As previously reported, I prefer 21 shots, but in 7 three shot groups. We might be talking apples to apples or apples to dried plums, but my thoughts, a pattern can be determined (Pun not intended) and pulled or bad shots excluded. However, if five of the seven groups are not VERY consistent, then one could conclude that the load, rifle combination was not compatible. I look at this as an older shooter, who sure enough, will pull a shot every now and then, but I want to know what my rifle/load is capable of. Seeing a very tight, large group, with one or maybe two or more shots well out of the group, does not tell me if I made a bad shot(s) or if the grouping is not what it should be.
Not that long ago, while testing, I shot the mythical one hole group. (0.13 group size.) However, the group before it was over an inch. Third group was closer to two inches. It happens. Moving up to the next powder charge weight, one group went slightly over an inch, but the two groups before and the three after were well under a half inch and most running in the 0.35 inch range. If that was one large group, I would say the rifle/load was over an inch. However, the grouping tells me, that the rifle/load is quite capable, and that one bad group was an anomaly. Maybe I be wrong, but the loading has been very successful and has shown a very good ES and SD.