Maximum distance you can reliably first-shot impact 1MOA, 1/2MOA target?

748rpilot

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Mar 18, 2023
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Some background for context: In a previous life I was very much into weightlifting, power lifting and the science/programming angle. I recall an interview/podcast with a former member of the Bulgarian Olympic Weightlifting team, Max Aita, where he discussed their training methods and said that because they spent so much time training their lifts at their one-rep max, that on any given day he could walk into a gym and front squat 440# at a moments notice. No warmup, no preparation, just load the bar and go. Which is absolutely super-human strength, like unfathomable strength, and mental strength.

This led me to consider a parallel to precision rifle shooting: On ANY day, with your current skill level and your current equipment, with no preparation, what is the furthest distance you can confidently first-shot impact a 1 MOA target? 1/2 MOA? No warm, no practice, no dry-fire: setup your rifle system and send a single shot. What equipment are you using?

What distances would you consider to be bad, average, good, great, world-class in terms of precision rifle shooting capabilities?
 
I have good days and bad days.

One day it’s 1/2 MOA at distance.

The next time out it’s 3 MOA at the same distance.

No changes to equipment - just me.
It’s 100% related to pain level from previous injuries. Nothing I can do about it but keep going out and try and not get too frustrated on the bad days.
 
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What an interesting thought. I couldn’t even venture an accurate guess, but I’m sure it would be 300 yards at the MAX and more than likely it would be a bit less than that. I’ll have to run this as an experiment. I’ve done a lot of this sort of stuff with pistol where I show up on the range and do a speed drill or a bill drill or something like that completely cold and those are often humbling.