d80hunter

If you are .1432 degrees off center at 100 feet you will miss by a quarter of an inch. That is why bench rests are used in top level competition and the only way I sight my rifles. Then I hope like hell I can keep steady enough place good shots offhand.

Murby

I understand that part.. But what others seem to be suggesting is that the shooter needs to be able to prevent (dampen?) the recoil by holding the weapon firmly, and by doing so, you can somehow stop the weapon from moving that small distance that throws the shot off.

I just find that hard to believe. Not saying I'm right or wrong about it, but it just doesn't seem to make sense from everything I know about energy and motion.. And while my experience is centered around machinery that doesn't deal with any human interaction, I'm fairly certain a living person can't come even close to the accuracy and repeatability of a machine.

When I sight in my guns, I also use a bench rest or at least a bi-pod... As I did with the shotguns too.. its not like I'm standing upright holding the weapon. When I look through the scope, I can not discern any motion of the cross hairs on the target at 50 yards. Can't say that's true at 200 though..

And I can't imagine that a bit of shooting form error would result in a six to eight inch error at just 50 yards when I can shoot two hundred with a .308 with no issues.

It doesn't make sense, which takes me back to thinking its the gun or the ammo..

SecondChance

Lets just sum this issue up and be done with it for I am clearly seeing where this is NOT going. You are trying to compare apples to oranges and not getting the overall picture.
And yes, you can miss a target by 6-8 inches with bad form at such a short distance, if not completely. I see it all the time when teaching firearms classes that I do for my agency with new cadets that supposedly have firearms knowledge and experience.Even some of my snipers that I train I wonder how they got to that stage with all they were doing wrong.
You obviously have form issues that have been addressed here. You are going in circles with trying to analyze what people are telling you with FAR MORE experience in what they are saying to your question. As some one suggested, go to a benchrest match or two and watch and learn. You will learn volumes of what you need to be doing right as opposed to what you are doing wrong. And after you obtain several HUNDRED THOUSAND more roundsyou will see what we have/were trying to tell you.