Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What is: "Hunting Accuracy" Defining the term.

For much rifle hunting hitting the game with the first shot from a cold barrel is paramount.

It's 'everything', It's all that's needed!

The statement below by Mule Deer agrees with what I have found.

I have kept records of where each rifles cold, barrel hits, ie. does it stay sighted in with that cold fouled barrel and many do!

Statement by Mule Deer:
"But also started experimenting with not cleaning bores, and seeing how long accuracy held up. Of course, it depends on how accuracy is defined, but found a lot of barrels could go a long time, often several hundred rounds, before accuracy dropped off."

We can count ourselves as fortunate that the SPCA isn't concerned with the beating of a dead horse. GD

Just curious how many guns of yours don't stay sighted in with a cold fouled barrel? And what is your definition of a hot fouled barrel?

I've always let mine cool between 3 shot groups. Never had any issues with them not staying sighted in.

Hunting accuracy 'range' with chosen weapon is what you can do shooting prone off your elbows, belly-flopped over a large rock or bracing against a tree, not what can be achieved off a bench with heavy bags.

You seem to miss understand!

A current rifle obsession is shooting 'groups'.

The 'want' should be:

Hitting the game with the first shot. Staying sighted in!

OK, but how do you prove you're sighted in?

I'm not sure how posting a quote by someone else that's taken out of context proves anything you have to say, especially when the topic from which you quote is about removing copper fouling.

There are probably as many definitions of ‘hunting accuracy’ as there are hunters.

For me it varies depending on the rifle, sighting method and game in question, but it gets measured at the range. The best I can do consistently with the buckhorn sights on my Browning B92 .44 Mag is about 3” at 100 yards. I believe the rifle is more accurate than that and I am the limiting factor. I have an Ithaca Model 49 in .22LR with similar sights but the blockier front sight limits me even further to the point where clay pigeons at 100 yards are about a 20% proposition. With the factory ghost ring on my Ruger .308 Scout I’ve managed 24 of 26 pigeons at 100.

With glass I figure anything inside 1-1/2” at 100 yards is accurate enough for 90% or more of my big game hunting. With my scoped lever guns I run out of useful range before I run out of useful accuracy. For prairie dogs I want a fraction of that. Anything less than .5” is gratuitous – appreciated but really not very useful.

I shoot "groups" over a "chrony" during load development to determine a velocity/accuracy quotient. I tend to favor accuracy over velocity. I've been fortunate that most of the rifles I've owned will shoot groups around 1" at 100 with some combo.

After I determine the load/bullet combo for a particular rifle, I'm much more interested in 1st shot out of a cold barrel.

Some rifles I zero at 100. Others at 200. I typically shoot 300 yds or less and "hold over" vs. dial.

I do know that after reloading for 25 years or so, I'm much less anal about the process than I was a couple years after I started. I counted the other day. I've loaded for 81 different cartridge iterations.


Best,


GWB

I fall into this camp also !

Are we talking about a cold barrel on a 90 degree day, or a hot barrel on a -20 degree day?

Me too.
And I always go hunting with one fouling shot down the bore. Maybe it's a leftover old wives' tale I grew up with, but that's what I do.

Hunting accuracy for me is 2MOA. I once had a rifle that that's how it shot. I knew it would hit within 1MOA of where I aimed. My first elk came from that rifle at a ranged 400 yards. I had a nice berm so the shot was about like a bench. I dialed the Tasco Trajectory model scope and aimed at the middle of the chest. The 160 Nosler Partition took out the arteries leading from and into the heart.

By the way, I installed an adjustable brake on it and promptly started firing 1" groups at 300 yards. Even on a bad day it fired 2" groups at 300 yards. No load tuning, just dialing.

3 moa is hunting accuracy but I won't keep a 3 moa rifle around.

LMFAO!!!

I just sighted in a 1970's Savage 99 using Speer bullets that were made before Omark added their name (1967) that put the last three under an inch.
I would call that "hunting accuracy."

Felt kinda good too, after I found some idiot had left the rear mount loose, that had the gun shooting all over the place.

My pet .308 wears an older 4X Zeiss ( not well thought of by some). I generally clean it once a year after the season. For some twenty years, when I check the sights, I clean the oil out of the barrel with denatured alcohol or carburetor cleaner, and fire two shots. They usually touch, one inch high. A third shot is usually within a half inch. I go hunting and stuff dies. Yes, the test shots are from a bench, but it hits where I look in the field. I have been known to sit, use a rock, tree, or whatever is handy, to eliminate wobble, I don't go prone unless forced to, an age thing.

Can I shoot the 1/2 - 5/8" groups in the field? Not likely, but my regular hunting friends think that I can shoot. The proof is in the shot. Good enough!

Same routine for my other hunting rifles. Once sighted from a bench, they shoot good enough from improvised rests, stands, hasty slings or wherever. To me, this is hunting accuracy.

A few years ago, I got a bad batch of bullets, or perhaps I made a poor choice of bullet, and ended up with some .270 ammo that just punched holes in deer. I shot this buck three times behind the shoulder. He would hump up as if gut shot or flinch, but stayed in his feet. Distance was about 120 yards. I finally neck shot him to end it all. Upon inspection, my first three shots were easily covered by my hand. The bullets had not expanded and zipped on through. Hunting accuracy was fine from off hand.

Jack

Well, he shoots 2 shot groups... Damn man, where you been???

John, is that you? I didn't know you moved to grants pass.... I remember coaxing you into going to a centerfire rifle shoot, where we shot 4" steel plates at 100 yards. For money of course. Your rifle shot "1/2" groups at 300 yards", according to you, so I was extremely happy to get you on the firing line. Watching you shoot that Sako TRGS in the offhand position with no sling support was worth the price of admission. Funny thing is, you didn't hit any 4" steel plates, but started out on the 12" gong. Needless to say, you didn't go home with the money. I still laugh my azz off over this one...