I know, I know, accuracy topic has been beaten to death, but for about 10-15 years now I've been reading gun articles that repeatedly state how 'out of the box' accuracy on new rifles has consistently improved over the years. New rifles are so much better than the old ones is a consistent mantra and we should EXPECT better than the holy grail of 1 moa from a rifle for its first 3 shot group at 100 and be able to down a deer or elk at 700 yards by just adding the latest whizbang $2000 scope, of course most of these articles are trying to sell me a firearm and accessories. When reading more the technical (and realistic) articles from Rifle magazine, Gun Tests etc there are a considerable number of rifles (regardless of brand and cost) and load combination that don't break the magical 1 moa barrier, in fact some of them are quite a ways from it. I understand that due to limited time and resources not every rifle is tested with different loads or much 'tuning'. I've seen many articles on Savaga Axis rifles to mention just one that supposedly will shoot groups well under an 1" with just about any ammo apparently. Just wondering where the reality lies, and I'm sure there is more to it.
My most accurate rifle is a lowly Marlin 917 with a $100 Simmons scope on it that will shoot right at 1" at 100 yards. My 30 year old Remington 700 mountain rifle (with a $100 Cabela's brand scope on it) will shoot about 1 1/2" with inexpensive Remington Core Lokts - although I'm not sure if its the gun or me holding it back, but for my purposes that's much better than required for the (at most) 200 yard shots that I might have at a whitetail.
