I’m a lot more impressed with a rifle (shooter) that can consistently hit 2 MOA targets out to 600-700 yards or so... than I am with one that shoots 100-200 yard 1/2 MOA groups “all day”.
It’d be a much more constructive conversation.... if we discussed “accuracy” and “group size”... by how big a target you could actually hit 3-5 times straight. There’d be a lot less of this sub-MOA talk... that’s for sure.... especially once you move away from benches and rests. Maybe that’s for a different thread.
I see where you’re coming from and agree for the most part, but to me a more important benchmark than being able to maintain field accuracy to 6 or 700 yards is seeing a shooter be able to get in position, get on target, and make a decent shot out to 2 or 300 yards NOW.
That ability to make a decent shot when under a time hack is pretty important for a lot of different types of hunting, and is something lots of folks don’t really practice. Not taking away from the longer distance shot, because that’s nice to see in its own right.
That being said, I completely agree with you - field accuracy is much more important than groups off a bench.
Plus if all a guy does is shoot off a bench, he doesn’t really know how the rifle itself will act from field positions. For example, I’ve seen rifles that changed POI significantly when a Harris bipod was attached to the forend, seen rifles that changed POI off of a hard rest (like a tree branch), seen rifles that changed POI when a shooting sling was used, and some of these were free floated guns that looked like they should’ve worked fine....... I wouldn’t have noticed those things if I’d done all my practicing by shooting groups off sandbags on the bench. I’m getting off topic....
