Rifle Zeroing Issues

’m I sure we have all heard the arguments and seen the stories. Most gunwriters these days stick with three shot groups to evaluate a rifle. Others use five and, years ago, ten shot groups were commonly used to demonstrate what a rifle is capable of. I recently read one article by a statistical expert insisting that six shots would tell you everything you needed to analyze a rifle’s performance. That was about the only part of the article I understood as I am certainly not a statistical analyst.

Recently, a friend and I spent some time discussing the subject and came to the conclusion that the number of rounds necessary should be more dependent on your need and intended use than any other factor. As it turned out the conclusion we drew was that everyone was right in some circumstances and everyone missed the point in others. I have been a firm believer that one shot won’t tell you anything except where that bullet hit.

I had always felt I had to put three bullets on target before it told me where the gun was shooting. My normal procedure is to shoot three, adjust the scope or sights, shoot three more, and continue until I have the group centered in the bull. Now I’ve pretty well convinced myself I was wrong! Two shots lying next to each other will tell me as much as three and three shots several inches apart don’t tell me enough. Consistency is the key and without it you need more data before you can draw a valid conclusion.

That’s fine for zeroing a scope but what about analyzing the rifle’s capability? This is where we need to know what the rifle’s intended use is. Let’s look at a few different uses a rifle may be put to and see how they determine how many shots you need to put in a group for it to tell you what you need to know. Let’s call the first use the Hunter/ Police Sniper situation. In both cases, the shooter really needs to know exactly where the first shot from a cold clean barrel will impact.

It really doesn’t matter what the rifle will do after a couple of fouling shots with a warm barrel. The shot that matters is coming from that cold, clean barrel, perhaps with a follow up shot. Range time checking such a zero must emphasize the first shot as it means more than any number of others. In such a case, three shot groups are all that is really needed. If the second and third shots land near the first you’re in business as long as the scope is zeroed on that first shot.

The second possible use of a rifle is what I call the Dangerous Game situation. This applies to folks hunting something that just might take great personal exception to being shot at. In North America this would include bears, moose, boar, bison, and big cats. Once you leave our sunny shores the species hunted may be hunting cape buffalo, lion, tiger, elephant or some other critter that would love to sleep peacefully on a people skin rug.

These are folks that may one day desperately need to know not only where that first shot hits but also where each additional shot in their magazine will go when fired in rapid succession at diminishing ranges. Add to the stress of becoming dinner, the recoil of a big game rifle and the very slim possibility of reloading, and I would think four or five shot groups, depending on the magazine capacity of the rifle, would be good practice and provide essential information to them.

The next use of a rifle that determines the number of rounds necessary for is the Competition/Varmint situation. Competition shooters often are required to shoot several shots against the clock. In High Power competition, for example, Rapid fire sitting at 200 yards and rapid fire prone at 300 yards require strings of ten shots in 60 and 70 seconds, respectively.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see that ten shot groups are necessary to be sure a rifle doesn’t start spraying bullets all over the county as the barrel heats up. If it does, a fix is needed or the shooter better take up a different game. The varmint shooter may shoot several hundred rounds a day. The action can come fast and he really needs to know how his rifle handles long strings of fire and if it holds its zero when the barrel is to hot to touch.

Ten shot groups are probably the minimum for these shooters. Otherwise those shots out in the eight ring or those prairie dogs thumbing their noses at you might never be explained. The last use of a firearm I’ll discuss is probably the most common and that is the plinking or recreational shooting situation. Most of the folks that shoot strictly for fun never come closer to shooting at a bullseye than when they take a shot at the bottom of the pop can they just knocked over at 50 feet.

There is nothing wrong with that and I enjoy shooting things that pop, break, klunk or jump as much as anyone. The requirements are simple. Give them a rifle that holds a minute of pop can at 25 to 50 feet and they are happy. Still, they occasionally have a rifle that need sight adjustment and a paper target is still the best thing for telling exactly where a rifle is shooting. I wouldn’t even try to suggest to

22 went high at 12 o’clock and might explain why the shooter always seems to miss that first squirrel but nails all the others he sees. these folks how many shots to use to verify their sight settings. In my experience, once one round lands in the middle of the target all interest in making holes in paper is lost and they start looking for something that will break. Truthfully, if that makes you happy, who am I to criticize? The one common element is practice.

If the goal is to shoot small groups to impress your friends, put one shot into a perp to save a hostage or to keep some critter from mounting your head in its den, nothing helps improvement like practice. You can’t become a great offhand shooter by practicing from a bench. The bench is used to zero the rifle and discover what it can do. You now need to find out what you can do with it.

That means that if you’re going out to shoot a big nasty while standing in the tall grass you better be able to shoot well standing without support. When I shot High Power competition almost all of my weekly practice sessions was offhand because that was my hardest position. When I shoot handguns I fire half of my shots with my weak hand. I do so because shooting Gunfighter class in Cowboy Action requires it. I carry a gun for work and one day may have to.

I’ve been told by a champion action pistol shooter that he shoots as much as ten thousand rounds a week! I can’t afford to shoot that much and, frankly, I don’t want to but I don’t expect to be a world champion either. I know cowboy action shooters that never practice but really shoot well and even win their categories because they shoot a match almost The first shot would be on the left edge of the group. This is why writers like to use three shot groups.

The first three are very pretty but when the barrel heats up, conditions change and fatigue sets in it is much harder to put ten shots in the same hole. every week. Nothing beats rounds put down range in competition to make you good at putting rounds down range in competition. If you do it a lot you get good at it. Now you have my opinion on the subject. No matter how many shots you think you need in a group, you need to know what to expect from your rifle when the chips are down.

Those groups will get better with practice. Shoot from a bench to zero and then practice from the position you will use so you can succeed when you have to. Good luck and good hunting. AG