Re: What do you consider accurate?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Ohioan</div><div class="ubbcode-body">To rephrase the original question, are most military and law enforcement LR rifles just under 1 MOA or is this not a valid representation of what is expected? I seem to recall a TRG 42 test in G&A a year or so go where the shooter made ridiculous group like 2.25" at 500yrds. That's what I thought would be expected. I realize there is more than likely some cherry picking going on, but what is considered a functioning LR rig to someone who uses it in the field? I would imagine there is some sacrifice in the tightness of tolerances to allow for dirt (a few. 001 here and there as compared to a benchgun), which I would figure would have some kind of effect on the repeatability. ....or am I over -thinking/analyzing?
Basically, if you lock a M40a5 into a vice on a 100 yard indoor range, fire 25 rounds, allowing for cooling as needed,what do you get?
I would love to figure this out on my own with a couple of different grades of rifles and a few thousand rounds but curiosity is beating budget and time to the punch. Thanks for all the help. Getting more addicted every day. </div></div>
Too loosely answer your question.
Every rifle is different. Example...take a half dozen M40a5's, shoot them in a machine rest with factory match ammo. You would probably find that one might shoot extremely well at sub .5 MOA, 4 of them .75 MOA and one of them 1 MOA. Then take the same rifles and try another brand of factory match ammo. The results will probably be different. Could the 1 MOA rifle be tuned to shoot better? Maybe so? Possibly the sub .5 MOA rifle is now shooting .75 MOA.
Something that is hardly discussed is how temperature affects the entire rifle ammo system. I know for a fact that my rifles shoot better on some days than others. The exact combination of reasons will probably never be known.
Another discussion would be how strait does the rifle track back? What rest was used? What media was the rest sitting on? How was the rifle held?
Then there are ammo inconsistencies. I wish I had a dollar every time I had 4 shots touching at 100Y and 1 shot out, destroying a 1/4" group. I pride myself in attempting to produce the most consistent reloads possible. However if I were a benchrest shooter and had 25 cases set aside for a match that were all as near perfect in every aspect I could see diminishing group size but when a person has 500 brass that were carefully prepared there are going to be some cases that are different enough to give a flyer. Then there's massed produced factory ammo. Obviously it'll never be as consistent as carefully prepared handloads.
Another thing. Some barrels shoot better than others. The first barrel on my main tactical rifle was a hummer. It was so accurate that I easily won a 100Y tactical event with it. The smallest group I shot with it was a .179" 5 shot at 100Y. The other 2 barrels since were/are 1/2 MOA barrels.
Some cartridges are flat out more accurate than others. All one has to do is shoot a custom 6PPC at the bench to get this revelation.
Fortunately if a rifle will shoot half MOA it's plenty accurate enough to win a practical precision match.
