While he is asking about attaining 1/2" MOA, my first priority would be to try and get that number down considerably. Being able to get that even to .250" MOA certainly enables one to trust their last impact a lot more for adjustments - and puts an inexperienced person in a better tactical situation where they can err on wind calls a bit more than someone not shooting as tight - if nothing else. I do believe even 1/4" MOA is attainable without spending tons of dough on equipment, though some of us try to spend our way to overcome reloading technique - which never works.
Yes, the “rifle shot” to very small groups is having a very good barrel and loads, and they cost everyone about the same amount, just a small fraction of the whole endeavor.
A bad barrel will reduce perfect loads to mediocrity. A great barrel can elevate mediocre loads to passable, but then you should wonder what could have been.
Other big expenses, such as the best scopes and rests, make shooting more pleasant with incrementally better results, although some of that improvement is due to lower fatigue, and the self-fulfillment that high confidence generates to new heights, one’s effort expended in order to do well (at the line and loading bench).
This can happen two ways; the first is we now know it’s all on us, we have the best and excuses are now gone, but the second is more interesting.
When a string is going well, we pour more energy into each consecutive shot than we would ever do, when the cause is already lost, so to speak, just watch who falls down and stays there at the end of an Olympic race - if Olympians can let off, most of us shooters sure as heck can be so tempted.
Sometimes that boost needs to be tempered, true “overthinking” might score the other way, but until it’s going really well, that aspect of LR is undiscovered territory.
