Half-inch hunting rifles became a lot more common when 3-shot groups became the norm.
I am much more impressed with rifles that will actually groups 1/2" for 5-shot groups at 100 yards, and even more impressed with 10-shot 3/4" groups.
I am even more impressed with how many 1/2" 3-shot groups are reported on the Internet by hunters who've never tested their 3-10x scopes for parallax, tested their handloads for bullet run-out, and never put out any sort of wind-flag when shooting.
No kidding. You can't call it a 1/2" rifle unless you can post 5 5shot groups under 1/2" average. Even better, shoot a season of short range benchrest and see what it averages. Showing a target on the internet usually means the best group that rifle has ever shot.
