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I'm wondering what others feel about the level of accuracy needed to make them feel comfortable and to have confidence in their hunting rifles?

To me, practical accuracy demands that the bullet needs to hit a circle no larger than the size of the vital zone, HOWEVER that in and of itself does not inspire my confidence in my rifle. It is a weird thing, but if I have a rifle in hand that I know can shoot teeny tiny groups, I carry with me great confidence in my ability to connect with my target. On the flip side, if I know the rifle isn't so stellar, my confidence is greatly diminished, for example a rifle that stays within a 12" circle at 100 yards would not make me feel terribly comfortable deer hunting because I subconsciously feel like I'm just wildly throwing lead, even at shorter distances like 50 yards..... If my rifle shoots a 2" group at 100 yards, it still feels sloppy to me when hunting distances stretch to say 200 yards, but I'd feel ok at 100''' with it and I've actually passed up several shots over the years because I had doubts about connecting with stellar precision.

Calibers have a lot to do with it, but let's assume for the sake of argument that the rifles are using cartridges of sufficient power to slay deer size game and let's focus on the accuracy questions as it relates to the rifles themselves.

In light of the parameters loosely defined above, here are some examples of my most accurate HUNTING rifles that I found to be truly outstanding (this excludes for me heavy "impractical for hunting" target rifles like the TRG that shoot 1 hole groups, etc)

Most accurate at long(er) range:

Blaser K95
Blaser R93
Several Sako rifles
Weatherby Accumark

Notably absent is the Remington 700. Admittedly I have had some really good accuracy with some of these, but I am narrowing my list to the truly awe inspiring accuracy levels of the best of the best right out of the box and for me, the 700 just didn't make the grade.

Some examples that I found adequate to make me feel comfortable if the distances don't stretch too far past 100 yards

Weatherby Ultralight
Sako Finnlight
Remington 760 Gamemaster
Heym and Merkel double rifles unscoped.

Some examples that I wouldn't feel comfortable shooting big game with except for VERY short ranges:

?????? This one has me a bit stumped. I'd say the Ruger Deerfield, but that's more the cartridge vs the rifle itself because the .44 magnum it is chambered in hits the ground 30 feet in front of the target when sighted in at 50 yards.

Maybe the entire question is misguided because I do know that even my mid range choices can and do take game at quite long ranges and are capable of same. Maybe I should ask a more scientific question, like: who has had hunting rifles that shoot less than 1/2 MOA? Oh well. I didn't frame up the question that way. I left lots of ambiguity and potential emotion on the table, but I don't want to rethink or retype my post because I am essentially lazy.

Edited by Postman (25/09/16 08:41 AM)

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