Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
Between TFL and THR, there must be 17,641 threads about the Mini-14 and its accuracy. That's had me thinking about the importance of the size of the groups a rifle can give you.
We've had a lot of discussions about groups and group sizes for different types of rifles. Sub-MOA; three-shot and five-shot and all that.
My point, here, pertains only to rifles where the primary use is for hunting. Not bench rest, not competition of any sort:
The first shot from an ambient-temperature ("cold") barrel is the most important. If that first shot always goes very close to the point intended impact, it's a good rifle. Heck, it's an excellent rifle.
Lightweight rifles have thin barrels. Thin barrels heat up fairly quickly with repeated shots. Stresses due to heat can cause widening of group size. No mystery there.
But if that thin-barreled rifle always puts the first shot where you want it, the size of a five-shot group is meaningless. If it happens to be a tight group, that's good--but it's irrelevant to the use of the rifle.
, Art
We've had a lot of discussions about groups and group sizes for different types of rifles. Sub-MOA; three-shot and five-shot and all that.
My point, here, pertains only to rifles where the primary use is for hunting. Not bench rest, not competition of any sort:
The first shot from an ambient-temperature ("cold") barrel is the most important. If that first shot always goes very close to the point intended impact, it's a good rifle. Heck, it's an excellent rifle.
Lightweight rifles have thin barrels. Thin barrels heat up fairly quickly with repeated shots. Stresses due to heat can cause widening of group size. No mystery there.
But if that thin-barreled rifle always puts the first shot where you want it, the size of a five-shot group is meaningless. If it happens to be a tight group, that's good--but it's irrelevant to the use of the rifle.
, Art