It's been suggested for many years that firearms noise hinders most peoples accuracy to a greater degree than recoil! I'll not argue that theory….as it's pretty well proven! memtb
Totally agree. I've seen hunters go to blinds or what not with ear muffs, ear plugs, etc. Along comes suppressors and I'll be most of the guys have them just for the blast. People that have asked me for help shooting the first thing I generally do is look at their rifle and quietly take the round out, put it on safety set it back on the bench and tell show me what you can do. Well over half the people will flinch. 80%+ of the people know nothing of shooting further than 200 yards. Half of those are not comfortable shooting at 200 yards anyways. Most of the guys that can shoot I see are the country boys that grew up shooting a 22 or something from age 5 or so and just kept working their way up shooting through the years. Rarely do you get a person new to shooting (city dude) that can get on a bench and put a group together at 200 yards that most would be happy with. When I hear of people happy with their load development, or happy how their new rifle shoots at 100 yards with 1" groups or just under, it makes me want to vomit in my mouth. Sorry guys.....if you're too sensitive and that bothers you then please block me lol. If the best you can do on a steady bench is 1" at a 100 yards......then you have no business shooting very far at all on a much less steady rest. Most don't even know how to steady their rifle in the field, much less apply all Enviromental factors and shooting form into a shot quickly and then get steady. Almost all these guys try it and end up rushing a shot and missing or much worse wounding an animal that he had no business shooting at. And for some of the guides out there that push their clients to take a shot they know the chances of them making a clean kill are very low, then shame on you. For the patient guides that work them into the closest they possibly can then hats off to ya.
Now for the 5% of guys that can hold 6" or less at 1000 yards or more hats off to you. There's not as many of us, I bet, that actually can do it.
My kids 22,19 and 9 can all consistently hit 500 yards 3"-5" groups. The two older ones have been shooting something since they were 3 and 4 years old. My 19 year olds first bullseye at 3 years old was his mothers butt bent over in the flower bed with a BB gun lol. Long story. My daughter at 19 is one that does not like the "Bang". She uses ear protection when shooting game. Drove me nuts for a while. She now shoots suppressed and has gotten quite a bit more consistent. I'm going to push her to 1000 yards late summer and see how she does. My 9 year old has been shooting since he was 4 with 22's. Little terd is pretty dang deadly with a 22 on. squirrels, rabbits, turtles, etc. He was busting still last fall at a 550 yard target in the pasture several times with a 7mm SAUM. I'd just grab a rifle, dial it in for him and we would randomly drive out and let him shoot steel. He told me playing call of duty helps him. I laughed.
Traditionally, it's people that grew up like I did and my kids are doing that are very consistent long range shooters. It takes a lot of practice, skill and knowledge to shoot and it just drives me nuts with people who really think they can.
Yes this is a sore subject with me, can ya tell! And yes my ears ring constantly lol.