It shouldn' t be difficult to get 1" -1.5" in @100 yds. If you get that then go hunting and don' t think twice about.

I perfer to have my riles shoot the ragged hole. It has cost me lots of $$$$ and time trying to find that magic round for each of my rifles. (with the exception of the SKS) But this is just me to each his own. but I know that when my crosshairs are on the deer that is where the bullet is going plus or minus 1 in

I don' t think that everyone is on the same page here. Are we talking about ACCURACY or MARKSMANSHIP?

Some people, including the original poster I think, are talking about ACCURACY. Accuracy is that ability of the rifle and ammo to be consistant both in group size and placement, without taking the shooter' s skill into consideration. If you really want to see how accurate a rifle is then you should clamp it into a shooting vise or similar that takes the human factor out of the equation. So a perfectly ACCURATE rifle is on that will shoot every bullet through exactly the same hole as the last, every single time. Of course, such a rifle is a mythical beast, but the closer to this level of perfection, the more accurate the rifle is.

Then there are some who are talking about marksmanship. Marksmanship is the ability of the shoot to " to his part" to put the bullet where he wants it under real shooting situations. Marksmanship involves the human element, such as the ability to dope the wind and range, zero the rifle for the given range, and apply proper shooting form and techniques to make it all happen. When one talks about getting every shot into an 8" paper plate at X range they are referring to a combination of both accuracy and marksmanship, or what I like to think of as " practical accuracy."

An inaccurate rifle (one that shoots a big or erratic group), even in the hands of the worlds best marksman, is still likely to miss. The same is true for a very accurate rifle in the hands of a poor marksman. The trick is to get a rifle and load that is accurate so that you can refine your marksmanship skills knowing that misses are your fault, and not the gun' s. For accuracy purposes, I like to keep my groups under 2 MOA with my muzzleloaders from the bench (we don' t get to hunt deer with CF rifles in Iowa). At the ranges deer are shot in Iowa timber, where 100 yards is an unusually long shot, 2 MOA of accuracy is sufficient. After I establish that my chosen load is accurate enough, then I will shoot at an 8" target from real world shooting positions and see if my marksmanship is up to the task. If I can keep every shot in the 8" circle out to a given range, then I' m confident that my practical accuracy is good enough for the field within the established range limits.

Basically, the more accurate the rifle is, then the less critical the marksmanship is and the bigger the shooters margin of error is. A less accurate rifle will mean that the marksman' s ability and margin for error will be smaller.

Mike

If a gun has been floated, bedded, trigger work, etc., then I don' t believe a person should be satisfied unless that particular gun shoots MOA or less at 100 yds., especially when the shots at game have the chance of being long ones.

i said a 4 inch group at your maximum range not 100 yards.....i know a 4 inch group at 100 yards isnt good at 300yds....but if your max is 100 yards and u put em all in a 4 inch group thats fine..if u cant do it at 300 i wouldnt shot a deer at 300

Off the bench I can usually hold around a minute of angle with most of the rifles that I hunt with , But shooting offhand I try to keep it around 2" at 100 yards . Lately I have started to use the shooting stix and they help a lot . I learned a long time ago you might shoot great on a bench but in the field is another ball game all together.

Shooting sticks thats the ticket,I use them or a tree or something 95% of the time when shooting at game.Once I used my nephews shoulder to drop a buck at 287 yds with a 243.
I shoot my hunting rifles from the bench finding loads that give me less than an inch @100.If you can get very small groups on the bench you take out some of the varibles when shooting at game in the real world.

Hey herman !!!!!!!! How did you get his shoulder to chamber ??????? 243 ! He must have been a tiny fellow !!!

Vapodog:

Thanks! Good luck.

Yeah I want an accurate gun too! Most " hunting" rifles won' t do any better than 2" groups. So I am with those that say a 4" group at whatever range you will be shooting at will be good enough. In hunting there is no such thing as a " group!"
Deer have on average about an 8" kill zone, and dead is dead! So a shot 4 inches off the mark, gets you the same result as if you hit the actual hair you were aiming at! My hunting guns will do 1 1/4 groups, and truth be known, that is probably better than the average hunting gun. Practice all that you can, but remember groups really don' t mean squat in the field!