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When do you stop chasing accuracy?
- Thread starter startrek1761d
- Start date
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Planning to shoot whitetails in field conditions at 800 yards with an 8# rig is the definition of a foolish and unrealistic expectation.
Numerous environmental factors will cause you to miss (or wound) at 800 yards long before the difference in a 0.5 MOA rifle vs a 0.25 MOA rifle will result in a miss.
Numerous environmental factors will cause you to miss (or wound) at 800 yards long before the difference in a 0.5 MOA rifle vs a 0.25 MOA rifle will result in a miss.
I shoot a 6.5 PRC also and have used that same recipe, except I use Fed 200 primers and a Mauser M18. Don't know why you want to shoot at game at 800 yds. It's called hunting for a reason - wounded targets don't escape, but that's your decision and this is a long range group, after all. I do appreciate that you are trying be as accurate as possible, and you probably are a better marksman than I. Good luck.
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I have been through the full gauntlet of chasing the tiny bug hole groups. I drove myself crazy and cost myself a ton of money in components. I finally settled on if it was 3/4moa or better at to stick with it. I was fortunate that I had a 1000 yard range set up a few minutes from my house at the time and steel from 300 to 1000. Before every hunting trip I would go shoot at the 12 x 12 steel plates, one shot at each plate to verify my rifle was still on. As long as I was in the center 6" circle and not out on the extreme outer edge of the steel I considered it good. This has worked well for me for years in my hunting situations. I have since lost my 1000 yard range but I have access to 600 and I still do the same verification before every hunt, just out to 600 yards now. In the days when components were plentiful and didn't cost an arm and a leg it didn't matter as much. It was fun and I love to shoot so I didn't mind chasing the bug holes. In today's world you could cost yourself a small fortune trying to get that extra 1/4", if you get lucky enough to find the components to do it with. Just my opinion and what has worked for me. Good Luck
My friend has one. He shoots the 147 eldx with 56.2 of R26 a length of 2.970. Says it shoots well.
Got alot of buddies that golf. Took me a few times. My skill sets definely lie elsewhere. But I always look at the courses and think about what a waste of a perfectly good 1000yd range they are....
..to the OPs question, especially in a rifle of a weight that you would want to hunt with and non match (hunting) bullets....1/2 - 3/4 MOA does it for me for a hunting rifle.
Accuracy is of course cumulative of all variables, but the resolution of a change of +/- 1/8 MOA, is miniscule compared to the rest of the variables in a hunting situation, in my opinion. YMMV.
.25 is my goal
When you have to take medication for the issues its causing! 
Sorry, couldn't resist. When you're such that you have the best your rifle is capable of. Not all guns are equal. You can get a $450 rifle that is sub half inch. and $1500 that are not. Tiny light rifles are very accurate but harder to settle on a bench. Heavy tactical weapons are like rocks and are easier to shoot accurate. The rest is on you, can you pull the trigger the same way time and time again.
I have friends with Tikka's and they are really consistently accurate. for me I reached a point where the harder I tried the less results I saw. That's governed by the law of diminishing returns, a principle stating that profits or benefits gained from something will represent a proportionally smaller gain as more money or energy is invested in it. If I can put every shot within an MOA at 250, I am done, that's plenty good enough.
Professor Doolittle
Well-Known Member
If you mean .5@100 is your current accuracy then improving to .25 is cutting your impact at 800 yards from 4 inches to 2 inches, which for a whitetail at 800 I think you should try for because all errors you can control are hedging against the errors you can't control like wind and animal movement. You didn't mention your spread, I'm not sure if you're saying .5 inch of spread, accuracy, or MOA but you're asking about accuracy so I'm assuming that. For me I want 90% confidence of putting the bullet where I want it.
Okanogan
Well-Known Member
If you're interested some statistical validation for when to quit chasing precision, Brian Litz offers a chapter on it in his book Accuracy and Precision For Long Range Shooting. My take away is that precision matters for long range but chasing more than about 0.5 MOA might not be a good return on effort for most people given all the other variable that come into play.
As an example, here is some data from one of his figures for effect on accuracy at different distances considering +/- 1 mph wind,+/- 1 yd range and 10 fps SD. The numbers are hit percentage on a 10 inch target
Range 0.5 MOA 1.0 MOA
500 100% 99%
600 99% 93%
700 92% 83%
800 78% 67%
900 56% 49%
1000 40% 35%
I didn't go back and dig through the chapters for more info but I think for the example above, working on bringing down the fps SD would prove beneficial because you'll notice at 900+ yds the benefit of improved precision has diminished from intermediate ranges.
If you're interested in being able to quantify the variables in long range shooting, the Litz books are pretty interesting.
As an example, here is some data from one of his figures for effect on accuracy at different distances considering +/- 1 mph wind,+/- 1 yd range and 10 fps SD. The numbers are hit percentage on a 10 inch target
Range 0.5 MOA 1.0 MOA
500 100% 99%
600 99% 93%
700 92% 83%
800 78% 67%
900 56% 49%
1000 40% 35%
I didn't go back and dig through the chapters for more info but I think for the example above, working on bringing down the fps SD would prove beneficial because you'll notice at 900+ yds the benefit of improved precision has diminished from intermediate ranges.
If you're interested in being able to quantify the variables in long range shooting, the Litz books are pretty interesting.
Stalk 300 yards closer?
jimisbell
Well-Known Member
I will never stop
