Practical Accuracy for the common man..

[longsman]

Here is a simple variation on the deer hunting rifle theme. Any self respecting deer hunter should be able to hit deer's boiler room (aka heart), which is 6" or 15cm in diameter. That means that your rifle of a choice needs to meet the following accuracy standard:

-6" expressed in MOA at various distances:

distance MOA
[y]
100 ..... 6.3
200 ..... 3.2
300 ..... 2.1
400 ..... 1.6
500 ..... 1.3
600 ..... 1.1
700 ..... 0.9
800 ..... 0.8
900 ..... 0.7
1000 ..... 0.6
1100 ..... 0.6
1200 ..... 0.5

The above table (please, excuse my formatting) clearly shows that you do not need 1/2 MOA rifle until you get to hunt deer at 1,200 yards. Even up to 300 yards, you will be OK with quite sub-standard rifle. No names here ;-)

Now at 1,200 yards the accuracy of rifle becomes much less important, because point of impact will much more depend on your ability to make an accurate wind speed call. A small error in a wind speed estimate, at such a distance, would produce a miss equal to several yards. As one can only accurately estimate wind at its own position, longer distance shooting mostly depend on luck and calm weather.

 

[TCB in TN]

Everyone has talked about their opinion of "practical accuracy" and so now you have some goals. What do you do to get to them?

Years ago when I hunted quite a lot I decided I wanted to get "good at shootin". So I bought a decent Ruger .270, put a nice redfield scope on it and started practicing, early in the spring. A box or two of center fire rifle and a bunch of rim-fire every weekend. By the time summer ended I had gotten to where I could regularly put 5 rounds into 2in at 200 yards. Of course that was sitting at a table with a good rest. Went out hunting that year, missed a couple, hit a couple. Was frustrated because most of my hunting shots were not so easy.

Me and a couple of buddies talked about it and decided that we needed to change how we shot. So we started practicing shooting off hand, kneeling, and resting off a tree. To start went from shooting those 2in groups to about 8-10 in at 200 yards. Kept practicing and got to where we could shoot just about as good kneeling or off a tree as off the table. Made a lot more shots, and missed fewer that year. Still missed a couple of shots when I was stalking/driving that I shouldn't have.

Got to thinking about it, and realized that my heart rate at practice was nice and low, but when you have been moving around hunting or are real excited then it feels a lot different. So we started throwing some activity into our shooting. Do 50 push-ups, pick up your rifle and take a 100yard shot. Run 50 yards, pick up your rifle and take your 200 yard shot. Shoot in bulky clothes, shoot when the wind is up, shoot in the rain. The more different conditions you shoot in, and the tougher you make your prac the better you are going to be for real. The last season I hunted I took several deer, and about 15 or 20 coyotes, and I didn't miss much.

Now I don't hunt much these days, don't shoot near as much either, but have been showing my boys the difference. I may be out of shape now, but I know how to handle it and so I still out shoot them. At least for now.

 

[KodiakBeer]

Now at 1,200 yards the accuracy of rifle becomes much less important, because point of impact will much more depend on your ability to make an accurate wind speed call. A small error in a wind speed estimate, at such a distance, would produce a miss equal to several yards.

Wind drift begins well short of that - see table below. More importantly, wind estimation between the shooter and target are little more than a guess which makes practical accuracy for a standard hunting round (even in a light wind) a joke after 500 yards. And the joke isn't very funny when you realize the punchline is a gut-shot deer.

 

[BrocLuno]

And this page has all the real deal stuff for practical accuracy - well said gentlemen

That's why at 60+ and out of shape as the next average Joe - I limit my shots to Lever Action distances, even with a bolt gun

 

[armoredman]

"Practical accuracy" is an interesting concept. Let me share a few thoughts on that , if you don't mind.
I think the definition of practical accuray has mainly to do with the intended task of the rifle. For instance, this is a 200 yard group I shot with my CZ 527M, supported, NOT benched. Scope was a 4-12.





I can live with that, but would like it smaller. Now, here is a 200 yard target shot with my vz-58, optics was a 1x EOTech, now gone - the optic, not the rifle. Also shot seated, supported, not benched.






I can live with that, too. The task of each rifle is completely different, even though I use them both for the same thing - punching holes in paper.

Last a target shot by the CZ 527M at close range, 50 yards, for load development. This was shot using my brand new bachrest bags.



Based on that target alone someone would say my rifle/me combo couldn't hit squat at 200 yards, but this is developing a cast bullet load, so practical accuracy is at 50 yards while finding the sweet spot to move back to 100 yards, etc.

Anyway, that's my take, with some pictures.

 

[Rollis R. Karvellis]

The best 3, shot group with one of my rifles was just over.3. This was off a bench, with bags, and almost perfect conditions. When I'm, doing well most groups will produce in the.7 - .9 range. The funnest group was, a 5 inch group with the same gun, and load at 100 yards prone, with bipod, for 50 shots.

 

[Welding Rod]

ssyoumans - to answer the question you asked, I would expect it to do 2" or better for 5 shots at 100. With no wind the group should maintain its accuracy pretty closely in MOA out to the 300 yard mark you asked about.

 

[ssyoumans]

Thanks all who replied.. Very interesting takes on the topic.
The Marlin XS7 in 243 will eventually see some use for deer, but I'm not a big time hunter with access to land w/o joining a hunting club, which I'm considering when season comes around. The last 2 times I went hunting, I brought my Marlin 336 in 30-30, but I didn't see any deer. I'm confident I can hit the boiler room out to 60-70 yards standing or leaning up against a tree, and probably 125 yards out of a tree stand on a calm day. Most places where I've been, your shots are limited to about 75 yards due to the denisty of the trees. I get about a 1" 3 shot group at 60 yards from sandbags with Hornady FTX. I should take up "TCB In TN" method of testing what I'm capable of at different distances and differnt shooting positions. Sounds like a fun challenge.
Since deer season has ended here, I'll probably be simply punching holes in paper for the next 9 months unless I get invited to try my luck at coyote hunting.

So, general target shooting for fun was really where my question was focused, just what could a stock gun, with a normal barrel (not a match grade), shooting off of sandbags with a 3-9x scope could expect. Sounds like the scope & rifle with ammo it likes should be capable of close to 1" - 2" at 100 yards, but the big question, am I?? That I'll have to work on. The range I go to only goes out to 100 yards, so I didn't know what to expect for 200 or 300 yards, cause I don't even know what a 1" target circle looks like through the scope at that distance. I'm sure again, it will be as people have said before, the shooter is the the real limiting factor, heart rate, breathing, trigger control.

Again, thanks to everyone's input and take on the topic.