Like most of us in this forum, I try to wring the best accuracy I can out of my rifles. Personally, I'm content with MOA groups but I'll accept 1-1/4"-1-1/2" groups for hunting. Sloppier than that and I'm not too happy. I'm also fortunate in that I have a buddy who can get me large paper sheets for what I refer to as "multi-point" targets. It occurred to me that if I'm shooting, at worst, a 5" group, why do I need to waste a foot square target? I divide the big sheets into quadrants and put my aim points in the centre of them. The one dead centre is my sighting in and control group, generally some factory ammo. I use that to establish my lateral and horizontal scope settings and then tweak it from there. So, here's the story. I used to have a tricked out SKS for hunting since I wanted a semi-auto for some areas. I acquired a Winchester Mod.100 semi for which I worked up an acceptable load, but I liked the 7.62 X 39 as a tidy little deer load. I sold the hunting SKS at a gun show, but I had a pile of reloads that the SKS didn't like. I later picked up a lovely little Howa rifle from a fellow gunnut. Aha, time to start finding out what it likes. I took a whack of the non SKS compatible reloads with me to range. The centre stuff was PPU 123 gr. soft point and I kept adjusting until I was in the aim point ball park. I then started shooting 5 round groups with the various other loads to see what they'd do for me. As you can see, the Hornady SST on top of Reloader 7 proved to be serious medicine. If the fates are kind, it'll get me some venison this fall. Neat, eh?
