How Accurate is good enough for you to head into the field to hunt?

Also, even when the oilfield was doing great and I was making great money, the last thing I wanted to do was have a trainload of guns. I prefer plenty components and quality tools and supplies.

Other than big Bears, I can humanely kill any animal that walks in the lower 48.

I see where You're coming from, and I back You up, 100%. At rest accuracy and in the field opportunities are two totally different animals. I couldn't agree more.
 
I'll disagree with peetzakilla. For it completely depends on what a person is hunting and how.

With my shotgun for deer 3" groups at 50 yards is good enough. With my 22-250 for fox it had better less than an inch. With my 30-30 for coyote 2"-2.5" at 100 is fine but 1-2" is better. With my .22LR for squirrel 1-1.5" at 50. etc etc.

But accuracy is needed. The more inherant accuracy a gun/ammo combo have from a bench the better your chances of connecting when shooting field positions. Let's face it, 6-8" groups will kill a deer at 100 yards. But if your shooting a gun only capable of that kinda accuracy from a bench you'll miss 50% of the time (or more) using feild positions.

But to answer the question: Varmint/predator guns need to be under 1". Deer centerfires under 2". No current production centerfire gun should shoot worse than that. If it does shoot worse, it's has issues that need attention from a smith or the factoy.
 
Wow, These responses have been pretty interesting.

I do shoot and practice on the bench. Although I would prefer to spot and stalk where I hunt that is impossible so I hunt out of a stand. Although I am not sitting at a bench I do have a good rest and shooting on a bench does help me. The shots I have run anywhere from 20 yards out to 250 yards or so.

I am not happy with my rifle unless I can shoot 1" 5 shot groups and duplicate them. Then after I have been able to do this I make sure I fire 1 round out of a cold barrel and confirm it hits dead on. Once I have done this then the load I have put together passes the test and my rifle passes the test.

I realize that there is a large kill zone when hunting deer but I believe I owe to myself as well as the deer to make sure I shoot as accurately as possible.

Some of you will probably think this is extreme? Perhaps it is but it allows me to have complete confidence in the loads as well as the rifle I am hunting with so when I pull down on an animal and place the crosshairs on the heart I never think twice about anything but squeezing the trigger and putting the deer down and doing so as humanely as possible.
 
I don't think it's extreme. I do think it unneccesary and quite often impossible to meet that standard.

1) I do not and can not hunt with a rifle. Shotguns only.

2) Even if I could hunt with a rifle, the longest shot I have been offered in 18 years of deer hunting is about 125 yards.

Like I said above, if you're in that small percentage of hunters taking 300 or 400 yard shots then, yes, you better have 1 inch groups at 100. If you're like the rest of us, especially shotgun hunters, you can hope for 3 or 4 inch groups at 100, even from a rifled barrel and sabot slugs in most cases.

I also agree with the idea that what matters is how well I can shoot off-hand or kneeling or sitting.... When I haven't moved in 3 hours, I'm covered in snow, my fingers are cold and I have to twist around in unatural ways to shoot a deer that is only 40 yards away but just happened to show up in the worst possible places. Which, I don't know about anyones else, but that's the way my shots usually go down.
 
KillKenny, and DeerHunter,

My point exactly. Target accuracy only plays the role of removing some variable. And it's not so much the gun, it's the Nut Behind the Bolt.
 
I zero at the bench to ensure the accuracy of the rifle then fire from all possible hunting positions to help the accuracy of ME.

When hunting I always try to find a brace or rest for longer shots.

The 'cold shot' is always the most important. You may let your barrel cool down at the range but generally there is only one cold shot.
 
If your cold bore shot (@ 100 yards) is always within a couple inches of your last cold bore shot you should be pretty good out to standard MPBR distances; say 250 yards or so for broadside heart/lung shots. The vast majority of field accuracy problems are the shooter and not the rifle.
 
And PeetzaKilla,

You can't hunt with a rifle. Very understandable. There are many places where that's the only option, and some places and times where a bow is the only option, and we have to live up to those things. A shotgun is accurate within it's abilities, and within the abilities of the hunter... Likewise with a bow.

And You're right... Almost 100% of the time, shots at game aren't far, and are rarely the perfect (or even ideal) situation for a shot that would produce a 1" or less group, if the "same" shot was taken 3 or more times. You're dead-on with all of that.

But when the time comes that deer or hogs are MY quarry, I hunt with the venerable .270 Winchester, and tight groups on the bench is where my hunt begins. I practice offhand, sitting, leaning on a tree and anything else I can think of, and when I head out on a hunt, my scope is always at 4x.

I don't have a Muzzleloader or a bow, so I have to wait 'til Modern Gun Season, when the deer and hogs have felt the pressure of hunters long before I get there. And since the bottom has dropped out of the oilfield with this economy and I haven't worked since JANUARY, the last thing I can afford to do is go out and obtain what I don't have. I understand my situation also. Like You, I gotta.
 
All of my rifles will outshoot me from any field position with the exception of sling supported prone. I believe that there is no such thing as too accurate right up to but not beyond the point of diminishing returns. I sight in 4 rifles per year and expect more accuracy from the bench than I can produce using most field positions.

Scoped 338 RUM < 1 MOA
Scoped 30-06 < 1.25 MOA
Ghost Ring sighted 45-70 ≈ 2 moa
Scoped 243 Win < 1.5 MOA

When I practice from field positions and a hit is poorly placed I know absolutely that it was me and not the rifle.
 
I'm a freak when it comes to my rifles and sight-in. This is probably because when I'm not hunting, I do a lot of long-range work. So I tend to do a lot of fine-tuning to tighten things up as much as I possibly can regardless of whether I'm heading out after game or looking to kill some paper. If I can't get a decent 1-1.5 MOA from sitting, I tend to keep on tinkering. From supported prone I'd better be able to be near single-hole if not indistinguishable. When I hunt, it pays off in my own head knowing as long as I do everything right I can make what would otherwise be a questionable shot and still put a bullet right where I want it to go.
 
Shooter + gun + ammo + field position + maximum expected range = consistent 4" groups or better centered on the aim point.
 
Of course,we enjoy accuracy.
Johnska is correct,too.
It wasn't that many years ago when a 1" rifle was pretty special.

And,a darn good rifle had a WW2 milsurp bbl

A non-floated pre-64 model 70 was quite a rifle

Ammo wasn't nearly as good and a Weaver K-4 was a darn good scope to show up with.Reciever peeps were still common.

A 2" group was pretty good.

Actually,I think a Hunter can use a rack .303SMLE or 30-40 Krag and do just fine.
 
If I can shoot a 1.5" group or better with three shots at 100 then I'm good to go for hunting. I practice with only the forearm supported as I usually only use bi-pods, day pack, or shooting sticks in the field. When I've taken standing off hand shots they have generally been snap shots inside 50 yards.

Accuracy and load testing I always shoot 5 shot groups from a bench.
 
Accuracy

When I practice from field positions and a hit is poorly placed I know absolutely that it was me and not the rifle.
Click to expand...

That brings up a point that has been percolating on the back burner.
How much shooting from field expedient positions do y'all do? I ask because, thinking about the range that I use in PA, I rarely see anyone shooting from any position off the bench. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I have seen any shooter over the last few years try his skill at a target offhand.
Is it that shooters just assume, since their gun will shoot cloverleafs, that they can make any shot necessary? (I know that is not a question that can be answered definitively.)
Pete
 
That brings up a point that has been percolating on the back burner.
How much shooting from field expedient positions do y'all do? I ask because, thinking about the range that I use in PA, I rarely see anyone shooting from any position off the bench. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I have seen any shooter over the last few years try his skill at a target offhand.
Is it that shooters just assume, since their gun will shoot cloverleafs, that they can make any shot necessary? (I know that is not a question that can be answered definitively.)
Pete
__________________
Click to expand...



Kinda what I'm thinking. I haven't shot a rifle in several months. Had and lost the interest in just shooting a couple of decades ago. But, I guarantee I can go shoot a 1 1/2 inch group right now off of a bench with a couple of hunting rifles that are as old as I am. If you have a rifle now days that won't it's an anomaly.( Of course, all forum rifles shoot 1/2 MOA)

Anyhow, big elk or deer is not likely to let you set your bench up.

There is obviously no downside to having a rifle that will poke them all in the same hole, but those that say they practice from hunting positions are on the right track.
 
I'm with Peet

I like to shoot 100 yard, 3 shot groups. Then I shoot a 10 shot string over the chrony to spec that load to satisfy my rifle looniness. Then, I shoot from field positions to see if I can keep my shots on a pie plate at 100 and 200.
 
I don't shoot much at the range from field positions. I hunt varmints and shoot prairie dogs on a regular basis so I practice mainly with my varmint rifles from field positions. My hunting rifles don't see much practice this way, but my varmint rifles are all walking varmints, so the weight is similar to what I'll hunt big game with.

Plus it really depends on how you hunt. If you hunt from a tree/tower stand or a permanent blind, shooting game isn't much differnt than shooting off the bench. So how much practice from field positions would you actually need? It would be good to practice but I probably wouldn't spend much time on it if I hunted from a stand or blind.
 
Good groups at the bench does not a good hunter make. The very best hunter I know is a superb hunter, not a shooter. He comes to the range in early fall and checks the zero of his Knight muzzleloading rifle. If the first bullet is in a 4" bullseye at 100 yards he quits and goes home. Every year that man kills whitetail and mule deer in at least three different states using that muzzleloader. He always gets an elk or two and one or more pronghorns. He also kills lots of hogs every year.

The retired Army colonel has his very own butcher shop complete with walk in cooler and walk in freezer.
 
I killed a bull elk this year and a good whitetail buck both while standing without any rest, nothing presented itself at the time.

If you are a young hunter it is a good idea to practice this way to know what it's like and what your capability is. The worst case scenario may be all you get.
 
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