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What do you consider good groups?

Boutrocious

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Nov 12, 2013
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What is everyone's standard for precision for a rifle with a sporter barrel in 300 wsm? Or a Sendero type barrel? Thinking about a build and just wanted to know what everyone's thoughts were.
 
What is everyone's standard for precision for a rifle with a sporter barrel in 300 wsm? Or a Sendero type barrel? Thinking about a build and just wanted to know what everyone's thoughts were.

My own standard is under 1/2 MOA minimum. And I try for 1/4 MOA.

If I achieve anything under .100 (1/10 th inch) I am elated.

It is not necessary to shoot 1/4 MOA in most cases, But it does give you a lot of confidence knowing that the rifle will out shoot the shooter most of the time.

J E CUSTOM
 
J E Custom is ALWAYS right.

.5moa is what you must achieve in order to be 'good' and if you can achieve .25moa, then just do a little happy dance.
 
If I can get a factory rifle to .75 or better I'm happy. If I can't get a custom that will shoot a half inch or better, then I will just buy a factory rifle.
 
Would this be the same for lighter rifles?

The only advantage a lightweight rifle has is weight. All other advantages accrue to the heavier rifle.

Whether a rifle is accurate or not is not based on the type of rifle, rather the target and the distance at which you intend to engage that target.

For instance, if you expect to shoot a deer at 100 yards or closer, then a 2moa gun is plenty accurate for the job. Whereas if you want to kill elk at a thousand yards, then .5moa of better is what you will require.
 
Would this be the same for lighter rifles?

A lighter rifle normally only means that it will be more ammo sensitive. (It may only like one kind of ammo). It does not mean that they won't shoot 1/2 MOA just that you may have trouble finding
the best load/ammo for it.

Heavy rifles are not necessarily always more accurate they are just not as finicky and normally handle more types of ammo better.

Factory rifles are a pig in a poke as far as accuracy. I have seen light weight factory rifles shoot well under 1/2 MOA, and heavy factory rifles shoot well over 2 MOA. If you buy a factory rifle and it shoots less than 1/2 MOA, consider your self lucky.

The reason most choose a Custom rifle is, they don't want to take a chance on a poor shooting rifle
up front. There is no reason that a well built custom rifle with all premium parts should not shoot 1/2 MOA or less. But a poorly assembled rifle with all of the best components may not shoot well at all.

Lots of variables I know, but that is the nature of things and there is no 1 right answer.

J E CUSTOM
 
Heck, the killl zone for most big game is the size of a basketball. Most off the shelf rifles today can handle that out to 300 yrds with no problem. 1/4's and 1/2's are another story, you'll need to spend some serious cash to shoot these numbers. So distance and group size can be related in a hunting rifle, it all depends on how far your planing on shooting, under 300 just about anything will work, past that and you'll need to get serious to be consist at, heck you might get lucky and get a 1/2 to 3/4 in off the shelfer.
 
Heck, the killl zone for most big game is the size of a basketball. Most off the shelf rifles today can handle that out to 300 yrds with no problem. 1/4's and 1/2's are another story, you'll need to spend some serious cash to shoot these numbers. So distance and group size can be related in a hunting rifle, it all depends on how far your planing on shooting, under 300 just about anything will work, past that and you'll need to get serious to be consist at, heck you might get lucky and get a 1/2 to 3/4 in off the shelfer.

Depends on the definition of serious money. I swear up and down that a heavy barreled Remington 700 bedded in an HS precision or BC stock, with an upgraded trigger, and proper barrel break in will shoot .5 consistently. A Rem 700 SPS Tactical or Varmint is roughly $550, Stock is $250, Trigger $200, bedding job $100. All in on the rifle is $1050. I may just be lucky though. My standard for accuracy is .75. While .5 is great and .25 is excellent. :D
 
I consider this a good group.
 

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W/A custom rifle & 5 shot groups, I expect 1/2", want 1/4" and occasionally get 1/8" groups. I'm more interested in group to group consistency than the occasional tiny group. In an 8 group shooting session I might get a few 1/2", a few 1/4"-3/8" and 1 or 2 1/8" groups. I still can't figure out if its me, the gun or the load.
 
The best I've ever seen this rifle shoot at 200. The problem is that this load was WAY too hot. Had to back down some and settle with 1/2 to 3/4 moa.

I had considered just keeping the load and retiring the barrel and brass very early.
 

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It's very normal when shooting five 5-shot groups to have the largest one 3 to 4 times as big as the smallest one. And the first group's seldom the smallest one; it stands only a 20% chance of doing it.

Better yet, all five groups fired on the same backing target will have a 25-shot composite a bit larger than the biggest 5-shot one. Go figure out why that happens.

To me, a good group is any one smaller that what I expect the largest one to be.

Accuracy anyone can count on all the time is at least the size of the biggest group they shoot. The tiniest group happens when all the variables pretty much cancel each other out. Believe it or not.
 
Depends on the definition of serious money. I swear up and down that a heavy barreled Remington 700 bedded in an HS precision or BC stock, with an upgraded trigger, and proper barrel break in will shoot .5 consistently. A Rem 700 SPS Tactical or Varmint is roughly $550, Stock is $250, Trigger $200, bedding job $100. All in on the rifle is $1050. I may just be lucky though. My standard for accuracy is .75. While .5 is great and .25 is excellent. :D

You left out some very important items. A quality scope will set you back $750.00 + Quality rings and base another $300 +.

I do agree with a Rem 700 Var. model being accurate. I have 2 308's that shoot extremely well but they cost quite a bit of "serious" money when complete.

If you know of an HS precision stock for $250 let me know where i can get a few of them. The last one I got was in excess of $300.00. This is a very expensive hobby we are in for sure.
 
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