rifle
I see you boys havent shot much precision rifle.
AK - You are, of course, correct - about rifles and the importance of good ammo. I don't see that the comparison is apt in this discussion.
I can, and do, make ammo for both pistols and rifles that is more accurate than factory ammo. I have, as have you, had the experience of shooting three inches with one kind of load and then 1/2" with another from the same rifle.
The question here is whether a particular cartridge is inherently accurate or not. When fired from a variety of different firearms, the same loading may be accurate in one and not in another; that is true, also, of precision loads in rifles. A loading that produces marvelously small groups in your rifle may be just so-so in mine. And there are rifles that aren't going to shoot either your fine loads or mine, or anything else, well. It's the firearm that makes the difference. (If I take my 1/2" MOA HBar load and shoot it from a Mini-14, it's not going to shoot 1/2", more likely 3 MOA).
After my last post, I was thinking about this at greater length. The comparison that popped into my head was between the .25 ACP and the .44 Magnum.
Is the .25 inherently less accurate than the .44? I suspect that most people would say "yes". (I probably shouldn't think and answer for others, I know.) The limitation is the gun. Look at what is available for the .25 as compared to what can be had for the .44.
Suppose one was able to shoot them from the same type of handgun at a distance appropriate to the .25?
I'm willing to bet that a .25 ACP cartridge fired from a 10" barreled T/C Contender at 15 yards would be just as accurate as a .44 fired from the same gun at the same distance.
Pete