how good of a shooter are you?

I suck at position shooting. About 4" at 100 yards, standing, maybe half that prone. With my Model 94 Winchester, about 6" at 100 yards. But the front sight on the M94 subtends 9" at 100 yards, so I'm shooting into the area covered by the front sight.
 
With my Franken AR in 5.56, 20" heavy barrel and a Nikon 3-9x40 scope I can shoot off hand 3" at 100 yd. My problem is the gun is front heavy with that upper and makes it difficult to hold steady while I'm shooting off hand. Prone I can pull off 1.5" groups with that set up. This is while shooting semi-rapidly. One shot every 10 seconds or so.

If I've got my carbine length upper on with an el cheapo Barska holographic sight I pull off 4" at 100 yds standing and 4" at 100yds prone. With that setup though I can unload a whole mag as rapidly as I can pull the trigger and keep all my shots on a 12" gong at 100yds.
 
Bench + bipod + 100 yards + reloads, I'm a 1-1.5" shooter. That number opens up considerably with my particular rifle using factory loads of almost any kind. Sandbags, towels and shooting off the range bag also opens my groups up. Not entirely sure why.
 
That's a great question. Personally I find if I get lazy & only shoot off a bench I degrade my skills, so I try to regularly shoot without the bench.

Prone & using the included bipod I can regularly hit a manhole-cover sized steel target at 600yds. I include the bipod here as it is integral with the FAL rifle, not an add on. This rifle also gets less accurate if slung due to a lightweight barrel reacting poorly to variations in sling tension.
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Now it diverges as we change things up.
Prone & slung (with a different rifle) I can do about the same.
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Kneeling/squatting I open up to about a garbage can lid at 300 yds.

Standing but with some "field expedient support" I can still ring the 600 Yd gong, but only about 50% of the time.
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Standing, freehand, I can get 90% of them in a 8 1/2 X 11" piece of paper at 100yds.

As the ol' calibrated eyeball, Mk1 is getting older I use scopes with all my rifles now but I like to stick to the low power fixed 4X variety. I'm not sure at what point "equipment takes over" & where you stop removing equipment, so basic stuff like slings & scopes are just a part of "normal operations" to me.
 
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After developing my hand load for a hunt I would zero my scope for hunting purposes shooting from a bench with a sand bag but the fore end of the rifle rested in my hand and my hand was supported by with the bag. With my best loads in .223, .243, .270 and .300 Win Mag I was always able to get 1/2 to 1 MOA at 100 yards. By "always" I don't mean every group - I mean I could get such consistently enough that I was very confident in the load, the rifle, the scope AND my shooting. Before hunting I would practice the same positions as in the Army - standing, kneeling, sitting and prone. Shooting prone with my hand supported by a bag I couldn't match my accuracy from the bench with my and supported by the bag, but still shot MOA regularly. When hunting with a rifle (or shotgun with slugs) I have always sought some object to stabilize the firearm, e.g., a rock, a log, a tree branch, a fence post, or a back pack. This approach has allowed me to take whitetails at more than 100 yards several times with Remington 12 Ga. 2 3/4" Sabot solid copper slugs. I took best mule deer (5 x 5) at well over 400 yards with my .270 rested in my hand and body rested on a rock about the size of compact car. I took a very small black bear at well over 400 yards shooting prone with my .300 Win Mag in my hand resting on a rock.

A few years ago I was visiting the father-in-law of my younger daughter. He is a competitive bench rest shooter with a 300 yard range on his property, The range has steel back stops and a solid concrete bench in a building on a concrete slab. Having never before touched his new rifle, a custom 6mm PPC with NightForce scope, I shot a 3 shot 1/2" group and followed with two 3 shot groups between 1/4" and 3/8".

However, I am no better than average on waterfowl or upland birds with a shotgun, or paper targets with a handgun.

To summarize: I think it is best (for me) to maximize the accuracy of my rifle, scope and load before attempting to maximize my personal shooting accuracy with that rifle. I think it is best to maximize my hunting accuracy practicing from different positions and at different ranges, and, where possible, use some natural support, especially for the hand under the fore end. I think it is best to take advantage of natural support objects while hunting to achieve the best hunting accuracy.

Wow, my fingers are tired. :D

P.S. Qualified as second best in my basic training company in the Army in 1969 despite several days in the infirmary with a respiratory illness just before qualifying. Nevertheless, there are many (probably thousands of) marksmen around the world much better than me or any of my friends.
 
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I don't guess I ever have shot a group when away from my benchrest. It never occurred to me to do that.

Sight in, go kill something. Mostly one-shot kills, if that helps...
 
On good days I can hit the side of the barn...
































:D , Just kidding of course. I can hold my own, but with more practice I could be a better shooter. I don't shoot as much as I did 15 years ago, but I still bring home the meat every year.
 
I prefer to shoot off the bench, and prefer knealing, Am able to hit a Soda Can at 100 yards with a Scoped Rifle, and with Irons, a Paper Plate. Not sure of group though, Ive never tried that.
 
I don't guess I've tried it since I got out of the Coast Guard. We qualified with M16 at position shooting, prone, kneeling, standing offhand and couldn't use any kind of rest, only the sling. I don't remember the exact routine but always shot either Expert or Sharpshooter. That was at paper targets with a possible score of 300. Not like the army qualifications where we shot at pop up silhouettes at different ranges, always qualified expert on those.
 
My father taught me to shoot on the farm. My D.I. showed me how to shoot in Boot Camp. "Both knew their business!!"-- Paying attention on my part was all that either required. And if I didn't? Both had the ability to get my attention span back on track rather quickly.-- Being both fellows are long gone now. But, every Sunday I still Thank, both for their efforts and wish them well.
MDD: I'm not much of a paper puncher other than a couple times a year now checking on my 300 Sav. w/ open sights or my 270 Win w/ its Vari-x3 over a Caldwell Tack Driver bag. How good of a shooter am I? --I still get my deer on a sneak, back in the bush, and on the ground, every year since my Military Discharge. That's how I judge my shooting ability? >A bulls-eye is assured when I squeeze the trigger on either weapon. Placement of my bullet and other things I've intentionally done in my life? >have consistently rung the Gong of success!!--I hope this criteria meets with your wanting to know. How good of a shooter are you?
 
I try really hard to avoid offhand shots. That's just not the best shooting I'm going to do, and I know it. I shot Expert in the Corps, but that was a long time ago. Most of the game shooting I do these days is out of a box blind, with the front of the rifle supported. Like that, I'm good to 400 yards or so. I spend a lot of time at the bench to make sure that all the rifles shoot decent groups and hit where I want them to. And now that they all do that, I'll take them in the back pasture and check sights at 200, 300, and probably 350. That'll actually tell me what kind of groups I'm shooting at those ranges, though shooting measured groups isn't really the objective. I'm much more interested in where they hit (bullet drop) at various ranges when sighted in for 200 yards. Years ago I was on a hunt as a guest, and I saw and shot a big 9 point buck at quite a distance. After a time, the ranch owner came along in his truck and said "I heard a shot. Was that you?". I said that it was, and I told him where the buck was and we took the truck over there. We got out of the truck and the rancher got real mad. He said "You were not, under any circumstances, to get off of the blind location and walk around." I said that I hadn't left the blind, and he said "you mean you shot this deer from way over THERE". I'm pretty good.
 
ex-military (23 years ago) expert marksman with an M-16 but I cannot remember what qualified me at that level (yardage, grouping, etc)

currently, I hardly ever fire beyond 50 yards...Spikes AR with a SPARC red dot usually shooting Federal 55 grain unsupported and I can keep the grouping within a 3" target from 50 yards...with my Leupold Mark AR 3-9x, I can keep the grouping extremely tight (maybe 1-2" but that's prone position)...I don't hunt so I think that's about as good as I will ever really need to be
 
I guess i have never tried. I always have my bi-pod or shooting sticks,tree,car or what ever there with me. I have shot the 22 freehand very accurate,But my other rifles are bench rifles and a little on the heavy side to be free handing with. I don't have a normal hunting rifle so to speak of.:D. I could venture to say if i did free hand with my rifles that my targets would never make it home for any one to see:D:D
 
I guess I'm the odd man out here. I like shooting without aids and no matter how good or bad its NEVER good enough.
 
My son's Savage .223 is easily a sub MOA gun on a good day. Almost makes it too easy at less than 300 yards.

Best I ever shot where it was a real challenge was, my Swiss K31, iron sights at 300 yards in a cross wind. Put 3 out of 4 on 8" target with 6" spread in a 20 MPH wind. Would like to try that again on a calm day.

I'm sure many have done better but I was pretty pleased considering the conditions.
 
Savage FP10 .308, Accu trigger, out of the box, nothing fancy scope, 200 yards, Federal Match 168 grain, 5 shot groups, can cover them with a dime.
Bench, supported position, little to no wind. About 1 minute rest before taking the next shot.
 
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