****This isn't a commentary or rant about anyone here, just a general observation about something that I think most shooters could improve on****
I suppose my irritation with the entire idea of "MOA" shooting is that people shoot to accomplish the goal of "MOA" rather than what they need to actually do. Which is why I think we have gravitated toward 3 shot groups, to chase the elusive "MOA" that we might not even need.
I've never shot a deer that a 2.5MOA gun wouldn't have worked for. And never fired more than four shots while hunting (the only time I fired four was once when I shot two deer).
So every year I fire one magazine full (4 shots) at one of those targets with the 2"ish orange diamonds. And all four shots, for as long as I've owned the gun, have landed in that orange diamond. Sometimes clustered tightly, sometimes spread out a bit more. But always well within what I need for my hunting. I fire four because I don't think I'll ever reload to shoot at deer, and I just want to be accurate enough for my hunting, and life is good.
It really doesn't matter to me what 10 shots will do because honestly, by the second group of our challenge my neck was so cricked up I had a headache and I had eye fatigue from trying to squint into the eyebox of the too-low scope. There was a ton of shooter error involved, that I'll never experience in the field (because I don't ever carry that janky setup), so I don't sweat it.
My complaint isn't necessarily with ten shot groups, but with shooters who chase goals that are pretty arbitrary to what they actually do with their guns.
For example, for the shooting I do being able to hit 10-12" plates offhand, quickly, at 100 yards is much more important than shooting off of a bench. So that's what I practice and what I've gotten pretty good at. And a lot of the people I shoot with need that same skill, but it's a difficult skill to develop so instead they shoot groups off of a bench and brag about "MOA".
If ten shot groups are useful to people, great. If ten shot groups are fun for people, great. I shot them too so I could play along in the challenge.
But I wish that the shooting community would gravitate more towards shooters developing skills that are applicable to what they do, rather than just using the litmus test of MOA group shooting.
Great post Bluedreaux. Also, I place a lot more importance to where the
FIRST cold barrel shot goes than anything else.
