Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB on "One Hole Wonders", great article in Rifle mag...

You're on a roll! Excellent read, cuts through all the myth and nonsense, and gets back down to earth on inherent limitations of rifles and ammo! And I even learned a few things, too! Cheers!

i even subscribed to the mag electronically and paid like $19 to do so since this issue wasn't in my local stores. might be the most someone had paid for one article lol

and that's even after i read "obsessions of a rifle looney" and you made me spend $1200 on a custom mauser .257 Roberts. well that might have been my fault too. a little.

I enjoyed the article..usual good stuff by Johnny B.

I shot two light sporters yesterday at 100 yards (a 30/06 and a 7 Rem Mag)while getting them zeroed,and fired a 3 shot group for each as time ran out...they were both just like those described in John's article...two close and one about 3/4" away.

My scientist pal smiled and said that 3 shot groups were statistically inadequate...I said I knew, but that I was likely statistically inadequate myself.

I agree also. great read.

I am reading JB's book "Rifle Trouble-Shooting and Handloading". Excellent book; I highly recommend it.

sirr springer,

Thanks!--both to you and the others.

The story actually started out as a collection of strange range experiences, but after my editor read it, he suggested splitting it up into three articles. Two more will be showing up over the next year, one on rifle rests and one on sighting-in.

I agree. Out of curiosity though, how many shots would it take to comprise a statistically valid group?

seems like a magazine did that study and i think they said 7

I want to know how "Jasper" solved the problem of various uninvited strangers coming to his place to shoot. What ever happened there?

MAR336:That was the rest of the conversation....although it didn't last too long.He opinied that 10 shots is still best....I might do that once in the life of a hunting rifle.

I'd rather spend the time watching cold bore 3 shot groups,at distance...I ain't into Fclass or high volume target shooting...if I have to go beyond 3 on a BG animal it has not been a very good day.

Right on Bob. Give me a rifle that puts the first shot from a cold bore into 1.5" over and over and over under varying conditions and I am golden.

It can be somewhat of a shock to learn just how few rifles (or is it riflemen?) there are that can pull it off.

Allen Jones, former ballistics engineer for Speer and now columnist at Shooting Times states that a 7 shot group is the practical minimum for statistical validity.

pabucktail,

Jasper put up a sign in his driveway saying, "Call first before shooting," with the phone number. I am one exception to the rule.

That works I guess. I really felt for they guy when I read that. Reminds me of a couple hunting spots I've had spoiled due to "friends" I showed a spot to running their mouths.

Yep! I've seen that too.

I once published a hunting article entitled "Secret Spots," and said the most basic rule of keeping secret spots secret is not telling ANYBODY. I haven't made that mistake in a number of years.

I really enjoyed "One Hole Wonders" and have experienced many a humorous hour listing to "rifle experts" at local ranges tell me how "Old Betsy" shot 'em all in the same hole only to see their target later with a shotgunlike pattern. LOL

I have also witnessed people turning their reticle adjustments every shot for hours and finally getting one in the bullseye and packing up and calling it perfect...

I've owned a very few rifles in my 50+ yrs of shooting that would shoot 10 shot groups of less than 1" even with very carefully handloaded ammo. VERY FEW and changing something like different lots of powder, bullets, or primers etc. could leave one with that helpless feeling and a group that looked more like a random affiliation.

I guess I've retreated to 5 shot groups to try to maintain a degree of sanity and would NEVER admit to only shooting 3 shot groups for hunting rifles intended for less than 200yd shots.

$bob$

Totally agree with BobinNH and efw..... between todays rifles and ammo, the rifle will likely out-shoot the person behind it.

It's true for non-game hunting spots, too-
When I was in college, enrolled in the Geology curriculum, a friend and I came across a fossil locality that was loaded with shark and crocodile teeth. We collected a hundred or so, and then made the mistake of showing them to our paleontology prof.
He then weaseled the location out of my friend. I visited the site a few years later, only to find it completely mined out.