Can you shoot up to the potential accuracy of your rifle?

Can you shoot up to the accuracy potential of your rifle?

  • Yes

    Votes: 33 26.0%

  • No

    Votes: 94 74.0%
  • Total voters
    127
  • Poll closed .
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S

Sheepdog1968

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I know I can't as I tend to be about a 3 MOA shooter (give or take 1 MOA depending on the day I'm having). It's good enough shooting for hunting, social plinking and self defense work. I like a fine rifle just as much as anyone but I've never worried too much on what the rifle can do since I know it will be more accurate than I am. Just curious if I'm in the minority or majority on this one.
 
With some rifles i think i can get pretty close off a solid bench with good bags. Any field shooting besides prone, and without a rest, im at my best hitting a 6" target out to 200 every time. Any farther and im not confident on game. This all comes back to the first bit tho; only some rifles am i even semi confident with. My nagant im VERY happy with 6" at 100yds because its iron sight, and short stock arnt very comfortable for me.
 
Since I have never heard of a guy capable of .000" groups, I will go out on a limb and say no one can.

If a rifle and its ammo was capable of exactly 2 MOA for example, the best shooter in the world would still shoot it in excess of 2 MOA.

BTW I always thought the logic that a less skilled shooter doesn't need as accurate a gun as being backwards. It seems to me the less skilled the shooter, the more important mechanical accuracy then becomes. :)

A skilled shooter with a 3 MOA gun can shoot very close to 3 MOA. A 2 MOA shooter will need a 1 MOA gun to achieve the same feat.
 
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Nope. I haven't even found the very best handload for each rifle yet, nor have I put in much accurizing work to any of these rifles. They all still have their stock triggers and one barrel could probably benefit to be floated. It still surprises me with its accuracy, but who knows where the "potential" will run out. Acquiring better bench equipment has gotten me a whole lot closer to whatever 'out of the box' accuracy they possess.
 
I am assuming that I have the luxury of using a bipod or some other rest. If we are talking offhand (standing) with absolutely NO REST at all, then I would have to say NO. If I can have a good, solid rest and time to get comfortable, then I would say YES.
 
Under any practical field positions, no.

At a concrete bench with sandbags front and rear and a high magnification scope, maybe. And then it's a question of whether you're shooting to the limits of the rifle or of the ammunition.
 
Off a good benchrest with good bags on a good day with good conditions and good handloads, pretty close.

Field positions, no way.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
Practice-Practice-Practice
I am 2 miles from my semi private range and try to get in at least 4 to 6 sessions each month. More when I am not working.
 
To fully realize the mechanical accuracy of a rifle would require perfect performance by the shooter behind the trigger. I am confident that I am not perfect.

That said, I did shoot a 0.7-inch 5-shot group at 100 yards with my .308 yesterday. Since my first three went into less than half that size, I'm sure that the gun is better than I am.
 
Not all shooters are created equally. Your weapon is the constant.
All you can hope for is to be the best you can be. Nothing wrong with
that.
 
nope, but in-so-far as i cannot, i must not actually know the "potential" of my rifles. Im a hunter so i concentrate on my abilities in that area not on paper. I will say, i miss few, but i do not take "risky" shots either.
 
Welding Rod said:
Since I have never heard of a guy capable of .000" groups, I will go out on a limb and say no one can.

If a rifle and its ammo was capable of exactly 2 MOA for example, the best shooter in the world would still shoot it in excess of 2 MOA.
Click to expand...

Yep - this is a very misunderstood concept, IMO.

How 'bout this: If I can shoot a little under 1.5 MOA with my 1 MOA rifle, would you say I was shooting to the potential of my rifle? Or would you hold that my rifle is more accurate than me?
 
MrBorland said:
Yep - this is a very misunderstood concept, IMO.

How 'bout this: If I can shoot a little under 1.5 MOA with my 1 MOA rifle, would you say I was shooting to the potential of my rifle? Or would you hold that my rifle is more accurate than me?
Click to expand...
If you're routinely shooting 1.5 MOA on a rifle that's capable of 1 MOA then I'd say you're shooting up to your rifles potential. I'm not trying to be ultra nitpicky about this.
 
I'm 50, and my eyes seem like they are 90. hell no I can't. I built a great AR, and just shot it this weekend. thanks to a really nice scope I hit my target. However,..... shoud that target have been a little smaller, a little farther, a little more movement, I'd be rolling the dice. Too bad, because this gun in the right hands could really be accurate. That being said... at 300 yards I'd still plug something in the chest. :eek:)
 
The last few years I've been getting worse at how accurate I can shoot. I'm only 36 but a back injury and having two disc's removed this past March makes it tough to shoot consistently. Even my Remington 700 BDL 223 Rem. that I used to be able to shoot 1/2"-3/4" groups all day long, between the injury, surgery and the meds it's tough some times, most times. I'm not recoil sensitive, having to use slug guns for many years, my 280 Rem and 30-06 Spr. are piece of cake to handle.

It's more the crouching down and general loss of motor skills that give me trouble now. There is no doubt in my mind that my rifles and even slug gun are capable of shooting better then I can, especially at this point. I still shoot my pistols pretty well though.

NYH1! ;)
 
Every once in awhile ill do some shooting that'll have me scratching my head wondering HOW?

Take these groups from Saturday morning. I had just got off work at 6am from a 12 HR shift. I was dead tired, hungry and had only went home long enough to grab my guns and hit the range by sunup.

This range session was simply to verify zero before deer season. I wasn't taking things seriously nor was a allowing bbl cooldown between shots.

The. 223 groups were a nice surprise but not (jump up and down) worthy. But then my last 200m group from my hunting weight 30/06 floored me. If I couldn't have made out three distinct radii I would have sworn I'd have got two lucky shots and missed the third. But a. 301" group at 200METERS with a sporting rifle??? HOW?

This rifles done some amazing groups in the past but never this jaw dropping. Kinda makes me wonder just how accurate this gun really is.

2011-10-17030806.jpg

posted via tapatalk using android.
 
Well done Dale. Why do I get the idea most shooters here do not reload or develop loads for their rifles??


Savage Mod 100 in 270 standard trigger at 100 yards 130 grain Hornady SST, 5 shot group.

image0.jpg

Jim
 
Interesting question, with a lot of different ways to look at it. The only rifle that I am close to is with my 10/22. Get a good trigger in it, and if I ever found ammo it really likes, then maybe not. But with what it is now, with what I shoot through it now, then I think I'm close at least - but only off a bench.

It isn't something that I take to the range that often, but it is the .22 I grab for squirrels. It is plenty accurate for that.

But a. 301" group at 200METERS with a sporting rifle??? HOW?
Click to expand...

One possibility is that sometimes "fliers" work in our favor too. They don't always work against us.
 
I know that I can get 1/2 MOA groups with my .223 at the bench. I also know I can hit fairly certainly on prairie dogs to 300 yards with it, if I have doped the wind okay. (And, sure, there have been spells when I'd gripe, "Dangit! I know I can shoot better than that!" :D)

In general, though the years, my hits on deer have pretty much always been (as near as I can tell) within an inch of what I'd planned.

And that's been good enough to suit me...
 
Welding Rod said:
Since I have never heard of a guy capable of .000" groups, I will go out on a limb and say no one can.
Click to expand...

Yes I can shoot my rifles limitations with my RBA and ARA rifle and with my F-Class rifle. To the guy who said there is no such thing as a 0.00moa shooter, I disagree. There is no such thing as 0.00moa ammo.
 
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