8/26/2014 3:22:47 PM
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Section 4: Guns/General Subject: Shooting Groups Msg# 897916
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Ahem....(closest thing to a self-righteous, dufus-looking smiley I could find to represent me)
As I said to Stu, all a small group off in the wilderness means is that the shooter bought or built a consistent load that his gun likes. It doesn't tell us if he understands the ballistic path of the load's bullet, if he can read and compensate for distance and wind, or even if he knows how to operate the gun's sighting system. Those things (which some might argue are more difficult than just coming up with a load the gun likes) are not in evidence. |
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For reference, the above message is a reply to a message where: These guys are joking around a bit, don't take them too seriously. Stu's messages are actually correct, you want the gun to shoot small groups, and you want to hit point of aim, but those two things don't have to come at the same time. And a small group, wherever it is in relation on the target, is just as good an indication of the gun's grouping ability and the shooter's skill as a small group on the bullseye. WHERE the bullets impact on the target are a matter of the load used, including bullet weight and velocity, as all loads will NOT shoot to the same point of aim/point of impact, as well as the rifle's bedding, the barrel type and quality, and thickness to resist harmonic distortion and mirage (which can disrupt a shooter), and the sights or optics and their adjustment, and their quality. To judge a small group as somehow a lesser feat because it doesn't appear on the paper at what appears to be the aiming point is bovine doo. In hunting and defense one follows through after getting a load that shoots accurately by getting that load to shoot to point of aim/point of impact, because that is required. The same is true with target games that are scored by how close one can shoot to an aiming point. But that is simply a different type of accuracy. But the sport of Benchrest Shooting, which requires more precision than any other shooting sport, doesn't require that groups hit any particular bullseye or aiming point, because the goal is simply accuracy alone. Benchrest realizes that shooting tiny groups is a feat unto itself. And truly, it is, with any firearm. It says that this shooter took this gun and this load and put a handful of bullets into a very small portion of a target, and the bullseye be damned, because it is irrelevant to shooting for groups. |