I very much agree. My thoughts are these. If I'm losing daylight on the last day of the season, but have managed to stalk into say between 375-425yds. With an untuned load, or a load that is 2moa out of my budget hunting rifle, no way I am talking that shot. I would need to get closer. With a good factory load that shoots well out of my gun, or a tuned hand load shooting at or under moa... provided the cartridge had enough energy at that range, that would be the difference between a full or empty freezer.
Erick Cortina, Precision loading simplified.
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It does not. For the VAST majority of cases, it just won't matter at all. When the distances get out past 300 to 400 yards, most hunters won't be able to, or want to take the shot, and that is perfectly fine.
Erick deals in the elite accuracy/precision realm. Even though I shoot some matches he does, 1/4 MOA is fine for my pursuits whacking steel to about 1200 yards and game to about 600 yards. That is why I think a discussion with him on that topic would be interesting. He has a singular pursuit that most don't.
Production rifles with even a decent load can manage that without an issue. My two longest shots on Elk, 425 and 505 yards, were made with factory rifles and factory ammo. Yes, very good quality and I knew my holds, but they were not precision loads at all. They were just as dead as the other 35 at 350 and closer. My best 5 shot 100 yard group with a hunting rifle outside remains a bull centered group of 0.11" with a Tikka .243Win and 95 grain Ballistic Tips, all off the shelf.
A old friend of mine never shoots in competitions, he is an avid hunter however. He will sell a rifle if it will not get .5 MOA or below consistently. He says he just wants to pick which eye he will shoot the animal in, I assume he is joking but still the capability is there, A couple of years back he had a custom bean field rifle built for over 5K, he sold it 2 months later for 3500. I have the lucky buyer seen that rifle win numerous F class long range contests with that rifle even with the varmint tapered barrel
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The accuracy achievement most disbelieved is probably the 600 yard test groups shot by USN 7.62 Garands with 1:12 twist barrels. New M118 match ammo primed cases were stuffed with 44 grains of IMR4320 and a Sierra 190 HPMK. 10-shot groups maximum ES of 4 inches; .67 MOA.
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Cortina's books/video's no more help put an elk in the freezer than me reading a book or watching videos on elk stalking techniques would help me put 20 consecutive rounds into a target at 800 yards. So I don't bother watching elk stalking videos
As my dad used to tell me "everything is not about you"
As my dad used to tell me "everything is not about you"
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Eight_is_enough
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What I have discovered is that the best thing I can do to improve accuracy of one of my rifles is to pillar-bed it with a floated barrel. I guess Eric assumes you have already done that, but I hadn't. Finally decided a couple of months ago to learn how to do it myself
Easy one. 3Gun. No other is even close.
3 gun, I would have to agree. It has pistol, rifle, and shotgun. At varied ranges, requiring accuracy in all 3 disciplines
Yes. On average, rifle from 6 to 600 yards, pistol from 1 to 100 yards and shotgun from 10 to 100 yards. Every multi-discipline "World" shooting championship has been won by a 3Gunner.
Not for the faint of heart, one trick ponies or those who don't have the fundamentals down.
This us what you asked....
Having to deal with issued guns or ammo is an equipment issue not related to marksmanship skills and does not effect the skills of the shooter, only what the gun/ammo is capable of doing .
3 gun has 3 disciplines, each having their own nuances. In my opinion it takes the most marksmanship skills to be at a high level on all 3, than to focus exclusively on one.
Unless I miss my guess you are looking at too strongly from the perspective of precision not marksmanship.
I am sure there are, but I am unaware of competitions that are based off of group size alone.
Marksmanship is the ability to put rounds on a specified target not how small of a group you can shoot.
In competition the format in which the targets are set up and scored is used to judge the marksmanship ability of the shooter.
That can be X ring hits at 1000yds with a heavy gun from a stable platform. or hitting a steel IPCS unsupported while moving with a pistol.
you asked "What competitive shooting disciplines require the most marksmanship skills? "
I still say 3 gun. It is not focused on utter precision, but it makes up for that by adding other factors like unstable shooting platforms, time, movement and elevated hear rates, challenging shooting positions and multiple targets in challenging orders and different weapon platforms. It is simply different format for measuring marksmanship.
And we are way off topic....
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