Accuracy question

[Caseknife]

All good information for sure, that target doesn't look bad at all. Another thing you might try is to have one target designated for the first cold bore shot each time to the range (with a fouled barrel). What this shows you is the potential for consistency. Most animals are killed with the first shot, or should be anyway.

You might give Barnes Vor-tx 150-168 ammo a try. Definitely get cheap ammo and shoot a lot and work on your form and different field positions, not many shooting benches in the elk woods. Have fun!

 

[Don Fischer]

I do this all the time with my daughter. It works outstanding.

Worked on a firing range in Germany when I was in the service. To teach guy to use the trigger right, I'd balance a quarter on the end of the barrel and have them dry fire it without having the quarter fall off the barrel. Don't need to close your eye's, just someone to sit the quarter on the barrel.

 

[Don Fischer]

If your home state limits your shooting distance, a tactic that I use at home is placing my rifle on my lead sled or pack and balancing a quarter at the end of the barrel and practice breathing and squeezing the trigger without the quarter falling off. This translates to a significant increase in my accuracy when firing live rounds.

Don't use a lead sled, fire from a field position with no support other than your own body!

 

[Don Fischer]

All good information for sure, that target doesn't look bad at all. Another thing you might try is to have one target designated for the first cold bore shot each time to the range (with a fouled barrel). What this shows you is the potential for consistency. Most animals are killed with the first shot, or should be anyway.

You might give Barnes Vor-tx 150-168 ammo a try. Definitely get cheap ammo and shoot a lot and work on your form and different field positions, not many shooting benches in the elk woods. Have fun!

A lot of guy's swear a three shot group is useless for determining the accuracy of your rifle. Might be if your a competitive shooter. But as a hunter it's fairly seldom your gonna get more that two decent shot's at game but we like a third for the hail Mary shot! If you, YOU, don't have the ability to hold minute of deer at normal hunting ranges, say200- yds, a rifle that will group 1/4" at 100 yds from a rest won't help you!

 

[JLS]

Worked on a firing range in Germany when I was in the service. To teach guy to use the trigger right, I'd balance a quarter on the end of the barrel and have them dry fire it without having the quarter fall off the barrel. Don't need to close your eye's, just someone to sit the quarter on the barrel.

The closing of the eyes is only so the shooter does not know if the firearm is loaded or not. Then, they can actually see the crosshairs move if they yank the trigger.

Glad this worked for you.

 

[JLS]

A lot of guy's swear a three shot group is useless for determining the accuracy of your rifle. Might be if your a competitive shooter. But as a hunter it's fairly seldom your gonna get more that two decent shot's at game but we like a third for the hail Mary shot! If you, YOU, don't have the ability to hold minute of deer at normal hunting ranges, say200- yds, a rifle that will group 1/4" at 100 yds from a rest won't help you!

You're missing the point. It doesn't matter how many shots you get at the game. What matters is you have a sufficient sample size to 1) establish the true zero of your rifle and 2) establish a true accuracy capability of the gun. One three shot group in 1" does not equate to a statistically repeatable 1 MOA gun.

 

[RockinU]

If I feel good about my part of 3 shots, and they group as I expect them to, I usually don't feel the need to put the other 2 down, but if there is an inconsistency, or a flier that I can't account for, I will. For me the group is confirm the baseline for any adjustments I need to make.

 

[VikingsGuy]

You're missing the point. It doesn't matter how many shots you get at the game. What matters is you have a sufficient sample size to 1) establish the true zero of your rifle and 2) establish a true accuracy capability of the gun. One three shot group in 1" does not equate to a statistically repeatable 1 MOA gun.

A while back I posted a very length technical paper on the statistical minimums for calculating gun accuracy. In short, 10 is decent, but 7 will do for most. 3 & 5 were not very useful if you really cared about the math. FWIW - I only use 3 or 5 shot groups for hunting guns as is good enough for me for that purpose, but I do use 7 to confirm final numbers on target guns. But if we are going to argue that round X with a three shot group of 1.1MOA is better than round Y shooting 1.3MOA we are kidding ourselves that there is a real difference there.

 

[PawPawWPG]

This is a great thread.