My smallest group yet . . . on accident

**Tomcat088** · July 8th, 2014, 02:46 PM

Disclaimer: This is in no way a measure of my shooting ability. It may be a slight indication of how accurate Emily (my rifle) and my handloads are, and why I never have any excuses for missing besides the "nut behind the bolt". This is merely an example of the planets aligning that I wanted to share with ya'll for entertainment purposes.

So in the middle of June, I took a friend who is from out of the country to shoot long range. The video and story is in this other thread if you're curious about it http://forum.pafoa.org/lounge-108/25...e-miracle.html . The conditions were horrible, and definitely not optimum for even an experienced LR shooter, much less 2 guys that have never shot before. Anyway, we had a great time and they were able to miraculously hit at 1,000 yards. I took the first cold bore shot, and actually missed the target because the wind was a little higher than I had originally thought. So the next one hit on target. The fellas did some shooting, and I get back on the rifle and shoot two more that I knew hit about the same area. My focus for the whole session was keeping these guys on target, and making sure that they had a good time. So at the end, I snapped a quick picture and didn't pay much attention because there were hits all over the target from the two gentlemen.

When I got home and looked at the picture, I noticed the group I had shot and I thought to myself, "Man, that's a good group." So I started looking at it closer and thought, "Wow, that's a REALLY good group." So today, I finally broke out my "OnTarget" program, and put the group in there for analysis. For those curious, OnTarget is a program that you set a reference distance on the target, mark the bullet holes, and it will measure and calculate groups for you. The group was TOO GOOD. The group is real, and it was shot at 1,000 yards, but it was just a lucky fluke. Keep in mind this was shot at 1,000 yards; not at 100 like the program says, but it won't let me mark it at 1,000 yards so the conversions are easiest from 100 yards. This was in wind that was gusting up to 26 mph, and lulls down to 7 mph. There were 2 misses (one on the video) and one cold bore before the footage started; but you gotta give me a little bit of a break guys it's 26 mph winds at 1,000 yards. This was also not shot off of a bench or benchrest, it was shot off of a bipod on the ground (shooting mat).

Target with everyone's hits

Target with just my group marked

Target Close up so you can see strikes

So there it is, roughly a 1.840" group on the long side from center to center. This equates to .1757 MOA at 1,000 yards (which is where it was shot). It's ridiculously good, and all out of luck. For those that use the program, I realize this was not the best picture and it's on a bit of an angle. I set the reference on the edge of the target that is closest to the group (left side) Where the corners meet (not the top edge that wouldn't be visible from straight on), all the way to the bottom. Target is a 12"x12" piece of AR500. Hope ya'll enjoy, and feel free to share your own miraculous groups.

**FLICK** · July 8th, 2014, 03:10 PM

SOLID SHOOTING!!!

Pics of rifle??

**IronButt** · July 8th, 2014, 03:26 PM

.1757 MOA! You suck.

**Tomcat088** · July 8th, 2014, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by FLICK

SOLID SHOOTING!!!

Pics of rifle??

Sure, I'll be happy to post some pictures of the rifle. This is Emily, she's a full custom .300 WSM.

If you're curious about the origin of this rifle and how she kind of came to be, I made a thread a long time ago of the process as I built her. It's here, and it has updates on how she's changed over the years too. http://forum.pafoa.org/rifles-42/241...fle-build.html