Last week I posted my results from my first day at the range with a scoped rifle, which can be seen here. Thanks to Sterling Shooter, I at least attempted to call my shots this time; I thought it would be an easy thing to do but now I think it is the most difficult of the basics I'm trying to learn. Anyway I'll go ahead and post up my crappy "groups" and finish the commentary/ask questions at the end.
WM = Wolf Match Target
FAM = Federal Auto Match
ETE = Edge to Edge
CTC = Center to Center
All are 5 round groups except where noted.
This next one is actually the second to last target that I shot today, but I singled it out because I did something different with this one. All the others above were shot supported by a bipod in the front and my non shooting hand in the rear. On this target I shot with a "rest" - they have some stepped 2x4s at the range to use as front rests so I sat a sandbag on top of those for the front and used another sandbag for the rear. The groups below were the result. Overall I think they were very poor. After every shot the rifle would jump way off target, this is a .22 mind you. The sight picture was more steady but I felt the rifle jumping was detrimental to the group sizes - I know there is one pretty good group there, but honestly I think that was just an anomaly. Every time I pulled the trigger I would see the crosshairs jump way off my POA, whereas from the bipod the crosshairs would not move from the recoil of the rifle. I switched back to the bipod for the last target.
My average group size last time was 1.331" ETE, 1.111" CTC.
This time my average was 1.160" ETE, 1.025" CTC.
This is misleading though because last time I was testing a lot of different ammo and many of them did not shoot well at all (some of this was me, but some of it was the ammo too).
I believe the best way to look at it is to compare they group sizes from the ammo my gun seems to like the best, Wolf Match Target. I added the ETE measurements of all groups from each outing and divided by the number of groups I shot.
Last time: wolf match average 8.988"/9 total groups = 1.0" avg
This time with wolf: 29.719"/29 total groups = 1.025"
Though my overall average group size shrank, my average with the good ammo actually increased. However, .025" isn't statistically significant which basically means there was no improvement. Not really what I had hoped for.
Here are my thoughts:
Through the group sizes don't really substantiate this theory, at the time I felt particularly poorly about the groups I shot earlier in the day. I know most of that is just because I suck right now and I'm not trying to blame something else for the performance, but I didn't feel very calm. I partially attribute this to the coffee I had this morning - I'm not used to waking up as early as I did to get to the range when they open and didn't get enough sleep so I drank some coffee to wake up. Next time I'm going to skip the coffee and just do some mild calisthenics before I leave the house to help wake me up and get the blood pumping to see what that does.
I need to work on my consistency. I noticed that many of my groups are dispersed in one direction. In other words, there are a lot of groups that are tight vertically, but dispersed horizontally, and there are others that are tight horizontally but are vertically strung. I'm not shooting quick - it took me 5 hours to shoot 193 rounds today, but I think I should still take more time with every shot to make sure that I am applying the fundamentals the same way each time (obvious, I know). More consistency should = better accuracy.
Some questions I have:
1. What size groups (in terms of MOA) should I realistically aspire to using the .22lr cartridge and shooting on a bench with a bipod and my hand? I'm not interested in shooting from a real bench rest, even though those would yield the best group sizes. Does anyone really shoot 1/4moa from a bipod and their hand as a rest, or are all those groups shot with the rifle sitting in a bench rest?
2. Judging from the looks of my groups, what glaring errors do the more experience eyes here see?
3. Is the best way to increase my precision and accuracy to simply get more lead downrange or should I seek out a coach/professional instructor?
4. When publishing group size in the future should I give the outside edge to outside edge measurement or should I measure edge to edge and then subtract the bullet diameter?
I doubt these posts will be very interesting to anyone else but I thought it would be cool to create new threads with my range experiences to document my progress going from a total newbie rifle shooter to (hopefully) a decent shooter in the future. Perhaps I should just make one thread and post updates...?
WM = Wolf Match Target
FAM = Federal Auto Match
ETE = Edge to Edge
CTC = Center to Center
All are 5 round groups except where noted.
This next one is actually the second to last target that I shot today, but I singled it out because I did something different with this one. All the others above were shot supported by a bipod in the front and my non shooting hand in the rear. On this target I shot with a "rest" - they have some stepped 2x4s at the range to use as front rests so I sat a sandbag on top of those for the front and used another sandbag for the rear. The groups below were the result. Overall I think they were very poor. After every shot the rifle would jump way off target, this is a .22 mind you. The sight picture was more steady but I felt the rifle jumping was detrimental to the group sizes - I know there is one pretty good group there, but honestly I think that was just an anomaly. Every time I pulled the trigger I would see the crosshairs jump way off my POA, whereas from the bipod the crosshairs would not move from the recoil of the rifle. I switched back to the bipod for the last target.
My average group size last time was 1.331" ETE, 1.111" CTC.
This time my average was 1.160" ETE, 1.025" CTC.
This is misleading though because last time I was testing a lot of different ammo and many of them did not shoot well at all (some of this was me, but some of it was the ammo too).
I believe the best way to look at it is to compare they group sizes from the ammo my gun seems to like the best, Wolf Match Target. I added the ETE measurements of all groups from each outing and divided by the number of groups I shot.
Last time: wolf match average 8.988"/9 total groups = 1.0" avg
This time with wolf: 29.719"/29 total groups = 1.025"
Though my overall average group size shrank, my average with the good ammo actually increased. However, .025" isn't statistically significant which basically means there was no improvement. Not really what I had hoped for.
Here are my thoughts:
Through the group sizes don't really substantiate this theory, at the time I felt particularly poorly about the groups I shot earlier in the day. I know most of that is just because I suck right now and I'm not trying to blame something else for the performance, but I didn't feel very calm. I partially attribute this to the coffee I had this morning - I'm not used to waking up as early as I did to get to the range when they open and didn't get enough sleep so I drank some coffee to wake up. Next time I'm going to skip the coffee and just do some mild calisthenics before I leave the house to help wake me up and get the blood pumping to see what that does.
I need to work on my consistency. I noticed that many of my groups are dispersed in one direction. In other words, there are a lot of groups that are tight vertically, but dispersed horizontally, and there are others that are tight horizontally but are vertically strung. I'm not shooting quick - it took me 5 hours to shoot 193 rounds today, but I think I should still take more time with every shot to make sure that I am applying the fundamentals the same way each time (obvious, I know). More consistency should = better accuracy.
Some questions I have:
1. What size groups (in terms of MOA) should I realistically aspire to using the .22lr cartridge and shooting on a bench with a bipod and my hand? I'm not interested in shooting from a real bench rest, even though those would yield the best group sizes. Does anyone really shoot 1/4moa from a bipod and their hand as a rest, or are all those groups shot with the rifle sitting in a bench rest?
2. Judging from the looks of my groups, what glaring errors do the more experience eyes here see?
3. Is the best way to increase my precision and accuracy to simply get more lead downrange or should I seek out a coach/professional instructor?
4. When publishing group size in the future should I give the outside edge to outside edge measurement or should I measure edge to edge and then subtract the bullet diameter?
I doubt these posts will be very interesting to anyone else but I thought it would be cool to create new threads with my range experiences to document my progress going from a total newbie rifle shooter to (hopefully) a decent shooter in the future. Perhaps I should just make one thread and post updates...?
