The post on 2dog's 204 dilemma got me to thinking about how we sometimes get so wrapped up in the minutiae that we forget to look at real world results. I am as guilty of that as is any of us who shoot a lot. I am not satisfied with a varmint rifle that will not group 5 shots into 1/2 inch at 100 yds on a consistent basis.
Which is the beginning of an observation I made about 3 years ago.
Before I get too deep into that let me give a bit of background on how much shooting I do; in my area we have thousands of ground squirrels, which are less than one-half the size of a prairie dog, they are up from mid-March through early-August, it is what you may call a target rich environment. I generally shoot ground squirrels at least three times a week and I also go out of state and shoot PD's for a couple of weeks a year so I put a lot of rounds downrange through the season.
About three years ago I was into an "experimental" stage and took a look at what I was shooting. I had a Rem 700 Sporter 223 with a 4-12 scope on it, a Rem 700 Varminter with a 6-18 scope on it, a Cooper Varminter with a 6.5-20 scope on it. The 700 sporter would keep 5 shots into one-inch, the 700 Varminter would generally keep 5 shots into 3/4 inch, and the Cooper Varminter could be counted on to keep 5 shots into 1/2 inch. Scope power was not a factor since I set them on 10 and don't go over 12 because of mirage issues above that.
Each time I went out I took all three rifles, I would shoot 10 rounds through a rifle then switch to the next rifle, using each rifle I took the targets as they presented themselves which were ranges from 75 to 300 yards. I kept track of the hits and misses by turning the case down for a hit and up for a miss, at the end of the day I would total up my hits and misses by rifles. At the end of the season I totaled up the hits/misses for each rifle and they were virtually identical.
Does it prove anything? To me it proved that sometimes we get so to wrapped up in having to achieve a certain degree of accuracy, needing a certain amount of magnification, or shooting a cartridge with a certain parameter of drift and drop is not necessarily a "have to" thing. Rather it did prove that knowing the trajectory and wind drift of my load was much more important than any drop and wind drift generated from a computer chart.
The gist of this is choose a cartridge you like/enjoy, learn its trajectory and drift and go forth and slay things.
drover
Which is the beginning of an observation I made about 3 years ago.
Before I get too deep into that let me give a bit of background on how much shooting I do; in my area we have thousands of ground squirrels, which are less than one-half the size of a prairie dog, they are up from mid-March through early-August, it is what you may call a target rich environment. I generally shoot ground squirrels at least three times a week and I also go out of state and shoot PD's for a couple of weeks a year so I put a lot of rounds downrange through the season.
About three years ago I was into an "experimental" stage and took a look at what I was shooting. I had a Rem 700 Sporter 223 with a 4-12 scope on it, a Rem 700 Varminter with a 6-18 scope on it, a Cooper Varminter with a 6.5-20 scope on it. The 700 sporter would keep 5 shots into one-inch, the 700 Varminter would generally keep 5 shots into 3/4 inch, and the Cooper Varminter could be counted on to keep 5 shots into 1/2 inch. Scope power was not a factor since I set them on 10 and don't go over 12 because of mirage issues above that.
Each time I went out I took all three rifles, I would shoot 10 rounds through a rifle then switch to the next rifle, using each rifle I took the targets as they presented themselves which were ranges from 75 to 300 yards. I kept track of the hits and misses by turning the case down for a hit and up for a miss, at the end of the day I would total up my hits and misses by rifles. At the end of the season I totaled up the hits/misses for each rifle and they were virtually identical.
Does it prove anything? To me it proved that sometimes we get so to wrapped up in having to achieve a certain degree of accuracy, needing a certain amount of magnification, or shooting a cartridge with a certain parameter of drift and drop is not necessarily a "have to" thing. Rather it did prove that knowing the trajectory and wind drift of my load was much more important than any drop and wind drift generated from a computer chart.
The gist of this is choose a cartridge you like/enjoy, learn its trajectory and drift and go forth and slay things.
drover
