A 1 MOA Rifle

[General RE LEE]

I find myself being OCD about a hunting rifle with a sporter barrel being able to shoot dime sized groups at 100 yards.

I got a new Tikka rifle for my son and with a handload recipe that has worked in my other rifles, it shot about .8 to 1 MOA at 100 yards today. I could go down the rabbit hole to shrink those groups but is it really necessary?

I was able to make good hits on steel at 200,600,800 and 1000 today with this 1 MOA load. I am confident this rifle will perform it's duties in the field this season.

Is a 1 MOA hunting rifle good enough for you?

 

[DakotaFire101]

I wouldn't worry if I knew the load was developed well and everything else on the gun was in check and 1 Moa was the best that I could shoot that particular rifle. However I'd keep my shots limited to around 500 yards. If I knew my bullet is going to hit within 1 minute in any direction of where my crosshairs are I want to make sure I'm still in the kill zone. I personally would tweek the load a bit just to eliminate all doubt

 

[The Oregonian]

A 1 MOA rifle is perfectly fine. For me, the less accurate a gun is the lower my max yardage is. So to me the question is, how far do you expect to shoot with it? And what game? An elk is much larger than a deer, and at maybe 500 yards that makes a difference.

 

[Threejs]

I would worry more about the cold bore group and where it shoots after it rides in the truck for a week. .8-1moa is not a tight shooter by todays standard but if it holds zero and shoots 1moa or better all the time it's a dependable rifle that you can count on

 

[Jon Bischof]

No! I am not going to settle for a one MOA rifle when I ca do better than that for the same money or even less.
I used to hunt with a 1.25 MOA rifle, but that was over 20 years ago. Times have changed, why shouldn't I change too and do better.

I sold my Tikka with the goal in mind to do better. I did even better than I had hoped.

You are asking the same questions you asked months ago and still doubting whether you can do better?!

 

[Stk]

I wouldn't worry if I knew the load was developed well and everything else on the gun was in check and 1 Moa was the best that I could shoot that particular rifle. However I'd keep my shots limited to around 500 yards. If I knew my bullet is going to hit within 1 minute in any direction of where my crosshairs are I want to make sure I'm still in the kill zone. I personally would tweek the load a bit just to eliminate all doubt

If the rifle was properly zeroed, wouldn't the bullet only be going in .5 MOA of wherever you're aiming? Obviously that's only true if you can shoot as good in the field as you can when you zeroed it.

I'd be just fine using a 1 MOA rifle out to 500 yards.

 

[Bob Wright]

Totally range dependant. Many of us would keep chipping away at accuracy improvements though.

 

[Ckleeves]

Most people (including myself) are way to concerned about having 1/2 moa rifles. In all reality in field conditions its pretty hard to shoot the difference between a 1 moa and a 1/2 moa rifle. I can't think of any critters I couldn't have killed with a 1 minute rifle. The tinkering is fun (read pulling your hair out most of the time) getting a rifle to shoot those ragged hole groups but at the end of the day it probably doesn't make a difference provided your 1 moa load has good ES.

 

[Greyfox]

For hunting game to 1000 yards I want .5MOA or better. Factoring in environmental and positional factors, the additional margin can make a difference. For mid-range hunting, 1MOA is adequate.

 

[Mark37082]

Agree that it depends on purpose and range. Where I hunt there has never been a bench setup or rarely an opportunity for a prone shot. One MOA would be adequate, but I still find myself chasing those bug-holes groups.

 

[KYHILLJACK]

"Groups better than 1.5 MOA are swell to brag about online, but irrelevant in the field. Accuracy beyond the practical limit is simply unnecessary. No one is justified in taking shots longer than 400 yards with any hunting rifle or cartridge. Sub-MOA rifles are nice, but irrelevant to the hunter." Chuck Hawks.
I agree with this statement but would never demean or begrudge someone in their pursuit of a 1000 yard tack driver. We all have passions. Some are satisfied with time spent in the field regardless of whether game is taken. I probably get the same satisfaction of many of you guys by shooting a 1.5 MOA with my grandpa's Model 99 with its Weaver K4 or a 3 MOA with a Marlin 30.30 and factory air bulldozing round noses. I know one thing, I'll be carrying gramp's rifle opening day tomorrow and dad's Remington 7600 in 30.06 the next day.

 

[Euler]

Group sizes need to be based off of round count for context. Are you shooting positionally or all bagged-up in the prone?

A 1-MOA 3-shot group from the prone is complete garbage and indicates that there is a shooter/rifle/scope/ammo issue to me. A 1-MOA 30+ round group is okay by me, and will typically show about 0.3 moa 3-shot groups. A 1-moa 12-shot kraft drill is good as well IMO.

 

[Eric H]

I would worry more about the cold bore group and where it shoots after it rides in the truck for a week. .8-1moa is not a tight shooter by todays standard but if it holds zero and shoots 1moa or better all the time it's a dependable rifle that you can count on

Absolutely!! Cold bore shot and possibly 1 or 2 follow-up shots.

 

[Mr. Magoo]

I'm a big proponent of one shot kills, not just for meat qyality but to limit animal suffering, so in my efforts to improve my long range *hunting* game I've done alot of first shot cold bore testing with my hunting rifles and have found that (surprisingly to me) they are mostly consistent if my shooting technique is consistent. If something changes drastically- say bipod vs sandbag, heavily shouldered vs free recoil, etc then impact location can change and through testing I'll know how to make that first shot go where its supposed to..

Reason I say this, is while yes, 5 shot group size is less important to me than confidence in where the first shot is go, there is another factor to test for when testing your gun for hunting accuracy and that's first round shot placement throgh varying weather / temp conditions and shooting 1, 3 and 5 shot groups will give important info.

For example- when I found my .270 shot the first shot once a day into 1/4" 5 shot group over the course of 5 days. Leave the target up, walk outside and send a round, put rifle away, repeat next day.. At first I was exstatic since this is normally a 1 moa, 5 shot rifle, or 3/4 moa 3 shot. But then I realized this tells me I still have issues somewhere that need addressed, because I'm not always going to be using a 70° rifle in the field. Temperature is affecting my group size but the nice thing is through this test I also know there's potential for really good accuracy from this gun. Of course stuff like this might or might not be able to be fixed easily. Stock /bedding stuff is easy..Barrel or action stresses can only be fixed through stress relief or action truing.. Separating ammo temp issues from rifle temp issues is important too and part of my tests.