“My rifle shoots .2s and .3s” ... huh?

[sendero72]

It's all about the man who chambers your barrel.

 

[JDBraddy]

NBRSA national Cactus Clasic 2019, using all custom 6ppc/6br rifles, high end March and Nightforce competition scopes, custom benchrests like Farly and SEB-Neos, carefully tuned handloads and custom benchrest bullets, many making their own, the best equipment money can buy, few competators have less than 10K invested in their kit, an entire field of windflags up, only the top 25 of 125 national level competators, had grand agregates under .3", only the winner had a grand agg under 0.22" with a .2197". Shooters near the bottom of the list had grand aggs over an inch. I find it difficult to accept that folks here are consistantly outshooting these national level benchrest competators, and industy legend hall of fame shooters, off backpacks and bipods with no flags, using factory or lightly modified sporters, low to mid power field scopes, and in many cases factory ammo.

 

[nicholasjohn]

Whoever says thier rifle shoots .2's and .3's, offer them $100 to do it for 5 shots on demand. I suspect you will keep your $100 bill for quite a while.

People exaggerate, or they have the most favorable definition possible (e.g. I shot a .2" 3 round group once, therefore my rifle shoots "2's" if I do my part)

These same guys like to say things like "it will shoot groups like that 'all day long'," implying that their miniscule groups can be repeated any time they want to see one. Most of these tiny little groups occurred when nobody was there to see it.

 

[alf]

NBRSA national Cactus Clasic 2019, using all custom 6ppc/6br rifles, high end March and Nightforce competition scopes, custom benchrests like Farly and SEB-Neos, carefully tuned handloads and custom benchrest bullets, many making their own, the best equipment money can buy, few competators have less than 10K invested in their kit, an entire field of windflags up, only the top 25 of 125 national level competators, had grand agregates under .3", only the winner had a grand agg under 0.22" with a .2197". Shooters near the bottom of the list had grand aggs over an inch. I find it difficult to accept that folks here are consistantly outshooting these national level benchrest competators, and industy legend hall of fame shooters, off backpacks and bipods with no flags, using factory or lightly modified sporters, low to mid power field scopes, and in many cases factory ammo.

Amen......I've shot some form of BR for over 30 years, and know what it takes to do it consistently, doing it is another thing......

BTW, I shot the Cactus 2 times, both in the 90's. Actually won LV 200 the 2nd time.

 

[Ronald W Schaefer]

NBRSA national Cactus Clasic 2019, using all custom 6ppc/6br rifles, high end March and Nightforce competition scopes, custom benchrests like Farly and SEB-Neos, carefully tuned handloads and custom benchrest bullets, many making their own, the best equipment money can buy, few competators have less than 10K invested in their kit, an entire field of windflags up, only the top 25 of 125 national level competators, had grand agregates under .3", only the winner had a grand agg under 0.22" with a .2197". Shooters near the bottom of the list had grand aggs over an inch. I find it difficult to accept that folks here are consistantly outshooting these national level benchrest competators, and industy legend hall of fame shooters, off backpacks and bipods with no flags, using factory or lightly modified sporters, low to mid power field scopes, and in many cases factory ammo.

Yeah man...what he said!

 

[keithcandler]

So, the question is, what brand of bi pods are you guys shooting?

I found that tunners changed my group sized tremendously on hunting rifles, Harrells and RAS has tuner/brakes, and Mike Ezel has just a tunner.

 

[FEENIX]

It's all about the man who chambers your barrel.

... and the "NUT" behind the trigger.

 

[User4302021]

Anyone who has ever worked at a gunshop or a Wal-mart gun counter knows that a rather large segment of shooters are inherently liars.

Second, no one cares how well you or your rifle shoot. Same as no one cares how hot your girlfriend was or how fast your car was (or vice versa) in highschool. If you care enough to tell me about it, I can reasonably and logically assume that you care enough to lie about it.

Even if it is true, no one cares. Unless you have some kind of official record or trophy with your name on it, just shut up about it.

If you are making claims like these about a rifle you are trying to sell me, then you better be able to reproduce it on demand.

 

[TBell]

Curious here...

Since it is common for folks to speak of their barrel/rifle's accuracy in terms of group size, I'm curious whether most folks are speaking of groups shot off a solid rest (and reporting mechanical, repeatable accuracy), or off a bipod/bag and reporting the effective accuracy of the "system", which includes shooter.

I don't have access to a sled to lock down my rifle. So when I do load development I'm shooting off a bipod, thereby inducing some shooter error.

When you report your barrel's accuracy on this forum, which method did you use to get that group—solid rest or bipod/bag?

Lead sled, I am looking for rifles accuracy with little to no human bloops.

but when you say "lock it down" that is not true. The fore arm sits in the front rest, the rear in the shoe. I generally only use lead weight when sighting in the 338 LM.

I never touch forward end of the rifle, hunting or lead sled, and only rest my off hand on the sled under the rear shoe.

And never saw the point in lying about the accuracy, what's the point. Besides when I hunt it proves out, I rarely miss and if I see animals I come back with them.

 

[del2les]

Whoever says thier rifle shoots .2's and .3's, offer them $100 to do it for 5 shots on demand. I suspect you will keep your $100 bill for quite a while.

People exaggerate, or they have the most favorable definition possible (e.g. I shot a .2" 3 round group once, therefore my rifle shoots "2's" if I do my part)

Be careful judging others based on your own experiences and abilities. As a 40 year BR shooter, I have shot and witnessed way too many of those in 5 and even 10 shot aggregates, so there are several people who would take your $100.

If you wish to improve at any sport, go compete with the champions and listen, watch, question and learn. However like any sport, one may or may not be able to someday achieve what others have. As a youth, I played basketball and football, but there was no way I was ever going to make pro. Same with golf.

I have competed in varied shooting competitions for 4 decades National Match, BR, Palma, 1,000BR, etc, and regardless of years spent, very few make it into the top ranks.

 

[Kevin P McNeilly]

NBRSA national Cactus Clasic 2019, using all custom 6ppc/6br rifles, high end March and Nightforce competition scopes, custom benchrests like Farly and SEB-Neos, carefully tuned handloads and custom benchrest bullets, many making their own, the best equipment money can buy, few competators have less than 10K invested in their kit, an entire field of windflags up, only the top 25 of 125 national level competators, had grand agregates under .3", only the winner had a grand agg under 0.22" with a .2197". Shooters near the bottom of the list had grand aggs over an inch. I find it difficult to accept that folks here are consistantly outshooting these national level benchrest competators, and industy legend hall of fame shooters, off backpacks and bipods with no flags, using factory or lightly modified sporters, low to mid power field scopes, and in many cases factory ammo.

The top 46 competors we're in the .2 in heavy gun at 5 shot 100 yard.

 

[freddiej]

all mine without specifying otherwise will be off a bags and bi-pods. To think of it, I have only used a bench rest once or twice in my life.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I believe a lot of folks do this with merely a 3 shot group, that ain't much of an average especially at 100 yards. As many have said already, bragging about a group shot in a sled or bench rest is all about the gun but for hunting situations we are shooting off of bipods, back packs and sometimes a tree for a rest. I'd wager most of us have custom guns that can and will out shoot our abilities and will be in <.3s but we are typically the weakest link.

My best three shot group was with my .375-.416 Rem Mag firing 265 grain bullets at 3,055 feet per second. It measured .062". When I fired one more it opened the group up to .312". This particular rifle has fired many, many 3/8" groups for three shots. But normally I expect 5/8"-3/4". I don't shoot five shots with it.

My second best three shot group was .560" at 300 yards with a .223 Rem. The worse group that rifle ever fired for five shots was a .494" at 100 yards though so it was truly a tack driver to me.

My best five shot group was .256" with my .220 Extremist. A blown out Swift leaving only 1/8" neck to hold a bullet for single shot use. It was a rockchuck killer firing Nosler 55 ballistic Tips at 4,005 feet per second.

 

[aushunter1]

The reason I test/group a rifle is for it's accuracy. All i want to know is what is the best it will do. I do all of my accuracy and load work up test at 100 yards and Off a good solid rest To minimize outside conditions that can change and effect the data and be repeatable. When I use a lead sled, I don't add any weight(It already weighs enough to make it steady).

By testing this way I am proving the accuracy and consistency of the 'rifle'. Everyone has a bad day, and I try to eliminate that part of the equation. When siting in I try to duplicate the hunting conditions that will be encountered, And when I shot matches I did the same by shooting from the different positions. The outcome is always different depending what kind of day I'm having.

With all testing done under as near perfect conditions, I know what the rifle is capable of and if i do my part it will be reasonably close but not as good so it puts pressure on me to do my best. Many of my hunting rifles are sited in at 2 and 300 yards under field conditions but are still tested and sighted in initially at 100 yards for ultimate accuracy so wind, mirage,site picture, rest and other things are at there best, and mostly eliminated separating the rifles ability from the shooters ability.

J E CUSTOM

This is spot on imo, a hunting rifle does not need to shot .2's but merely 1 moa or under. We all strive to get the lowest possible numbers but we are not shooting benchrest here.

What is more important to me is once I have a sub moa group & it is zero's is to make sure I know how to set the scope settings for different ranges, read the wind correctly & make sure my shooting position is the best it can be along with learning to control my breathing & use a snap caps to practice all this with pulling the trigger.

@new2mud you forgot the tag 'all day long'

So many people say my rifle shoots .2 or .3 all day long & then when they show you a picture its 3 shots, most of the time this is the 1st 3 shots & they don't want to spoil the picture by actually shooting a 5 shot group which is what it should be imo!