Originally Posted by Finepoint

The point is not what the rifles are capable of under current ideal circumstances, but rather what the shooter's expectations are. Today we snub our noses at any rifle that will not do 1 MOA or better and cars that won't run 200,000 miles without a major repair. In 1958, we were happy with 2-3 MOA rifles and cars that got 100,000 miles. Perhaps were were not so good shots back then, but, on the whole were probably better hunters. I'm well aware of the ammo low expectations for ammo back then and how many old rifles with carefully tweaked handloads will shoot far better than was conceivable when they were made. And I'm familiar with the hand-crafted Sniper SMLE's. What I'm trying to do is bridge gap between the proverbial minute-of-pie plate with the 700 yd deer. Both have their points and both have their limitations.
It reminds me of a weapons system that I worked on decades ago. It was capable of repeatedly placing a projectile within 25 meters of its target post at a distance of over 1000km.This is decades before laser targeting or GPS. These anecdotal stories were confirmed by my uncle, who worked on the system design, I found out years later. I don't know how that works out in MOA, but I'll bet it's not much. I appreciate that kind of precision. But when one considers that the Army was having me put a 145 kiloton nuclear warhead on it, I had to ask the pie plate question. The dissonance of the whole thing still makes me laugh. The older I get, the more I laugh.