Knew a guy who named his dog Ruger once. - dan
The 1 MOA Hoax: How manufacturers have confused shooters
- Thread starter Gatehouse
- Start date
Knew a guy who named his dog Ruger once. - dan
Nothing wrong with 3 shot groups. If you can't shoot a good 3 shot group, 5 shots won't improve it... and the barrel is just getting hotter.
Shortly before hunting season I always liked to stop at the range and fire 3 shots from a 'cold' gun to confirm my sighting in... the last time I did that it was 3 shots in a half inch group about 2 inches over center bull.
Yup. Particularly for light barreled hunting rifles. 3 shots from a cold bore to verify. Which is how you should do the load development for that rifle, as well. - dan
I agree with the light hunting rifle. I fire 2 or 3 shots from my light 300 wsm rifle before hunting season, just to verify it still hits the bullseye, and that's enough to know it works as it should. I have lots of other rifles I practice with, I save the shoulder pounding rifle that eats expensive ammo for the hunt. I see no need to shoot 5 or 10 shots to know I will hit a deer at the distance I shoot them at. Most of the time its 75 yards or less. The longest shot I've needed was under 200 yards and I had plenty of time to find a steady position to shoot from, so it was easy.
3 shot groups are certainly easier on the ego lol. To really compare em with 5 or more shot groups it probably takes several 3 shot groups to see the real trends.
Within the constraints of the animal you're shooting at the range you're shooting it, of course. Depends how much you really wanna see what you're capable of.
Within the constraints of the animal you're shooting at the range you're shooting it, of course. Depends how much you really wanna see what you're capable of.
There is a lot of truth in that!
I know way too.many shooters that expect match rifle accuracy from their hunting rifles at the bench.
To me this is counter productive because the biggest accuracy gremlin is the nut behind the bolt.
A shot at a deer at 200 yards and a target on a range with the gun on a bench rest are world's apart!
Cat
It's not counter productive; errors are cumulative- one doesn't somehow negate the other. If your rifle is only inherently capable of 2 or 3 MOA, plus you introduce another 2 or 3 MOA of shooter error, your miss window maybe be outside of the ethical kill zone on an animal in the worst case scenario. If your rifle shoots laser beams, the worst case scenario is a bit more likely to result in an acceptable shot. You won't be able to overcome the shooter error without improving your skills, but you can reduce the amount of additional error you tack on top of it by buying/building a better rifle, or developing a better load.
These are the same group of people where brass life in a hunting rifle matters. Either because it’s expensive imported boutique brass. Or because they shoot a thousand rounds trying to get the ES and group size just the way Corona says it should be.
Please explain to me how continually shooting a hunting rifle from the bench trying to consistently stay under 1MOA helps a shooter to shoot a accurately off the bench , offhand, kneeling or otherwise when their first shot is the most important on a target where a 1 1/2 MOA rifle is totally adequate .
The point I am trying tonmake is that most shooters would be better served in learning how to actually shoot well, not making their riflrs shoot well.
Cat
At the same time, a rifle that is only physically capable of shooting 1 MOA, will challenge an average shooter to shoot 1 MOA because the slightest user error will increase the group size beyond that. It's easier to shoot 1 MOA with a 1/2 MOA combination of rifle and ammo.
Continually bench shooting won't help you in the field, but establishing a good rifle/load combination will help not make it worse.
Maybe I didn't read enough of the rest of this thread, and you were talking about something a bit different than I thought you were? Apologies if that's what happened.
Working up an accurate load for a rifle does not take 100's of rounds, but learning how to shoot said rifle does sometimes
As soon as a rifle is zeroed I always tell shooters at the club to get off the bench and shoot offhand kneeling or prone so they can learn how to actually shoot their rifle well.
That bit of advice is rarely heeded .
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Shooting offhand unless you’re a silhouette shooter is bad practice. The single biggest accuracy improvement I have found for hunting is to get in a routine that you can do quickly that gets you a shooting rest of some sort. For me it’s prone off a bipod. For others it maybe a tree or sitting. Offhand sure if you have no time and it’s close, but then 10 moa is usually adequate
I am a still hunter/ stalker for the most part and the vast majority of shots made in those situations are offhand and inside 100 yards .
That is why I mentioned offhand shooting , plus, if you can learn to shoot offhand fairly well,Taking a rest or shooting kneeling g or prone makes it all that much easier.
That involves practise however, and it is not the easiest thing for most shooters to motivate themselves to do.
Cat
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I agree with the point you’re trying to make but I think shooting off a bench is helpful, just from the angle of getting comfortable with your rifle. The more time I spend getting to know my rifle at the range, learning how accurate it shoots turns into not second guessing it in the field when I need to shoot at game.
I’m already comfortable shooting offhand with a sling or taking a knee though, I like hunting small game a lot and it’s a great way to practice shooting from field positions. I think any time behind the gun will be a benefit when you’re out hunting, I watch people at the range sighting in and I think more people could use any extra range time they can get. Even if it’s off the bench lol.
Once your rifle is zeroed, shooting from the bench, for a hunter is just burning powder. Nothing wrong with burning powder, I love doing it, but don't kid yourself into believing it does much to increase your effectiveness on game in hunting scenarios. Having said that, I have spent the week loading 3000 rounds for various hunting rifles... so there is that. Lol.
