the reason why I love going for groups with my AR's rather than banging steel is I like to know for a fact what me & my rifle's accuracy is capable of right down to the .005"... don't get me wrong, I love shooting steel and listening for the "gong" and is load of fun (matter of fact my nephew and myself just got done doing such),,,, and yes you can measure off of steel, but I like being able to take my target home with multiple groups on one big PC of cardboard paper, and knowing for a fact what my rifle / reloading is capable of,,,,,, and then using that information for future purposes in terms of reloading and how to improve myself... unless a target of mine is a total waste of time, I keep every single one of my targets with reloading info written right on the target for future purposes.... Unless I'm hitting 3.140" steel plates at 300yards, or maybe a chest pc size steel plate @ 1000yards and knowing I'm sub-moa when I here that "gong", I feel like I get more satisfaction out of punching holes in paper for groups..... then I know right down to the math fact of what I'm doing and I'm just not flinging bullets down range waiting for a "gong" sound. Not only do I want to know for a fact of what my rifle can do, but I want to know I'm not wasting my time reloading every single time I hit the range...... This is not everyone's cup of tea, but it floats my boat. Trust me though, shooting for groups can be a big mind f#ck...... it is much harder shooting for groups and shooting for bullseye rather than banging steel as you know right down to the .005" what mistakes you're making..... My problem is I'm an estimator by trade so I'm a big time numbers man.... Lets face it,,, if you're going for bug hole groups even at 100yards you're going to wish you had a high power scope and not something 1-4 or 1-6.... when everything boils down to it, it is all based on purpose..... if you want something fast and quick get a 1-4 or red dot... if you're going for the smallest stupid "sniper type" group you can get then you better get a high powered scope set up.... it is just time and time again, and this goes for myself, and my friends, and about 3/4 of the people on these forums = most of us are just punching holes in paper....... when you first start out shooting an AR, you get a non-free float red dot sight and start shooting paper at 50yards and then you progress up to 100yards, then you wish you had a scope so you get a 1-6 power, but then you can't get bug hole size groups OR start shooting at 200 or 300yards, and then the next thing you know you have a friggen 4-16x plus scope sitting on your rig... it is just the way of the world UNLESS you have a purpose built AR for fast acquisition type stuff like hog hunting, law enforcement, 3-gun stuff, war, or whatever......... then yes, get a 1-6 or red dot....... if you think 95% of your shooting will be off a bench at your local range (which is prob more than 1/2 of the people here I'd bet) shooting at paper targets starting at 100yards, and then 200yards, and then 300yards, and then 400yards, and blah blah blah and then wonder why you're group sizes are so big in comparison to everyone else,,,,,, then you will wish you had a higher power scope... it really is just based on purpose and what is more important for you... That is why I have 3 different AR set ups........
1 @ bull barrel varmint 5.56 with a 4-16x for shooting bug hole groups "sniping" type shit and possible varmint hunting 300yards plus
1 @ heavy 3-gun with a 1-4 power scope
1 @ home defense rifle with a red dot scope
out of all of the rifles in my collection including my LMT, the first rifle that I grab out of the safe to hit the range with and have the most fun with is my bug hole shooting 5.56 bull barrel varmint rock river arms.... there is just something about picking up a rifle and knowing that I can punch a hole in literally a dime at 100yards ever single time I pull the trigger = massively fun for me.
i'm by no means "competition specific"... i'm just your average joe having fun at the range and trying to get the most out of my reloading....hmmm, maybe I should be entering some competitions...??
I seriously dont know why everyone is hung up on groups unless this is competition specific. I have the Vortex 1-6x HD on my battle rifle which is a 16" LWRC REPR, in my case this gun isn't made for groups...I just want to hit the target a bunch of times. If you had to go for groups hypothetically speaking the same scope with a different reticle would be freakin' bad azz! When Vortex does come out with a different reticle I will be all over it, it would be a killer setup. The glass is great and I LOVE the low profile windage and elevation knobs, but on the current 1-6x HD once the 200 yard zero is set up there is absolutely no need to play with the knobs. The BDC reticle does everything for you. This is just my limited opinion.
I will mostly be shooting steel but I do like to shoot for accuracy way out there on paper also. I thought the firedot in the center of the crosshairs was .5MOA, being what I thought would be small enough for precision work. Being a SFP scope, I figured the crosshair/dot would cover about 3" at 600 on 6X, and would be 3MOA dot when on 1X. Do the crosshairs really cover that much target? Hmmm, maybe I better try to see these side-by-side.