Re: How Accurate Can an AR15 Be?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Chris F</div><div class="ubbcode-body">MedCpt,
You bring up a great point. Folks will shoot a 1/4" group and say they have a 1/4" rifle. Then they'll shot an group at 1-1/4" and say it was shooter error, not the rifle's fault etc, and continue to call it a 1/4" rifle.
The truth is, both groups are probably in it's range of possible group sizes and the true grouping potential (long run average) lay somewhere between the two figures. The shooter just shot groups from the left and right tails of the distribution curve.
The more groups you shoot and average out, the better idea you have of the rifles true capability.</div></div>
Are you saying we CAN blame the rifle now for bad groups?
I look at what you said there and I think of how I describe it. Good groups are the rifle. Bad groups I did something wrong. I need to find out what. Because in the past I've put together great groups with this rifle. Even though the rifle may be capable of 1/4 MOA accuracy, it's my fault for not finding the factor that made it not shoot up to that potential.
I will agree that A three shot group does not tell what the rifle can really do. Many series of three shot groups does tell what the rifles general accuracy is. On the other hand, in many competitions you need to fire ten or twenty shots. Three shot groups are meaningless then because they never stress the barrel the way it will be tested in a twenty shot string.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Harold Mayo</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The Bushmaster Varminter that I had shot sub-dime-sized groups all day long without resorting to handloads or commercial match ammo. Three-shot groups meaningless? When you shoot them every time they're certainly not. The only caveat to it was that it would shoot three or four rounds into the same enlarged hole and then would start to walk off unless allowed to cool </div></div>
I think that's the point Sig685 and Rafael were making in that if the rifle barrel heats up and holds MOA, that's it's accuracy. If the rounds start to 'walk' in one way or another, that is the true accuracy of the rifle. I quantify what you're saying because we don't always shoot twenty shot shot-groups. If I was walking around my dads farm shooting jackrabbits then I would never expect to shoot more than 10 shots in an hour. With a cool barrel my rounds aren't going to walk and I can expect DCB accuracy of what three shot groups normally give me.