fired gun like a 1911, the lock time is incredibly fast. The hammer is a relatively compact piece of steel pivoting on a fixed axis pin, and it is under massive, constant tension from a heavy mainspring located in the grip. When the sear slips off the hammer hooks, the hammer only has to rotate a few degrees through the air to hit the firing pin. Because the distance is so incredibly short and the spring tension is so high, the transfer of kinetic energy takes roughly three to five milliseconds.
Now look at the internal mechanics of a striker-fired gun. There is no rotating hammer. The striker is a long, heavy cylindrical piece of steel that has to travel in a perfectly straight line down a hollow channel inside the slide. When the sear drops, the striker spring pushes that metal cylinder forward. But because it relies on linear travel, the striker has to cover a significantly longer physical distance than a rotating hammer.
Furthermore, the striker is dragging against the plastic channel liner, and the striker spring is rubbing against the internal spring cups, creating a massive amount of internal mechanical friction. Because of the longer travel distance and the dragging friction, the lock time on a striker-fired gun is much slower, usually clocking in around eight to ten milliseconds.
That extra five milliseconds sounds like nothing, but in the realm of physics and human reflexes, it is an absolute eternity. It gives the shooter a massive amount of time to accidentally dip the muzzle in anticipation of recoil while the striker is still slowly sliding forward inside the gun. The 1911 feels more accurate because the hammer falls so fast that the bullet is already out of the barrel before your bad habits can move the frame. When I am tuning the lockwork on a handgun to speed up that kinetic transfer, I order my skeletonized hammers and reduced-power striker springs from https://www.brownells.com/gun-parts/handgun-parts/handgun-triggers-parts/ to manage the mass. If you are struggling with a striker-fired gun, the mechanics are punishing your flinch. Focus on keeping the gun absolutely still through the break, and respect the mechanical delay inside the slide.