10 shots is the best indicator of where the first three will land on any given day. Overlay your various "cold" three shots groups and the answer you will get is in the 10 shot group.
Very true. Reminds me of a story Finn Aagaard did in American Rifleman on a Jarrett built rifle, a .280 Ackley Imp.
Not knocking Jarrett rifles, but since names and statements were made in the article I'll state them here. The rifle was advertised as 3 shots in a half MOA, and in no case anything over 1 MOA acceptable. (I'm assuming for 3 shots).
The test rifle was built on a Rem 700 action, 22" Schneider bbl, McMillan stock & Leupold 2.5-8x supplied by the author. The 3 shot test groups shot by the builder averaged .358", the authors test groups averaged just under .400" with the same load.
The thing I liked about Aagaard's writing was he wasn't afraid to call it as he saw it. Jarrett made the statement that the .280 AI can meet and even exceed the velocities of the 7mm Rem Mag. Finn plainly stated "This is not so. The 280 Ackley is nothing but a .280 Rem blown out to less taper and a steeper shoulder... and obtain possibly 50 fps greater velocity, period."
Anyway, he fired two composite groups using the same backer to show the true consistency.
One backer had 82 shots in 3.189", the other 89 shots in 3.375".
This is a true measure of a rifle's capability. A half MOA capable rifle with real world 3 MOA reliability.
