I' ve always done 3 shot groups. Then when I joined the service they also shot 3groups, so I figure if it' s good enough for the U.S. Army it' s good enough for me.


Now for the biggest reason: You shoot 3 times at your target, go see where your shots landed, they should have formed a traingle. example 1 shot is high to the left,one shot is high to the right, the other shot is low center. They all are within an inch or inch and a half of each other. They all have touched the center black. what would be the sence in shooting more rounds? Now lets say you' ve done the same thing, but the hole group is low and to the right, you take a pencil draw a line from hole to hole which will form a triangle. Go back to your gun make the adjustments that you need and fire again. Repeat this until your on target, if you only shoot 3 you can still use the same paper target until you can get your gun aimed in correctly. Every time you shoot the 3 shot triangle you will be able to see where your groups are landing. A 5 shot group is good for competeing, but overall it is a waste of ammo if your just trying to site in. Once you know that your on target you should be able to hit it with a 10 shot group as long as the gun your useing can handle that many shoots. The other reason people use a 3 shot group is, the first shot hits, the secound shot hits 4 inches away from the first, the 3rd shot hits 1/4 of an inch away from the first. The reason probably because the person flinched on the secound shot, but he still knows he probably has a good group.