3, 5 or 10

yoshmyster

For grouping? I say 5 but dude I know say 3 and Tom happylord says 10. He says folks can get lucky with 3 or 5 but not with 10.

charliemeyer007

For adjusting sights I use 3. For my hunting rifle I want to know exactly where that fouled cold bore shot goes. Oiled bores always shoot high for me.

MIKE WISKEY

depends on the rifle, thin light barrels 3 (or a Long time between shots), load testing 5, bragging rights 10 [:D]

"Oiled bores always shoot high for me."...........never, ever go hunting or to a match with a 'clean' barrel.

mrmike08075

Once upon a time it was 3 rounds to zero or to judge group accuracy

Than it was 5 rounds per bull's-eye in smallbore competition

Than it turned into perfect scores and clean targets in prone position / 400 out of 400 score or 40 shots in the ten ring

That turned into who had the number of ten X hits or center dot strikes

When testing military surplus guns it went to 5 round groups than 10 round groups that an entire 20 round box

That got a wee bit ridiculous

So 5-10 at 100 yds for a rifle from a bagged bench rest became my jam

And I liked to see what happened if you fired your string relatively quickly and allowed the bbl to heat up

To each his own

Mike

Mobuck

"Generally speaking" 3 shots will give a good representation of the firearm's accuracy(if repeatable-meaning not that one lucky group back in 1989).
Ten shots is a challenge of the shooter's consistency and IMHO, 3x 3 shot groups is a better evaluation of most hunting rifles.

Zeroing is different and once zeroed, my rifles are checked with several 1 shot(cold barrel) groups fired over 3-5 days.

243winxb

5 to a group when testing. The load that looks best gets 4 groups of 5 each for a 20 shot average.

A heavy recoiling gun, may only get fired 2 groups of 5 in a day.

The 505 Gibbs types are fired from a standing bench rest.

hillbille

3 to sight in, then once year to make sure still on

nononsense

yoshmyster,

quote:For grouping? I say 5 but dude I know say 3 and Tom happylord says 10. He says folks can get lucky with 3 or 5 but not with 10.

This is one of those situations where the answer is 'it depends', because it depends on the type and style of shooting being asked about. First though two other definitions are called for:

Accuracy vs Precision

Terms: Accuracy & Precision

Category: Shooting Terminology

Application(s) of Use: Shooting of all kinds, and any projectile weapon

Definition (Accuracy): The closeness of a measured value to a standard or known value. I.E. How close a shot is to the desired point of impact.

Definition (Precision): The closeness of two or more measurements to each other. The closer together each measurement is, the more precise the instrument is. I.E. How close individual shots are to one another, regardless of point of impact.

(credit to: Breach Bang Clear from Recoil Off Grid)

Examples:



There are no fixed rules if you're just at the local range banging away for entertainment. But, no matter if you're hunting or shooting some form of targets in competition, it's important to know where your cold bore shot is and just exactly where and how your chosen number of shots group. Virtually every Extended Long Range competition now requires a cold bore shot which is figured into the final point standings.

The disagreement over the number of shots often stems from a statistical point of view. The more shots in the test, the greater the understanding of the performance and consistency. But if this is a hunting scenario and if these shots aren't in the center of your point of aim, your prey may simply walk away unscathed.

Best.