Engineering101
Well-Known Member
Greg
I'm a hunter so I figure 4 shots in 0.5 MOA is good enough but will take worse depending on my intended use for that particular load. However I don't leave it at that. When I'm doing load development on a new rifle I always take a few other rifles and fire one shot from them - usually at 200 yards but sometimes further. If the bullet hole is within 0.5 MOA of point of aim, I figure the rifle and me are still doing our job. If not, I figure out what went wrong.
If you want to add some science to this whole thing, rifle accuracy is a Gaussian distribution and you can compute statistics about it until you are blue in the face. I don't. I just took note that it takes at least 4 shot groups to get a statistically meaningful idea of what to expect from your rifle.
For my prairie dog guns I do it a bit different. To prove out a new load, I shoot 10 shots at 200 yards and if they all land on my virtual prairie dog head (about the size of a 50 cent piece), I call it good and go shoot p-dogs. Interestingly I almost never miss inside 200 yards but past 400 yards the wind usually makes it pretty tough.
I'm a hunter so I figure 4 shots in 0.5 MOA is good enough but will take worse depending on my intended use for that particular load. However I don't leave it at that. When I'm doing load development on a new rifle I always take a few other rifles and fire one shot from them - usually at 200 yards but sometimes further. If the bullet hole is within 0.5 MOA of point of aim, I figure the rifle and me are still doing our job. If not, I figure out what went wrong.
If you want to add some science to this whole thing, rifle accuracy is a Gaussian distribution and you can compute statistics about it until you are blue in the face. I don't. I just took note that it takes at least 4 shot groups to get a statistically meaningful idea of what to expect from your rifle.
For my prairie dog guns I do it a bit different. To prove out a new load, I shoot 10 shots at 200 yards and if they all land on my virtual prairie dog head (about the size of a 50 cent piece), I call it good and go shoot p-dogs. Interestingly I almost never miss inside 200 yards but past 400 yards the wind usually makes it pretty tough.