What's your most accurate hunting rifle?

[Aviator]

APR 300 Win Mag

 

[pbroski]

That’s a sleek and simple looking rifle. I bet it handles really nicely.

It's a joy to carry and shoot.

 

[Mojave]

Blaser R8 in any caliber.

 

[wind gypsy]

Its interesting, I guess people have different ways to go about achieving the same thing. To my credit, a 3/4moa target (3” at 400) is a LOT harder for me to reliably hit than a 1moa target (a clay pigeon, which is 110mm or 4.33 inches). And both are also considerably smaller than a cow elks head at 100-200 yards. All of these are great shooting, but I remain most impressed with 100% reliability on 1st-round 3/4moa hits at 400 yards with any hunting rifle. Thats exceptional.

I feel like you guys are talking past each other a bit. He didn't say 100% cold bore hits but rather that his rifles "be able to hit", which is near meaningless. It does play well with the rest of his logic about not shooting much or shooting groups though. A 3 MOA rifle is "able to" hit a 3/4" target.

Regardless, he's not hitting a 3/4 MOA circle 100% of the time @ 400 yards with any meaningful # of shots.

 

[Loper]

One theme I found going through this thread is that the older Briowning A-Bolts/A-Bolt II’s are very accurate and loved. You all are making me regret selling mine.

 

[Macintosh]

The tikka I don't own.

In reality, all my rifles shoot adequately the same. For me, all I care about is being able to hit a 3" circle at 400 yds "cold bore" first shot.

I feel like you guys are talking past each other a bit. He didn't say 100% cold bore hits but rather that his rifles "be able to hit", which is near meaningless. It does play well with the rest of his logic about not shooting much or shooting groups though. A 3 MOA rifle is "able to" hit a 3/4" target.

Regardless, he's not hitting a 3/4 MOA circle 100% of the time @ 400 yards with any meaningful # of shots.

Maybe? I understood it as a statement of being able to do it reliably. If someone can do that reliably I remain highly impressed. Any decent rifle will do it most of the time. If someone says they can do it, I am inclined to believe it until proven otherwise…I just have never seen anyone do that all the time even with expensive customs, except maybe a full-on benchrest rig some of the time. Hence being impressed. But yeah, being able to say what I can do ALL the time is the reason for the larger group sizes.

 

[wind gypsy]

Maybe? I understood it as a statement of being able to do it reliably. If someone can do that reliably I remain highly impressed. Any decent rifle will do it most of the time. If someone says they can do it, I am inclined to believe it until proven otherwise…I just have never seen anyone do that all the time even with expensive customs, except maybe a full-on benchrest rig some of the time. Hence being impressed. But yeah, being able to say what I can do ALL the time is the reason for the larger group sizes.

Nobody is doing it ALL the time.

 

[Macintosh]

Ok fine…you are right of course. Lets say 95% certainty instead of 68% certainty.

 

[bruno747]

I have one of the newer howa mini action in 6.5 grendel with the carbon fiber barrel. Its like 5.7lb with simple leupold 3-9x40 scope loaded. With the newer hornady vmatch ammo it will do a full 20 round box of ammo in 5 round increments allowing some time to cool between inside a half to 3/4 inch group all day as long as you don't let the suppressor mirage get to you. It does lose accuracy once it gets too dirty, say 250 rounds, but as soon as you give it a good cleaning it comes right back to the 1/2-3/4 moa range. I also suspect 1/2-3/4" is just the best I can do with a 3-9 scope seeing as the center of the crosshair covers the half inch red dot on the target at 100yds. I have on my wish list to get a higher magnification and finer reticle for it and see if I can eek out an even tighter group. I never expected to love this little rifle as much as I do.

 

[jimh406]

No idea since I don't shoot competition with them. However, from what I've been reading there doesn't seem to be a direct correlation of cost vs accuracy. I quit accuracy testing once I reach the accuracy level I want.

I think people pay what they are willing to pay. Sure, there are some out there that are works of art that never have any issues, but there doesn't seem to be a guarantee of high accuracy even for $2-3000 rifles. My guess is that's different for a truly custom rifle that has a load worked up by the gunsmith.

 

[roadrunner]

I feel like you guys are talking past each other a bit. He didn't say 100% cold bore hits but rather that his rifles "be able to hit", which is near meaningless. It does play well with the rest of his logic about not shooting much or shooting groups though. A 3 MOA rifle is "able to" hit a 3/4" target.

Regardless, he's not hitting a 3/4 MOA circle 100% of the time @ 400 yards with any meaningful # of shots.

Maybe? I understood it as a statement of being able to do it reliably. If someone can do that reliably I remain highly impressed. Any decent rifle will do it most of the time. If someone says they can do it, I am inclined to believe it until proven otherwise…I just have never seen anyone do that all the time even with expensive customs, except maybe a full-on benchrest rig some of the time. Hence being impressed. But yeah, being able to say what I can do ALL the time is the reason for the larger group sizes.

I simply meant that I'm not relying on warming the barrel up enough to get the MOA group average for repeatability when shooting multiple rounds in a short(er) timeframe.

In a hunting situation, the 1st shot is the only shot that really matters and a rifle being shot that 1st time after sitting in the open air for 2 hours at 15 deg F needs to be able to hit what you're aiming at, preferably within an "MOA" at whatever distance within reason. If there is a miss, I want to know that it wasn't the rifle.

 

[sdupontjr]

One theme I found going through this thread is that the older Briowning A-Bolts/A-Bolt II’s are very accurate and loved. You all are making me regret selling mine.

you beat me to it. Except I still have mine. Those older abolts like the older 700's were fine shooting rifles. I really think browning screwed the pooch with the AB3.

 

[Harvey_NW]

I simply meant that I'm not relying on warming the barrel up enough to get the MOA group average for repeatability when shooting multiple rounds in a short(er) timeframe.

In a hunting situation, the 1st shot is the only shot that really matters and a rifle being shot that 1st time after sitting in the open air for 2 hours at 15 deg F needs to be able to hit what you're aiming at, preferably within an "MOA" at whatever distance within reason. If there is a miss, I want to know that it wasn't the rifle.

That's not really a thing. Unless there's stress in the grain structure of the barrel causing it to deviate from heat, the cold bore will fall within the cone of fire that rifle and load produces. If the following shots don't hit the target, there's zero validity to expecting any cold bore after that to impact as well.

In lieu of this thread, my 2 best hunting rifles are a Tikka-custom 25 Creedmoor, and a Tikka D-18 in 6.5 PRC that's been chopped to 21" and touched up with the AW2 reamer to prevent clickers. They're tied up in group ES for 10 shots. The 25 Creed group is a composite from 2 different days.

 

[mlevimadden]

I simply meant that I'm not relying on warming the barrel up enough to get the MOA group average for repeatability when shooting multiple rounds in a short(er) timeframe.

In a hunting situation, the 1st shot is the only shot that really matters and a rifle being shot that 1st time after sitting in the open air for 2 hours at 15 deg F needs to be able to hit what you're aiming at, preferably within an "MOA" at whatever distance within reason. If there is a miss, I want to know that it wasn't the rifle.

The reason you're getting grilled on here is because there probably isn't a shooter in the world who can make 95%+ hit rates on a 3/4 MOA target at 400 yards in field conditions with a hunting weight rifle.

If you can, you need to quit your day job, so you can go win the PRS national match, get a bunch of sponsors, and probably open your own shooting school.

 

[Kyguy]

I have one of the newer howa mini action in 6.5 grendel with the carbon fiber barrel. Its like 5.7lb with simple leupold 3-9x40 scope loaded. With the newer hornady vmatch ammo it will do a full 20 round box of ammo in 5 round increments allowing some time to cool between inside a half to 3/4 inch group all day as long as you don't let the suppressor mirage get to you. It does lose accuracy once it gets too dirty, say 250 rounds, but as soon as you give it a good cleaning it comes right back to the 1/2-3/4 moa range. I also suspect 1/2-3/4" is just the best I can do with a 3-9 scope seeing as the center of the crosshair covers the half inch red dot on the target at 100yds. I have on my wish list to get a higher magnification and finer reticle for it and see if I can eek out an even tighter group. I never expected to love this little rifle as much as I do.

Just when I had about talked myself out of buying a mini in the Grendel, you post this. Goodbye money.

 

[huntnful]

That's not really a thing. Unless there's stress in the grain structure of the barrel causing it to deviate from heat, the cold bore will fall within the cone of fire that rifle and load produces. If the following shots don't hit the target, there's zero validity to expecting any cold bore after that to impact as well.

In lieu of this thread, my 2 best hunting rifles are a Tikka-custom 25 Creedmoor, and a Tikka D-18 in 6.5 PRC that's been chopped to 21" and touched up with the AW2 reamer to prevent clickers. They're tied up in group ES for 10 shots. The 25 Creed group is a composite from 2 different days.
View attachment 760279View attachment 760280

.62 for 10 shots is seriously excellent. I’d take a 10 shot .6 over a 3 shot .2 any day of the week lol.

 

[roadrunner]

The reason you're getting grilled on here is because there probably isn't a shooter in the world who can make 95%+ hit rates on a 3/4 MOA target at 400 yards in field conditions with a hunting weight rifle.

If you can, you need to quit your day job, so you can go win the PRS national match, get a bunch of sponsors, and probably open your own shooting school.

Really not interested in the reasons on why I'm getting "grilled" mostly because too many times people tend to read too much into something or take relatively petty things too seriously as though it's some kind of a religion or something.

I get it though that it seems important to them.

Wanting my rifle to shoot "3/4" MOA doesn't mean I said I can can do it repeatedly. If anyone needs to do something, you need to get out more.

I can boast as much as the next guy that something isn't true when a grouping pic is posted. Get over yourself...

 

[roadrunner]

That's not really a thing. Unless there's stress in the grain structure of the barrel causing it to deviate from heat, the cold bore will fall within the cone of fire that rifle and load produces. If the following shots don't hit the target, there's zero validity to expecting any cold bore after that to impact as well.

In lieu of this thread, my 2 best hunting rifles are a Tikka-custom 25 Creedmoor, and a Tikka D-18 in 6.5 PRC that's been chopped to 21" and touched up with the AW2 reamer to prevent clickers. They're tied up in group ES for 10 shots. The 25 Creed group is a composite from 2 different days.

What's the relevance of 10 shots to verify a "group".

There is none. And a "cold bore challenge" is a nonsensical waste of time...

 

[BCinKS]

Toss up between my 2 Remington Sendero’s. 25/06 & 7STW

 

[KenLee]

Just when I had about talked myself out of buying a mini in the Grendel, you post this. Goodbye money.

Me too. 90% of what I hear is bad