Deer Accuracy

[Deleted member 48126]

You did a good thing.

Plenty for clean deer hunting in Georgia if it's anything like up here in NC. His gun is more precise than it ever had been and he has more practice and confidence. Dead deer.

I hunted a lot in NC. It's eaxctly the same kind of hunting. A little colder in NC though.

 

[5gauss]

ALWAYS try to get closer to game if at all possible...common sense. 2 inch group for 200 yards is fine if you keep to that distance. Practice how you will shoot in the field as much as possible....then practice some more. Tighter groups the better but hitting the kill zone at your chosen ethical distance is the end result....crippling animals leads to bad memories....

 

[5.56×250]

2 moa should be great in the ga deer woods. I know the desire to shoot sub MOA in a hunting rifles. I wont settle for less, but it's more about me being anal about my guns shooting " perfectly " than ability to kill at close range. Read an interesting study an organization did several years ago that really hurt my feeling. They took 10 good to excellent marksmen and had them shoot several targets in actual hunting type conditions. They were given 2 rifles to shoot, both in 243 win. One was a 1/4 moa custom and the other, a 4 moa *** . After over 100 rounds fired, they tallied scores to see what difference there was in the real world between a tack driver and a below average rifle. They could not tell them apart by the scores .
I think it's a confidence builder for us gun nuts to have true tack driving accuracy, but at least in the hunting world i live in ( I'm in Ga too ) a 2 moa rifle will kill just as effectively as a one holer.
I say this after just coming inside from shooting a .301 3 shot group at 100 yds in the rain with my 6.5 gendel AR15, my go to Ga deer woods rifle. Like I said, just to build confidence.

 

[Prairie]

@LVJ76 We have 1.35 million deer here in Georgia. It's 12 does and 2 bucks (any size). It's insane. I usually shoot one doe and one buck a year. I'm really starting to limit my bucks too and letting basket racks walk a lot more. I don't know what I would do with 14 deer in the freezer!!

come to ga I'll take you hunting.

I'd get a BIGGER freezer. LOL

 

[Wolf76]

You effectively cut his groups in half. That's a mighty fine friend in my book.
Many people don't know or put any real effort into what it takes to make the gun and shooter accurate. Now that you cracked the door for him, you might be surprised where that leads.
Load development and more time behind the trigger will make it a solid moa gun.

 

[mnoland30]

Here is NM, if you want to hunt every year, you hunt with a muzzleloader. Otherwise, you may not draw a tag. My muzzleloader shoots about 2 MOA. I've killed elk out to 200m, and deer out to 300 yards. I love my high powered rifle that shoots 1MOA or better, but I have learned to live with the muzzleloader. I keep trying to reduce that , and am making progress. Your friend will do fine. The best thing I've found to improve peoples shooting ability, is to reduce recoil. I shoot my lighter recoiling rifles much better.

 

[5.56×250]

300 whisper, ga changed the buck rule a few years ago. Still just 2 bucks, but one has to have 4 points or more on one side. I'm pretty sure its 12 deer total too. 10 amtlerless and 2 bucks.
Not nitpicking you, just making sure no one gets in trouble with the boys in the silver trucks !
The large limit in ga isn't because we have a huge deer herd, although we have a strong population. The dnr changed the limit from 3 deer a year to 12 deer to help out the larger trophy managed clubs with just a few members . Those clubs couldn't manage the buck/doe ratio effectively , so the dnr increased the antlerless limit to 10. The dnr recommends just shooting what you can use and doesnt expect everyone to limit out . I think it has been working too. Like 300whisper said, he just shoots 2 a year . I havent shot a deer in several years . If he ain't gonna take his spot on the wall , I just let them grow . My wife wont eat venison, and I like it, but can live without it. I made jerky out of the deer I've killed since I got married 23 yrs ago.

 

[5.56×250]

I bet that dude with the 06 will have a custom rifle by this time next year. The bug dont let go once it bites you !

 

[Jud96]

While I think that's good enough for what he's doing, that type of accuracy also drives me crazy haha. Even 1" groups make me cringe anymore haha. I think you did help him out and gave him a better rifle than what he started with. I would have him get some Hornady American Whitetail or Federal Fusion ammo to try. I've heard nothing but poor accuracy from Superformance.

 

[David Lindler]

Totally forgot about the crown...its got the typical, old hunting gun crown, where the bluing is a little worn off and the crown is showing some bare metal. He hunts planted pine out of a box blind, so anywhere from 25 yards out to 300 yards. Nice, straight shooting lanes.

If the blueing is worn indicates age and use. The crown is an easy fix and worth the money. Have a good gunsmith put a target crown on your barrel. This will help with accuracy. A lot if people damage the crown by cleaning from muzzle to breach instead of breach to muzzle. Breach to muzzle insures that crud from the barrel is pushed out away from the action and protects the crown.
A scared up crown can snag a bullet as it leaves the barrel thus causing poor groups

 

[justinp61]

Good job on helping your friends, they now know what they can do with their rifles. My advice for your buddy with the 06 is if he doesn't reload to buy some different brands of ammo and see what his rifle likes. It's a lot cheaper than a new rifle, not as much fun, but cheaper.

I have a M70 that I bought new in 1977 that shoots Federal 150gr soft points great and they are a hammer on deer. My longest kill was 275 yards, bang, flop.

A few years ago I had surgery on my shooting shoulder and couldn't take the recoil from the 06 so I bought a new Savage M16 in 260 Remington. It was horrible, 2-2 1/2" at 100 yards. Sent it back and Savage rebarreled it, 1 1/2-3/4" at 100 yards. I rebarreled it with a Shaw 1-8 twist, 24" standard contour and now it shoots 1/2' or better at 100 yards with my reloads.

Here in my part of KY we can kill one buck and unlimited does, you do need extra tags though. IIRC you can kill two does along with a buck on your initial tag, will have to check that one out.

 

[VTbluegrass]

Definitely try different loads. My Kimber hates 180 precision hunter, 2" groups would have been great. It'll put $12 dollar corelokts 150gr inside an inch three shots at a time. I handload for it and got it down to .7 consistently but the farms I hunt it isn't going to matter either way

 

[Bruce Treloar]

One thing that makes me cringe is when i hear someone say "it's good enough for hunting"
My personal standards are sub 1/2 moa at 200 yard, i want to know that the shot is going exactly where intended.

Like this post, remember the humane kill area is about 8" . When your shots can't be placed in an 8" circle then that's the distance game should not be taken so let them go. Spend more time developing your skills and equipment at the range.

 

[xsn10s]

He hunts planted pine out of a box blind, so anywhere from 25 yards out to 300 yards. Nice, straight shooting lanes.

His rifle will probably be fine IF it consistently hits POA/POI. Really the best thing to do is make sure he knows how to use a range finder well. And also have him shoot 25-300 yards or more to show him how well he can shoot. That'll illustrate the abilities of the rifle and shooter.