I'll admit for me personally it's nice to achieve those 1/2" groups at 100yds and my confidence level goes up especially when taking long shots but it also gives me a sense of accomplishment with my handloads and shows that my work and patience in reloading is paying off. I do have several rifles that will shoot 1/2" groups when i do my part however thats not my personal standard of accuracy for a hunting rifle.
It all depends on the rifle and the situation. I have stands that are in tight places with close shots say 100yds and less and then several that present long shots out past 300yds. If i'm hunting in tight quarters then the 6" 100yd group is fine for that particular rifle. However, for long range i require something better than that. I've taken several deer past 300yds but the majority of my shots are between 150 and 250yds so if i can get a rifle to consistently print 1" to 1 1/4" groups at 100yds then i'm very happy with that rifle and ready to hunt.

No!! I killed most of my large game trophies with a Mannlicher-Schoenauer .270 carbine with a 20" barrel. I was never able to get that gun to shoot anything smaller than 1.25", yet I never noticed this handicap when shooting game! It was a real killert with both 150 and 130-grain Nosler Partitons, too. MV of the 130 grainer was 2950, the 150 would do 2800 or so, but these speeds were fast enough! I used this gun for three years in Alaska almost exclusively. It was big enough!

Wow guys, we need to change this pages name to "opinionated mediocre gun page for guys (or women) who just need something good enough to knock a hole in an animal page" instead of "guns".

Maybe I am wrong, but I thought most guys on this page strive to get thier guns shooting well, not mediocre. Sure, any gun that hits a pie plate at 100 yards will kill, and maybe all that is needed, but don't most of you find it fun to work on a gun to get it to shoot to its max potential?

Don't know about you, but I would rather spend the time getting my self to shooting to my fullest potential than worring about how my rifle only shoots 1.5 moa rather than 1moa. [:-]

Then why are you constantly visiting a gun page? Maybe a more suitable page would be some shooting pages to prepare you for whatever. There's a bunch of them out there. Cause most guns will shoot 1.5 to 2MOA. Its none of my business, I am just curious.

1.375" to .5" is a huge jump, and if you could get to this point, then it would be worth your time....although I'm betting you're not going to reach this point with your rifle, most factory hunting rifles are lucky to touch 1MOA, let alone .5MOA, 1.375" at 100yrds is a pretty good group, I'd like it down lower towards 1", but there's nothing wrong with it.

As far as practicing snap shooting goes, it's a waste of time as well, if you've got to swing and take a relatively blind, aimless shot at a deer, you're not doing your part in the first place...yes it's handy to be able to snap shoot in the event you get rushed by a bear or something, but that doesn't seem to be the point of your case.

Taking snap shots is at best border-line on being unethical, if the majority of your shots are snaps, you're not hunting, you're walking around until you scare up a deer and winging a shot at it and hoping for the best.

Practice how you will play, if you're going to be shooting out of a box blind and have the ability to use sandbags, then practice from a bench is viable, if not, then practice position shooting, i.e. standing, kneeling, sitting, and prone...buying a good set of shooting sticks or a bi-pod can really help with this. I have a two position bi-pod on my hunting rifles, and a telescoping cane for support on standing shots, I also practice shooting all four positions free handed.

Remember what your group size is for each position and with or without supports, shooting 1" groups at 100yrds is relatively easy given the right conditions, but for most people the right conditions don't include off hand standing, it's quite difficult to shoot 2MOA at 100yrds unsupported and standing, especially if you're holding a hunting rifle! You're going to notice off hand standing groups somewhere along the lines of twice-four times as big as your bench rest groups, hunt your quarry accordingly.

i always try to outshoot myself everytime i go out shooting. (i keep the last target i shot for comparison) as far as a hunting situation goes i use a bipod in the prone or seated position so i usually have close to bench conditions.

Here is the original question:

Bigcountry- what is your beef with me? I was simply offering up my opinion and we all know what opinions are and what they smell like. By argueing my point and answering the original question, I don't feel that I'm out of place on this gun discussion site.

Part of being a rifleman is being able to shoot it and hit your target under whatever conditions are present. Accurizing a rifle is certainly worth some people's time where longer shots need to be taken in open areas, but for the most part, where I hunt, the longest shots are at 100 yards and most of the time much closer, but with very little time or window of opportunity to shoot. Being able to shoot from a blind from sandbags is an ideal situation,the place where I started hunting I was able to set up that way, but for alot of hunters, its simply not an option.

Amen, but finding a place that will let me shoot from all those positions is tough. Most ranges around here have a "bench only" rule.