A 1 MOA Rifle

[RockyRandy]

Do you really understand what 1moa is. At 100 yards a 1" moa means 1"in all 4 directions, that means at 500 yards you will be hitting 5" up down right left. I would bet your tikka is probably shooting tighter than 1 inch. Just my 2 cents worth

 

[KYHILLJACK]

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.

Before I head out to elk hunt in Colorado I do the one shot cold bore for a few days. I always leave the rifle in the truck in the garage if it gets cold enough that night. Then I check it again when I get to Colorado. I too believe that 1st shot is the one that matters. 2 years ago during this routine my Model 70 shot 3 inches higher one morning because although it was 38 degrees that night it also rained and the humidity was 90% that morning. Every other day I shot it was in the 20s and dry.

 

[KYHILLJACK]

Do you really understand what 1moa is. At 100 yards a 1" moa means 1"in all 4 directions, that means at 500 yards you will be hitting 5" up down right left. I would bet your tikka is probably shooting tighter than 1 inch. Just my 2 cents worth

Exactly. If your hunting around here with a 30.30 that throws 3moa at 100 you can kill a deer at 200yds no problem.

 

[Another Casual]

I have a barrel that doesn't want to do much better than 1 MOA. I've sunken a frustrating amount of time and components into trying and changing that. I've got one or two more things to try and then I need to accept that it is what it is. It does it's job well, it was never meant to be a target barrel. Shooting a light barreled gun seems like a different beast all together as well. Some days I wonder if I'm part of the issue or not. I'll probably throw it in a heavier stock and fill an empty AICS magazine with 9mm bullets to add another 1.5 pounds for load development and see if that helps at all.

 

[Mr. Magoo]

Do you really understand what 1moa is. At 100 yards a 1" moa means 1"in all 4 directions, that means at 500 yards you will be hitting 5" up down right left. I would bet your tikka is probably shooting tighter than 1 inch. Just my 2 cents worth

To me, shooting 1" means 1" diameter, not raduis.

 

[KYHILLJACK]

To me, shooting 1" means 1" diameter, not raduis.

Grandpa said if you can hit a 9" paper plate you can kill anything.

 

[KYHILLJACK]

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?

here's a good read ; https://precisionrifleblog.com/2015/04/15/how-much-does-group-size-matter/

 

[Mr. Magoo]

Grandpa said if you can hit a 9" paper plate you can kill anything.

Agreed on that.."Minute of deer" as we say haha.

Though there was an instance a long time ago when knowing my first shot with that 300 went exactly center of crosshair and having confidence in it allowed me take my preferred shot which is through the spine near the head. Critter was facing me head on with its head down eating. It was before rangefinders but somewhere between 250 and 300 yards. I knew if my range estimation was off a little it wouldn't matter since a little vertical shot placement variation wouldnt matter. No wind. If I missed the spine that barnes x was going into the heart/lung chest area.

Anyways it went right where I aimed, shut the lights off instantly, and it was the best tasting meat I've ever had.

 

[General RE LEE]

To me, shooting 1" means 1" diameter, not raduis.

Same here