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Advanced Marksmanship What is considered good offhand accuracy at 100 yds?


granted it's a movie but that's with smooth bore black powder you and your fancy new shooting irons should at least be able to match it or better .
 
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If you can stand up and shoot your rifle unsupported into 3MOA groups of a significant number of rounds, you won’t have to take shit from anybody about it, that’s for damn sure. I’ve shot as high as 50% on a 1.5 MOA target, but I had a coat on. Then again, it was irons and a 4.8 lb trigger, so maybe that evens out.

The “old man” standard was actually “groups the size of a fist” at 100 paces.

I just know that I’ve spent a fair amount of time working on the task, and if you asked me—in just a tshirt with a bare rifle—to hit a 3” circle every shot for 50 rounds...well, I doubt it.
I can barley remember when Harry Pope was the "Old Man" In his 70s he could sand on his hind legs legs and put five rounds in a 1-inch group or under at 200 yards using a barrel, bullets and cartridge he made. He might only use one cartridge, a mix of black and smokeless powder, and muzzle load the bullets in an a 50 year old barrel just to make a point.
 
I can barley remember when Harry Pope was the "Old Man" In his 70s he could sand on his hind legs legs and put five rounds in a 1-inch group or under at 200 yards using a barrel, bullets and cartridge he made. He might only use one cartridge, a mix of black and smokeless powder, and muzzle load the bullets in an a 50 year old barrel just to make a point.
I once knew a fella who would forge his own barrels after mining the materials, cut down the trees, melt chess pieces for ball ammo, then he’d usually fire while looking the opposite direction and group 1/2 moa at 300 yards.

I’m saying I’m a little skeptical of your post. But if it’s true, that’s some amazing shooting or 5 really good fliers.
 
I once knew a fella who would forge his own barrels after mining the materials, cut down the trees, melt chess pieces for ball ammo, then he’d usually fire while looking the opposite direction and group 1/2 moa at 300 yards.

I’m saying I’m a little skeptical of your post. But if it’s true, that’s some amazing shooting or 5 really good fliers.
I’m still trying to figure how a human stands on his hind legs..I only have 2 legs?
 
Given observing such a feat would have been at minimum 82 years ago is even more impressive.
 
Check your math.
He died at age 89 in 1950, 72 years ago; 82 years ago would have made him 79, the oldest Pope could have been for such a feat to have been feasibly witnessed.
 
I had trouble shooting 1 moa at 100yds with my new red dot scope yesterday, while sighting in my new CZ Scorpion 9mm Carbine. Of course it’s a 2 moa dot and no magnification....

I just kept shooting at the same spot until the center was gone and it made me feel better about it. A couple of hundred rounds and it’s just a single ragged hole. LOL (ok, slight exaggeration). Actually it did very well from the bench.

Off-hand it was more like 3 moa, but the 12 lb pull on the trigger wasn’t helping much.
I’ll get it to be better and the grouping will tighten.
Funny you say that. I just got a Scorpion myself the normal one. I just did a short zero at 25 yards. With irons great. Then I put my trijicon on one of the older reflex sights like garandthumb has on his retro m16/m4 build. I think it's called an RX01. I got it from an old SF buddy. After googling it. They have a 4.5 MOA dot. At 25 yards the dot completely covered the 2 inch diamond I was using to zero lmfao. I think I need a smaller optic.
 
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It takes proper form and lots and lots of practice.
Agreed I think the interesting way I was taught I'm not sure if it's considered off hand, but some SRT team sniper when I was in Korea did some unique stand almost straight up cross your arms, no sling or anything just the rifle and it sits like sideways like you're hugging it. Weird as shit but it seemed to work for him.
 
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Funny you say that. I just got a Scorpion myself the normal one. I just did a short zero at 25 yards. With irons great. Then I put my trijicon on one of the older reflex sights like garandthumb has on his retro m16/m4 build. I think it's called an RX01. I got it from an old SF buddy. After googling it. They have a 4.5 MOA dot. At 25 yards the dot completely covered the 2 inch diamond I was using to zero lmfao. I think I need a smaller optic.
Adding a 3X magnifier and better trigger did help the grouping quite a bit.
 
The only thing I will say is that offhand is hard, requires a lot of dry fire and discipline, and I think it's the one time when the totally surprise break works in your favor.

You work to minimize your wobble zone and as long as you ease the trigger to the point you do not grow that zone the surprise break will land the bullet within the extent of your ability to hold.

Now what I want to ask that might be new to the discussion is where we get the standard from....

I think the military pretty much sets the standard but when they do that they also factor in that their standard accounts for the fact service Rifles are acceptable to a line unit if they meet a 4 MOA ability.

I don't think this has changed since the Garand despite its successor Rifles being able to hold considerably better. In terms of mission 4 MOA is adequate unless fighting lilliputians.

Thankfully there are much more motivated riflemen and technology allows them much greater ability to shrink expectations.

A rifle team member is going to shame a line infantryman and a line infantryman will likely shame the guy that sights in in October and fires once at a deer 25 yards away in November.

If you are an enthusiast but not a competitor and you have the discipline to practice once in awhile I think for practical purposes if you can consistently hold 4-5 MOA you are a competent rifleman.

Understand your limitations though.....beyond two hundred yards you are firing an area weapon unless you have support.
 
@natdscott & @ScottDWallace,

Thank you for the insightful and descriptive posts. As another NRA Silhouette shooter, I’m seeing some things to do for improvement. The Turkey line is definitely a place to be humbled. Currently I am shooting the three Lever-action disciplines, and they are NOT precision rifles by any means.

lorn sights and a Rimfire rifle that’s over a hundred years old tests your mastery of the basics. I have 5 pins for each animal, but only a 10 Pig (5 in a row and 10 in a row) AA L.A.SB, A L.A.P.C., and A L.A.R.C
 
One of my most satisfying days of Silhouette! This past august in lever action rimfire
 

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We run 40 target matches at two of our silo ranges and 60 at the third. This win was a 40 target with either a 32 or 33 for the final score. Iron sight lever action rimfire for this one. I Also shoot scoped SB and hi power, but find the lever action the most fun of the three.

as to the banned OP’s question of decent 100 yard accuracy, my wobble zone has diminished to about 2.5-3 width’s of the target animals. This has taken 6 years to get there. Most targets are around 4 MOA width, so 10-12 MOA wobble for me at present. Still way better than the 6-7 target width wobble zone I had when I first started.

I love going to a tac match where the MD has an offhand stage, the whining is always epic from the “heavier 20lb+ is better barricade benchrest” crowd.
 
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Iron sight lever is what I do too. Running a vintage Marlin 39. Still working on my legs to AAA

A definite way to force myself to work on the fundamental. It doesn’t hurt to be shooting with a couple of Master class shooters. That always makes you pull your socks up.

Lever Action Small Bore is our most popular discipline at one of my ranges. Everything from Rossi pumps through original Winchester and Marlins.
 
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Guys, relax, your dicks are both short.

So, it came to me that maybe all this talk of different targets might mean very little to some readers, on its own. Here are a few of the targets we’re discussing.

You’re gonna find I spread hate around about equally. I’ve shot all of these a fair bit, so I’m justified in my love/hate relationships. I also have nothing but respect for anybody doing well on any of them, and anybody who’s working their ass off at 4 am in the basement, or rushing to the range after work to get in some practice before dark, driving and striving to get better.
This is a 25 yard mathematical and visual representation of the SR target, on 8.5x11” to be used in reduced course practice Offhand. I admit, it’s one of my better targets from that time..a 198. That was fired with a Kimber 82 I worked pretty heavily, Gehmann irons, and probably Wolf ME.
View attachment 7456973

Next, we have the full size “SR” target. That’s a .223 round and obviously a Quarter for scale.

Simpler might be: hang your ball cap at 200 paces and figure out how to use a heavy centerfire rifle to add most of 20 ventilation holes to it, in almost any weather condition. A good Highpower Offhand shooter can bring out the believer in you as to how “relevant” maybe the antiquated sport really still is. Guarantee it.

When you can hit that ballcap most of the time, you’re on your way to being ready to start Silhouette.

View attachment 7456977


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If you’re an International (ISSF, USA Shooting, Olympic) Rifle competitor, you are much like an F-35 Raptor. Wayyy cool, wayyy precise, extremely expensive, and perhaps less practical than you could be.

What follows is the little 10m target you grew up on, and may compete on still, with a precision Air Rifle. The 10 ring is not a ring, being that you felt 1/2 mm was enough space at 10 meters to contain most of your shots.

For anybody else looking in on that target, they laugh and say things like “bullshit”, and “have you told your parents yet..?! (snicker)

The laughter is a defense mechanism, because they understand there’s no way in hell, or on God’s green Earth that they could ever hit a target less than 0.200 MOA with a rifle unless it is bolted down, at any range, anytime. Much less on their fucking feet, with irons.

Shooting suits that look like a tropical bird notwithstanding, good Air and Smallbore shooters can hammer. Here’s why:


View attachment 7456974

For those who find they prefer longer distance an the “big” rifle (.22 RF), they can move into 50 meter 3 Position, for the ability to also call windage and elevation on every single shot, for 160 rounds or more at a time.

The target, plainly, is a motherfucker. In all of the shooting sports, it is one of the toughest things to learn to hit well. (Unless you’re a Free Pistol guy.)

Here it is, with that same .223 round for reference. The base of the .223 is jusssst nestled inside the 10 ring. So ponder that, at 55 yards or so...View attachment 7456976View attachment 7456975



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My high opinion, illustrated above, about Silo shooters is because the sport is a neat combination of nasty targets that look easy, very restrictive rules on equipment (seriously...you basically are regulated into shooting with no more support than a shitty Walmart vest), and extremely accurate rifles that you just can’t live up to, along with windage that must be called “on the fly”, under time constraint.... on your feet.

This little beauty (my apologies to Mssr. Shafer for its lack of fresh paint) is a “Turkey”. There are 10 of them, at 77 m. It’s a game of hit or miss, nothing in between. It either “dings” and falls over, or you cry a little every time the dirt goes thud behind it.

That’s a .308 casing on it, for reference. Another reference is a golf ball...next time you’re at the range, drop one off at about 85 yards, and look at it through your scope when you’re back at the firing line. If you cannot hit that golf ball, then you can’t hit Turkeys.

The best Silo shooters are hammering consistent snowmen (8/10) on these little bastards:

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Now in conclusion, I recognize that a lot of this shit is way outside the realm of much of this forum; that’s totally cool, too. But for reference, a guy can shoot at an IPSC the same way...you just have to shoot at the small part. That little head will make you answer for your Redbull on the way to the range, if you’ll stand and shoot at it.

Accompanied by another .308 casing, this one is a 1/3 scale AR500 I’ve been shooting from 50, 75, and 100 with the Silo and RF Sporter rifles, polishing up for the fall season...and some messing around “think I can hit it?” from uh..a “bit” further with my kid:View attachment 7456978


So there are about “a lot” of ways to learn to shoot well on your feet. The key to it all though is effort and persistence. I guess I’ve been persisting for almost 30 years, and it’s been the longest running joy in my life to try to “shoot groups the size of my fist at 100 paces.”

-Nate
Thank you for the excellent write up sir
 
The biggest suck/shame is when you hit the silhouette on the edge and turn that sumbitchth sideways. ANY silhouette shooter will cry in his beer over a hit like that. BTDT 🤣🤯🤦🏼‍♂️