Shoulder Design Discussion?

[MudRunner2005]

An older post is an understatement... This thread has been dead longer than Robert DeNiro's career...

 

[djfriesen]

A lot has changed in 15 years.

 

[AZShooter]

Yea lot has changed. Ken is no longer with us.

There have been many new 30 degree shoulder cartridges made since then. Both creedmores, 6.5 PRC, 300 PRC, 22 Nosler, 224 Valkyrie, 24 Nosler, and the 375 Ruger. I am certain there are more.....

The 26, 28, 30 and 33 Noslers use a 35 degree shoulder angle. First production cartridge I can think of that used a 35 degree shoulder angle was the 284 Win which showed up in 1963.

 

[cape cove]

I think we have also found that bullet jump(freebore) doesn't always mean poor accuracy. I own 4 Weatherbys and all are MOA or better. I think we have to remember they are hunting rifles not bench guns.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I think we have also found that bullet jump(freebore) doesn't always mean poor accuracy. I own 4 Weatherbys and all are MOA or better. I think we have to remember they are hunting rifles not bench guns.

Yeah, but when you're shooting a living thing, don't you want your rifle to be just as precise as a bench gun? Don't we owe it to the game we harvest to be as accurate and make as good and clean a shot as possible? You'll never hear a sniper say he was happy with MOA accuracy... Most aren't happy unless their gun consistently shoots 1/2 MOA or better.

 

[cape cove]

I hear what you are saying and no doubt 1/2 moa is great, but in my 45 yrs of shooting I have seen very very few true 1/2 moa hunting rifles. I have read of alot but seen very few.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I hear what you are saying and no doubt 1/2 moa is great, but in my 45 yrs of shooting I have seen very very few true 1/2 moa hunting rifles. I have read of alot but seen very few.

Hell, I've owned several, still have a couple of them in the safe, one is my custom lightweight Browning A-Bolt II in 7mmRM I had built in 2014. Handlaoding for them helps tremendously. It originally shot between 1/2 to 3/4 MOA, but after more load development I've got it down to a consistent 1/2. It's got a 26" magnum sporter contour barrel on it.

I'm not saying that your hunting rifle always has to be a 1/2 MOA rifle, I'm just saying that we should always strive to achieve and squeeze the most accuracy that we can, out of each of our rifles.

 

[cape cove]

Well Mud it's like I said I have seen very few 1/2 moa hunting rifles but read about alot. I own over 25 rifles of which at least 18 are hunting rifles with sporter weight barrels and not one is a true 1/2 moa rifle. Sure, now and then i'll shoot a 1/2 " group with some of them, but if I were to say that they are a consistent 1/2" gun I would be lying.

 

[sable tireur]

I think some of the previous statements from 2002 should be examined while keeping some perspective in mind. Current topics, information and technical developments have proceeded rapidly since this thread appeared originally.

It was not all that long ago it was assumed that factory hunting rifles should to be able to achieve 1", 3-shot accuracy from the top makers. Now those same makers are looking at 1/2", 3-shot groups as being necessary to keep the general public interested.

'Long Range' hunting, in the terms we think of today, would have been frowned upon
because it lacked the practice and significantly higher quality components which allow us to achieve such improvements in the longer distances we choose to shoot today. Combine this with the vast improvements in the glass and the configurations of the optics and you have some noticeable disparity. Best quality custom actions were relatively rare by comparison to what we all have access to today. Barrels, triggers, powders, bullets, muzzle brakes and heaven forbid, suppressors! Look how far we have progressed in what I thinks has been a fairly short period of time.