How do you gague accuracy?
- Thread starter Redhook
- Start date
Charmedlyfe
Moderator
5-shot. It just works well for me. Sometimes I'll use 3-shot, but not too often.
Michael Priddy
New member
Accuracy
Accuracy...Three shots at a hundred yards. I never shoot at varmints but once. It is the first shots on a cold barrel that I am interested in. Ground hogs or deer, I never shoot till the barrel gets hot. Getting the barrel hot shooting long strings is a good way to wear a barrel out. If I am working up a load or checking different seating depths, After three shots, I put the gun down and shoot something else till the barrel is cool again. During hot weather, it goes in the truck with the air condition running. Any way, for what it is worth, that is how I do it. Michael
Accuracy...Three shots at a hundred yards. I never shoot at varmints but once. It is the first shots on a cold barrel that I am interested in. Ground hogs or deer, I never shoot till the barrel gets hot. Getting the barrel hot shooting long strings is a good way to wear a barrel out. If I am working up a load or checking different seating depths, After three shots, I put the gun down and shoot something else till the barrel is cool again. During hot weather, it goes in the truck with the air condition running. Any way, for what it is worth, that is how I do it. Michael
Group Centers?
Ric, I notice that you use mean radius. I remember seeing something about how to locate the group center from which you measure the radius, but I FORGOT HOW! Bummer, eh?
Anyway, how do you locate the center,
and
how much more reliable do you find the MR for predicting future accuracy as opposed to using extreme spread? Once I have a data set, I can run some basic stats on 'em...
I use five shots because I shoot targets. U.S. Army experience in the .30 calibers indicates (per an ancient NRA article I read once) that 5-shot ES measurements are consistently something like 30% larger than 3-shot groups. Same ammo, same barrel, etc. Individual groups may vary from that, but once you get a population average, it's always bigger for more shots.
Ric, I notice that you use mean radius. I remember seeing something about how to locate the group center from which you measure the radius, but I FORGOT HOW! Bummer, eh?
Anyway, how do you locate the center,
and
how much more reliable do you find the MR for predicting future accuracy as opposed to using extreme spread? Once I have a data set, I can run some basic stats on 'em...
I use five shots because I shoot targets. U.S. Army experience in the .30 calibers indicates (per an ancient NRA article I read once) that 5-shot ES measurements are consistently something like 30% larger than 3-shot groups. Same ammo, same barrel, etc. Individual groups may vary from that, but once you get a population average, it's always bigger for more shots.
Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
For hunting rifles, three shots seems enough to me. Put me down as another who believes that the most important shot is that first one from a cold barrel that has had at least one fouling shot fired through it. As to finding and moving the group-center, if any "group" is out around 1-1/2 to two inches, I'm gonna re-work the bedding or change the load before worrying about sighting in.
For the group-center, itself, I use my Mark I eyeball to look in between the three shots...Sure, it gets more complex for a longer shot-string, but that takes us to:
Target accuracy, which is best determined by five or ten shots, and fired fairly slowly, letting the barrel have some cooling time.
Again, ya gotta think about the purpose of the shooting...
, Art
For the group-center, itself, I use my Mark I eyeball to look in between the three shots...Sure, it gets more complex for a longer shot-string, but that takes us to:
Target accuracy, which is best determined by five or ten shots, and fired fairly slowly, letting the barrel have some cooling time.
Again, ya gotta think about the purpose of the shooting...
, Art