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Don't sweat bad shooting
New Weatherby Vanguard Sub-MOA has big-price accuracy for less than $1,000.
By Mike Leggett
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, October 30, 2005
I know about flop sweat. I've had it at the shooting range, and I've been hit by it flying off the shooter in the next booth.
It's that time on the firing range when deer season is just around the corner and every shot from your rifle lands in a different spot, none of them close to the center bull. Maybe they should call it "flop-shot sweat."
Faster and faster, more desperate by the minute, you slam home another round. The barrel starts to heat up, almost guaranteeing that your rifle won't be at its most efficient. The powder-stained holes multiply, your shooting becomes even more erratic, and pretty soon all is lost.
I have a friend, a veteran shooter who knows his way around a rifle, who seldom shoots more than a pair of three-shot groups from any single gun during a visit to the range. He records each hit, the bullet that made it and cleans and returns the gun to its case. Then he'll take up another gun and not go back to the first rifle for another week.
He would never take a rifle into the field -- whether he's antelope hunting in West Texas or squirrel hunting in East Texas -- unless it were as finely tuned as possible.
But that's a perfect-world scenario for a man who owns a number of fine rifles, each designated for a particular use. Most of us have to make do with one or two, and that's why we have to start the day with confidence that our gun is going to shoot the way it should and at least in the general direction we aim it.
That's where the new Weatherby Vanguard Sub-MOA rifles come in. They are guaranteed to shoot, with factory ammunition, a three-shot group of .75-inch or less at 100 yards. Test shooter T. Yamaoka did that with mine and, bad eyes and all, I was able to duplicate it twice with different ammunition and a different scope.
Weatherby always has included a factory-shot target with every rifle sold as an assurance to each buyer that the rifle they are using is accurate to at least a 1-inch group at 100 yards. The new Sub-MOA rifles take that a step further.
MOA stands for "minute of angle." One minute of angle is considered to be about one inch at 100 yards. Most rifle scopes adjust at one click per 1/4-inch, or four clicks per inch at 100 yards.
When the grouping is even tighter, less than .75-inch, the gun is pulled from the line, fitted with Weatherby's Fiberguard, bedded stock and a recoil pad and sent back out as the Sub-MOA. The trigger is better than anything I've ever pulled right out of the box, about three pounds, crisp with no crawl. The Sub-MOA's cost a little more, but still should be available for around $750. The basic Vanguard rifle sells for just under $500 with a composite stock, but won't have the extra bells, whistles and accuracy guarantee the Sub-MOA carries.
Available in all the standard Vanguard calibers, from .22-.250 up through the .338 Winchester Magnum, the Sub-MOA offers a very nice off-the-rack alternative to $2,000 specialty rifles or accurized models with the same basic guarantees on accuracy.
I chose .308 Winchester, mainly because I think it's an overlooked caliber capable of doing duty in multiple situations. You can load up to 180-grain size and hunt elk, or down below 150 grains and give coyotes and hogs a headache.
Shooting Federal Premium 150-grain Nosler Partition bullets, I quickly had the rifle to a 100-yard zero and then was able to produce two separate half-inch groups. That's better than I can shoot. Hand-loads, or even a Ballistic Tip bullet, would no doubt produce better accuracy.
For a scope I chose a Nikon 5.5-16.5x44, matte-finish model. I like adjustable scopes and this one performed well. All the Nikon models I've been looking at are clear, have easily adjustable focusing and parallax adjustments and are priced attractively.
The 5.5-16.5 model has target adjustments of 1/4-inch MOA, which makes it easy to use if you want to make long-range adjustments for varmints or elk in the mountains.
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/sports_3446d7ed33a160ba0033.html
New Weatherby Vanguard Sub-MOA has big-price accuracy for less than $1,000.
By Mike Leggett
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, October 30, 2005
I know about flop sweat. I've had it at the shooting range, and I've been hit by it flying off the shooter in the next booth.
It's that time on the firing range when deer season is just around the corner and every shot from your rifle lands in a different spot, none of them close to the center bull. Maybe they should call it "flop-shot sweat."
Faster and faster, more desperate by the minute, you slam home another round. The barrel starts to heat up, almost guaranteeing that your rifle won't be at its most efficient. The powder-stained holes multiply, your shooting becomes even more erratic, and pretty soon all is lost.
I have a friend, a veteran shooter who knows his way around a rifle, who seldom shoots more than a pair of three-shot groups from any single gun during a visit to the range. He records each hit, the bullet that made it and cleans and returns the gun to its case. Then he'll take up another gun and not go back to the first rifle for another week.
He would never take a rifle into the field -- whether he's antelope hunting in West Texas or squirrel hunting in East Texas -- unless it were as finely tuned as possible.
But that's a perfect-world scenario for a man who owns a number of fine rifles, each designated for a particular use. Most of us have to make do with one or two, and that's why we have to start the day with confidence that our gun is going to shoot the way it should and at least in the general direction we aim it.
That's where the new Weatherby Vanguard Sub-MOA rifles come in. They are guaranteed to shoot, with factory ammunition, a three-shot group of .75-inch or less at 100 yards. Test shooter T. Yamaoka did that with mine and, bad eyes and all, I was able to duplicate it twice with different ammunition and a different scope.
Weatherby always has included a factory-shot target with every rifle sold as an assurance to each buyer that the rifle they are using is accurate to at least a 1-inch group at 100 yards. The new Sub-MOA rifles take that a step further.
MOA stands for "minute of angle." One minute of angle is considered to be about one inch at 100 yards. Most rifle scopes adjust at one click per 1/4-inch, or four clicks per inch at 100 yards.
When the grouping is even tighter, less than .75-inch, the gun is pulled from the line, fitted with Weatherby's Fiberguard, bedded stock and a recoil pad and sent back out as the Sub-MOA. The trigger is better than anything I've ever pulled right out of the box, about three pounds, crisp with no crawl. The Sub-MOA's cost a little more, but still should be available for around $750. The basic Vanguard rifle sells for just under $500 with a composite stock, but won't have the extra bells, whistles and accuracy guarantee the Sub-MOA carries.
Available in all the standard Vanguard calibers, from .22-.250 up through the .338 Winchester Magnum, the Sub-MOA offers a very nice off-the-rack alternative to $2,000 specialty rifles or accurized models with the same basic guarantees on accuracy.
I chose .308 Winchester, mainly because I think it's an overlooked caliber capable of doing duty in multiple situations. You can load up to 180-grain size and hunt elk, or down below 150 grains and give coyotes and hogs a headache.
Shooting Federal Premium 150-grain Nosler Partition bullets, I quickly had the rifle to a 100-yard zero and then was able to produce two separate half-inch groups. That's better than I can shoot. Hand-loads, or even a Ballistic Tip bullet, would no doubt produce better accuracy.
For a scope I chose a Nikon 5.5-16.5x44, matte-finish model. I like adjustable scopes and this one performed well. All the Nikon models I've been looking at are clear, have easily adjustable focusing and parallax adjustments and are priced attractively.
The 5.5-16.5 model has target adjustments of 1/4-inch MOA, which makes it easy to use if you want to make long-range adjustments for varmints or elk in the mountains.
http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/auto/epaper/editions/sunday/sports_3446d7ed33a160ba0033.html
