Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What do YOU consider to be an accurate load?

BTW: I can be one of those '10 min' guys. I almost always shoot to confirm zero just before I go hunting anywhere that involves a drive. I've shown up at the range and literally fired 3 shots, picked up my target and left. Takes longer to unpack than to shoot.

You sound like a guy from Maryland.


Travis

I never was one to linger myself. I'm happy to paste the LRF on sumptin',jump MPAJ and bank the reaffirmations of POA/POI intersections in seconds. Nothin' is warmer/fuzzier.

Tryin' to rig up an Anschutz 54 now,with a comb mounted videocamera,for stupid [bleep] and their Pie Plates. It's gonna be GOOD!(grin)

This schit is always a hoot.






(Addendum: for DD)

"Brisk" at 1100,is when you cain't keep a 162 launched at 3100fps+ on the 5 Mil windage reticle.

Stuff that plugs the National News daily,in regards to "weather"...is what we in these parts simply call "Tuesday".(grin)

The nice thing about Life along the Milford,is all the terrain is flat and the vegetation minimal,so the wind(s) don't really affect much.



So you never gotta contend them consequences,that others is routinely fraught with.



The toughest thing about these arrid conditions,is getting a read on the wind's direction.



It's a bitch.

OK, I'll bite. What you call 'brisk'? I know it's relative and all. Even down here wind is variable. 5-10, 90-130, it changes with the season.

Was at a match a few years back in WY and they called the match one day because the 4x8' OSB target backers were blowing away. I muttered something about 'wussies' and they didn't argue the point.



Don't know why but that amuses me.

I am never satisfied. The rifle or the girl can always do better.

I dunno 'bout that. My left foot and right seldom know what the other is doing. Even at night in a speakeasy.

You must be a rifle looney! 3.5 MOA is quite acceptable to the majority of the shooting public. 3.5MOA is actually quite good and for him to shoot 4 rounds is pretty exceptional. A Budweiser 6 pack carton at 25 yards is what I use. I figure if I can hit that I am good to go.

you use your feet to drive those flying death traps?

some of us, who havent ever driven anything racier than a cessna, are just jealous ...

Geesh! Whaddya think makes them blades go round? Beer farts?

You're a psychic too? Ho Li Chit!

My goal is consistently MOA or better with me behind the trigger. I generally tinker till "better". I don't have a bench per se. Usually working off the hood of my truck, a convenient round bale, or back pack. Figure if I can consistently group MOA with "me" shooting, the rifle and load will not be the issue.

Have never shot at game in KY over 200 yards. So 100 yard groups are GTG here. Practiced out to 550 for Colorado. At 550, dialing drop is not a big issue. However, doping wind can be a ROYAL pain...

This is the picture of my target at 200 yds fired from my Kimber 308. It did not show in my post above.

An accurate round in my main rifles?
I try to cut the acceptable numbers above in half at a minimum. They don't all make it but some do really well. A couple are .5 MOA.
If the firearm meets my minimal criteria for bench accuracy I put more emphasis on how I shoot the rifle from field positions than I do bench groups.My .338 does the best at this. I couldn't say why.

One of my simple games is to shoot five shots going from offhand, to kneeling to sitting to prone and back to offhand. If I can keep all five in a 4" circle at 100 yards I feel good to go.
I don't rush but I don't dilly dally either. Two minutes is about as long as I take to do it and I prefer one minute.

I shot the top off a squill's head once. With a 12 bore and #6 shot. Is that a good group?

Dumb [bleep] Don,

Multi-year old paper is just [bleep] AWESOME! Laffin'!

How's 'bout a picture of a Montucky victim? Or better yet,just a pic of you with a Montucky in your mitts,with your crossed-eyes and all your regal splendor?!?

Bless your Day Dreaming Do Nothing heart.

Wow...as per ALWAYS.

Laffin'!

Yep. Note I said when shooting offhand, re: pie plates.

We don't have elk, moose, goats, sheep, or antelope that require long range precision shooting with super accurate rifles and state of the art optics. Bench shooting for fun- wringing out a rifle, experimenting with different loads, etc. is all very satisfying- and I like to participate in that as much as anybody. The point I made in my first post was all that doesn't mean diddly squat when the gunner takes that rifle off the bench and shoots it unsupported, and can't hit anything- hence the comment about being able to hit a pie plate at 100 yds. (I don't know about y'all but my pie plates are around 5" in diameter.) How many guys do you know, present company excluded, who can take their bolt action WhizJet sub-MOA rifle weighing 8 or 9 pounds with scope, stand on their hind legs and put 5 shots into said pie plate? Not very darned many in my experience of watching people at rifle ranges. Is that rifle the very best for them for hunting, or do they need to practice more, or do they need to re-think their approach to what constitutes a practical rifle for the venue they're using it in?

The guy who can hit a relatively large target (such as a 5" paper plate) offhand with each shot has more respect from me than a guy who can put 5 into an inch at 200 yards off a bench but can't use that rifle to hit anything offhand. Broadcasting tiny groups only tells me that it's an accurate rifle and the guy shooting it off the bench is good at just that. It doesn't tell me he's a "rifleman" or not.

Self appointed 'experts' who routinely shoot at extremely long ranges, and do it well, are welcome to their opinions. More power to them- whatever trips their trigger. Those of us whose shooting ranges are restricted by space and whose hunting opportunities are limited to close range woods hunting have a different take on what constitutes acceptable accuracy in a hunting rifle. When said 'experts' flaunt their abilities, belittle people with different needs, and ignore (or misinterpret, or make light of) different opinions, they're simply showing their ignorance, or lack of education, or poor upbringing. Sad that they abound on the internet. They probably don't get much opportunity to show their true colors in real life.

I find the obsession with owning an extremely accurate rifle rather amusing ,mostly because Ive "been there" and used to be similarly obsessed until experience showed me that about 90% of the problem involved was not shooting and hitting game once it was located, but in locating the game and getting into a semi reasonable range and having the opportunity to make a shot at the vitals of at least a slowly walking or preferably stationary target.
Now I'm not opposed to taking a shot at a slowly walking elk or deer if the conditions make me reasonably sure I can accurately place the shot, but where Ive hunted for decades trees, brush and terrain tend to limit your options and ranges.
yeah! making the shots far down the list of issues , finding the game and getting into position to make the shots usually a far more difficult proposition than squeezing off an accurate shot once your into position.

Thing is, making your rifle (and yourself) as accurate as can be is not rocket science, and it's something you can do in the off-season. Not only can do, but should do. Finding the game and getting into position for a shot is not rocket science either, but you can't do it in the off-season.

Agree with both of these...