Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors How Many Rounds Do You Shoot When Punching Paper

Not really. Not much of a trick to shoot under MOA at 400 yards and you don't need paper to do that.

Finding a place to shoot beyond 200 yards around here is bloody difficult. Shooting objects other than paper isn't allowed where I shoot. The only place I can "plink" out to 200 yards is at my buddy's farm, then it's Necco wafers at 50 yards with .22's and from field positions, and clay targets out at 100 and 200 yards with CF's and from field positions. The guy who can whack a clay pigeon at 100 yards offhand more times than he misses gets more respect from me than the guy who never gets his butt off the bench and only ever gets bug hole groups on paper.

When sighting in or doing load development off the bench, for me 3 shots is an indicator, 5 shots is better, and 10 shots tells the tale.

Well said buddy. In my mind there is seeing what a rifle can do and get it zeroed to match the sighting system.....and shooting to see what I can do. I try not to confuse them.

Yeah, it's real confusing.

It is the one shot group that kills. It is the FIRST bullet out of a cold barrel and usually a clean, cold barrel unless you take steps to change that.

I have a place to shoot out my back door. Every year before season opens I take the rifle(s) I plan to use out of the safe and run a dry patch through the barrel(s) to remove the Montana Extreme Bore Conditioner that is in it. Then I fire one shot at 100 yards into the dirt just to foul the barrel. I put the rifle away OUTSIDE so it will keep the OUTSIDE temperature until the next day and I fire another shot at a target from a cold, fouled barrel. Then I put it away until the next day and I fire another round at the same target at the same distance from a cold, fouled barrel. I do that for three or four days depending on the weather and then go down and check the target. Whatever it indicates is what you can expect from that rifle on any given day when you are hunting with it and shooting from a cold, fouled barrel like many, if not most hunters do. Groups fired any other way will tell you what the rifle will do when it is fired under THOSE CONDITIONS. If those are not the SAME conditions you will be hunting under, you may want to think about that, or not. For most people, a three, five, or 10 shot group is "good enough" for them and that approach certainly works.

So it all depends on how anal you want to be in attempting to determine "group size" in your hunting rifle(s). To tell the truth, after I have shot the target slow fire over three or four days, I take a new target and shoot a three shot group for comparison. Then I shoot two more to make a 5 shot group. Then I shoot 5 more to make a 10 shot group. There has NEVER been enough divergence between the groups to merit a sight change, or for any concern that the rifle will not do its job if I do mine. How many shots you fire is a personal preference and whatever that number is, is no better or worse than any other as long as the bullets tend to center in the target.

DO NOT CLEAN the barrel before you take it hunting unless you fired every test shot from a clean barrel and unless you intend to hunt from a clean barrel. Then go hunting with confidence that it's all up to you and your shooting skill because YOU KNOW the rifle will do its part.

Op's talking about punching paper and how many shots you consider a group to be. Lets make this easy:

1. 22lr and other rimfires I use for varmint hunting: 10 shots

2. .223 rem or other centerfire varmint rifles:
10 shots

3. Competition centerfire rifles: 10 shots

4. Big game hunting centerfire rifles:

a. Magnums: 3 shots
b. Non magnums: 5 shots

An average of 5 5 shot groups shot with said rifle on the same day will give you a good basis for consistency and accuracy of said rifle. For example If you can shoot (5) 5 shot groups (at small targets) in a row on the same piece of paper, you can measure group size and find an average for the rifle. Pretty easy drill here. I know everyone here says their rifles shoot "sub moa all day long if they do their part". However, a lot of guys can't prove it. They just like saying they can. Same guys shoot rocks and dirt clods and swear they don't have time to punch paper, but hey whatever floats their boats...:




10 shot groups work well on good rifles too:


Magnums= 3 shot groups:


Before any of the rock shooters here say I don't kill chit, here you go:



Groups is for paper. 1 shot 1 kill (at any range) is for critters...

BSA I just want to thank you and welcome to the forum! RU coming to savage fest west? There will be a turkey shoot!

As many as it takes until I'm happy with where the gun is shooting....

Most of my rifles and most of my Savages are never going to go hunting. I have four rifles that I do all of my hunting with. I do a lot more shooting than hunting. In that context I use three shot groups in early load development, and then ten shots groups for loads I am interested in learning more about. This just carries over to my hunting rifles, because they are the exceptions but don't need some special fewer round procedure.

Hey, this is all good stuff! Thanks for the input.

I usually shoot ten rounds or more when shooting my levers. i will take two or three out and just bang away at paper. Mine are used for hunting sometimes so practice is essential. I had to buy a decelerator pad last fall cause I'm not twenty anymore.

I had to buy a decelerator pad last fall cause I'm not twenty anymore. [/quote]

22 hp and 250-3000, Joe.

If we are just "Punchin" paper, the count is more like how many boxes, not rounds fired. Sighting in a new rifle or scope, 3 to get started, then 5 to see how tight "I" can keep it, then we start to play and see if we can cut the black spot out of the target, Joe.

For a deer rifle, I bore sight first to shorten the sight in time, then shoot until I get it where I want it, usually 3 to 6 rounds. Once sighted in I have gone several years and never gone back to paper and still on target. I always believe if the rifle is kept away from being dropped, banged against something or borrowed by someone it will stay sighted in without firing each season, regardless of weather.

Savage99F358

I have the luxury of getting to shoot often. I find my zero moves around some. Just yesterday I was changing scopes, the rifle was grouping ok. Lo and behold one ring was loose and one needed tightened. I think riding mules and packing them in scabbards....and my own inattention to detail. I do not trust a rifle to hold zero over any period of time.