Posted on 07/17/2019 11:52:44 PM PDT by LibWhacker
by Bryce M. Towsley - Friday, July 5, 2019
The internet is one of the greatest inventions in the history of mankind. It allows us to share the knowledge of the world and to communicate throughout that world. It’s allowed life saving surgery to be performed in remote locations and has brought the truth of freedom to repressed countries. It probably is the single biggest technological and social advancement in the history of man.
So why do so many of us use it to argue endlessly with people we don’t know? The internet has also given a platform to some of the worst human behavior and that is exploited at every level.
My point is, don’t believe everything you read on social media. Take shooting for example. In the last few years, it seems as if everyone but me has a rifle that will shoot ½-inch groups at 1,000 yards. (FYI: According to the same internet, the world record for a five shot group at 1,000 yards is 1.068 inches.) Yet so many on Facebook claim to have an out-of-the-box rifle that shoots better than the world record by half. They post photos of the targets as proof. Often, they have odd scorch marks on them.
I have been writing about guns full time for almost 40 years. Much of my work is testing and writing about new rifles. Part of any article about a new rifle is a formal range test where I shoot several groups from a benchrest at a measured 100 yards. For many years, the data has been entered into a database, so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect from a new rifle in terms of accuracy.
There is little doubt that new factory-produced rifles have gotten much more accurate. That is often attributed to new manufacturing techniques using computer controlled machines, which is true, as far as it goes. The bigger reason is market competition.
Let’s look at triggers as an illustration. When I first started testing guns in the 80s, the triggers on factory rifles were universally horrible. I argued with a lot of rifle manufacturing executives and engineers that they didn’t have to be, but they all ignored me.
Then Savage Arms came out with the AccuTrigger in 2002. (I was a beta tester for this trigger and told them I thought it was too fragile and complicated for hunters. Boy, did I blow that one!) This trigger proved that a factory rifle can have a good trigger pull and still be safe. Soon enough, every other rifle manufacturer was shipping guns with better triggers. Even those companies who mocked me for suggesting such a thing was possible.
Fast forward to a few years ago and we saw the same market-driven competition apply to rifle accuracy. The interest in long-range shooting spiked rather quickly, driving more shooters to demand better shooting rifles. Accuracy had been improving slowly over the years, but this was a catalyst to drive the trend even faster.
When Ruger came out with the Ruger Precision Rifle—with a street price under $1,000—shooting groups well under 1 MOA, the industry was changed. Every rifle manufacturer of note followed with an affordable precision rifle. Some didn’t get the memo about accuracy and tried to slip by with the old standard; they didn’t last long. If you want to play in today’s market, your rifle has to shoot factory loaded ammo at sub-MOA. The best of them will shoot close to 0.5 MOA.
That accuracy trickled down to hunting rifles, and I’m seeing more and more that astound me at the shooting range. To keep up with the rifles and market demands, ammo had to improve, as well. Long-range shooting and long-range hunting have raised the bar—now even ammo must work at precision shooting levels.
How good? I tested the Federal Edge ammo in a .308 rifle I built. This hunting ammo averaged .58-inch at 100 yards. I tested the Barnes Vor-Tx LR last year for American Hunter. I used three hunting rifles, a Mossberg Patriot 6.5 Creedmoor, Weatherby .270 Winchester and a custom .300 Winchester rifle that I built. The average for the three rifles was .74-inch. The worst group was 1-inch and the best was .55-inch. The difference between the rifle averages was only .07-inch, less than a tenth of an inch—accurate and consistent.
Factory match ammo is even better. Hornady’s 6mm Creedmoor factory ammo has produced multiple .25-inch groups from a precision rifle I built.
As for factory rifles, let’s look at what’s changed. I went into my database and randomly selected six bolt-action rifles I tested in 2001. I simply picked them as they came up while I scrolled through the database with no effort to pick and choose. These were all tested to the NRA protocol of five, five-shot groups with each of three different ammo products. The average of 70 five-shot groups at 100 yards was 1.9 inches. Back then, this was considered acceptable accuracy. Today, we demand groups half that size. Out of those six rifles and 18 different ammo products, one produced a sub-inch average group size at .96-inch. The rifle was a Browning A-Bolt in .300 WSM. The ammo was Winchester 180-grain Fail Safe, a load that is no longer produced.
I also picked eight factory made bolt-action rifles tested in the past few years. Again, no attempt to cherry pick, just chose them at random. They range from an ultra-light hunting rifle through precision long-range rifles. The average for 85, five-shot groups at 100 yards is .9 inches. If I am doing my math correctly, that’s .86 MOA. When I remove the ultra-light rifle and the precision rifles and just look at the three “average” hunting rifles, the average group size is .816 inches. To say that’s a huge improvement in hunting rifle and ammo accuracy in the past two decades fails to capture the magnitude of the change.
That level of accuracy today would astound your grandfathers. If you had told the great gun guys of the early 20th century that factory rifles would be this accurate, they would have laughed at you. We truly have come a long way. But, .5-inch 1,000 yard groups? That is still an internet fantasy. At least for now.
The rifle barrels that are now made today via computer driven machines are of extreme quality at a fraction of the cost 50 years ago, I am showing my age.
Given these great barrels today the accuracy of long distance shots is driven by the skill of the shooter and the shooter knowing the proper loads and bullets for which he is attempting these shots.
Odd story about some great ammo. We made some of the finest ammo we could to most exact standards for my friends father in law. We also tried to sight it in with his rifle. It was throwing a pattern about a foot at 100 yards. This was totally weird. I then took my rifle with the same ammo. I made shots with 1/2 inch groups. The ammo was great. My .270 had a two inch longer barrel and a different twist rate.
We then took the same ammo with a different powder load that slowed down the velocity by only 200 feet per second. The former rifle then achieved precise groupings.
Barrel length, twist rate, and profile, along with powder choice and powder weight all impact the vibration harmonics of the barrel and therefore the accuracy of the shot. All of this is in addition to the mechanical precision of the bore.
It was fascinating talking to him about how scientific that sport has become and the equipment and powder loads required.
Tika T3 with hand loads. Center was my fouling shots. Four corners are load workups. I had red dot stickers over these holes I was aiming at.
I settled on the R3 for my load.
And in that arena, the top competitors even have to be aware of the temperature of the rounds they haven’t yet shot. In engineering terms, precision is all about converting variables into constants. You may be interested in looking up a fellow named “Dutch” Schoultz, who achieves some amazing results with muzzle loaders.
My Savage 6.5 Creedmore out of the box with Hornaday 140 grain bullets managed 3 shots at 100 yards within 1.5” I suspect it was due to the first shot being my friend and the other two me.
Currently waiting on Fed Ex to deliver, this morning, my Leupold VX-5HD 3-15x56 firedot duplex reticle. Would be shooting it today but needed signature.
I like the Creedmore over .308 now. Seems more accurate. I loaded 130gr bullets the other day versus 140 gr Hornaday we shall see how they perform. The bible (Nosler) says that’s the more accurate round.
I’d like to leave a vote for the SWEDE-—6.5 x 55..inexpensive,never cranky ....
I found that very interesting. He told me he drives to matches with a small trailer with reloading equipment where he can customize the loads depending on the weather conditions and the target results of the prior shots he made.
Apparently these guys keep extensive notebooks on everything........
The only thing I see from the pics is he needs to study up on judging deer, a 120 whitetail and a crawdad muley, both should still be walking around.
Just curious, which picture in the article do you claim to be a white tail and how is it described in the article?
As for the "crawdad muley", which picture is that?
I'll trust the author's knowledge of rifles and game more than yours............
Sorry, but you haven't convinced me otherwise.
The top one from Oklahoma is a whitetail, I have to assume you don’t know what a crawdad muley is, but it’s an immature buck where the forks look like crawfish claws rather than having deep points. Look at it and you’ll see what I mean. As far as he being some sort of expert I’m in my living room with 9 mounts from three different countries and two continents. He doesn’t describe the deer at all, but they are too small to shoot in my opinion, unless you just want something to die.
That’s what I’m talkin about...Is that 308 or CM? Which T3?
I'll take this writer's claim about the deer species over yours since you weren't there to personally observe them.......sorry.
T3 Superlite in Rem 7mm Mag. Berger VLD 168gr sitting on Retumbo. Leupold CDS glass.
How to shoot a trophy?
Don’t shoot the little ones?
It’s been said to work!
I have more than one rifle and two pistols that are very picky(accuracy) about what ammo they are fed.
I have more than one rifle and two pistols that are very picky(accuracy) about what ammo they are fed.
As far as old school guns, my Schmidt Rubin k-31 seems to shoot about as good a groups as any gun I own. Granted I am not any type of skilled or competition shooter but that’s straight pull Swiss rifle sure is a sweet tool.
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