• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

What constitutes good groups.

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bigbadben

40 Cal.
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Messages
123
Reaction score
16
This is kind of an informal poll.

I'm working on trying to get my two muzzleloaders set up and dialed in. Both are 54-cal shooting PRB, one a flinter the other percussion. Both have traditional open sights.

I'm curious to hear what others consider good groups off a solid bench at 50, 75 and 100 yards. I'm a little new to the ML thing and looking to get a sense of what I should consider acceptable.

Ben
 
All three of my Renegades will shoot conicals under 2" any day and sub 1" on a good days at 100 yards. Ron
 
When I used to shoot competition, if you couldn't put all your shots into an inch and a half at 50 yards, you wouldn't be in the top 3...

To win, you had to at least have 2-10s and a 9...

At 52...I still expect to be in an inch and a half circle, off the bench at 50 yards...
 
maybe you ought clarify abit,,,,a good group offhand? off a bench? benched? makes a big diff...now at the vous during the blue jacket match all ya gotta do is group 3 shots offhand at an X on a wood shingle @50 yds.....always a BIG pile with 2 or less on the shingle.....some days a good group..is "on the paper"! :wink:
 
I'd say one inch at fifty, three inches at 100, I've never shot groups at 75 but I guess 2" would be expected. That is for five shots. Lots of people like to brag up a three shot group but three will always average smaller than five, and they won't tell you how many targets they threw away before they got that "braggin' group.
 
Well, I'd say a 1-2 inch group at 50 yards is pretty good. At 100 yards, the best I can do repeatably is hit a 4" black dot, because that's as good as I can see to shoot.
 
A double lung on whatever I'm shootin' at is good shot to me ,that way you don't have to worry about a group. :wink:
 
smo said:
A double lung on whatever I'm shootin' at is good shot to me ,that way you don't have to worry about a group. :wink:


I too happen to be a proponent of a one-shot group.

I'm much more concerned with where one shot is going to land from a clean cold barrel, day after day, without regard for weather. If I was going to shoot multishot groups to judge my rifles, I'd fire one shot, then clean the gun completely and fire another. And so on. That's the most meaningful measure of a gun to me.
 
BrownBear said:
smo said:
A double lung on whatever I'm shootin' at is good shot to me ,that way you don't have to worry about a group. :wink:


I too happen to be a proponent of a one-shot group.


That's what I'm talking about ,If I'm shootin' close enough to make a humane kill shot on what ever I'm shootin' at ,then she's shootin' close enough for me.But I can understand if you're punching paper why one would be concerned about a good group :thumbsup: However in a hunting situation it's best to know one's limitations & know how your gun shoots with a clean/cold barrel & know when & where to shoot. :thumbsup:
 
At my age, I think a good average would be........Paper saucer at 30.Paper plate at 50, and dinner table at 100 :surrender:
 
"My rifle will shoot half-inch groups any day. It's the second and third shots that open it up a little bit."
 
With my .54 and .58 flinters I expect 2" at 50 yards and 4" or better at 100 yards on a calm day when shooting from a bench.
 
I hardly ever shoot from a bench any more but when I do it's usually at 50 yards to confirm my big game sight in for the year. Usually just three shots from a carefully wiped barrel. Those will generally go into about 1.5 inch. Can do better with a peep sight but rarely use such a thing.

Off hand at 50 yards? I can hold 8 inches for ten shots and sometimes do better than that.

And that is why my big game offhand shots are limited to 50 yards and no more than 100 off a good rest.
 
When you say 8 inches for ten shots are you saying that you can put ten shots within less than a inch of the center hole? Off hand at 50 yards?
 
i like to do two shot groups. i shoot from a rest at 50 yards from cold barrel then reload and shoot a second shot. if that is around 1.5" i am happy. then i practice shooting offhand. i am a hunter, so if two shots offhand at 50 yards goes into a six inch circle i am happy. at 100 yards off hand i hope to land two into a paper plate.
my two cents.
 
I can't say that I have ever shot off a bench. But at 50 yards I should be able to dust a clay pigeon hanging on a backstop 9 out of 10 times.

Many Klatch
 
Ben: "what I should consider acceptable"
The operant word there is acceptable. Some shooters are very demanding...always chasing the smallest group, frequently at the bench. Good for them, part of the hobby.
Others, I fall into this group, are not so demanding as to bench rest results (just making sure that the gun is shooting where it's pointed) and may spend more time shooting from field expedient postions. And in that area, too, some are more demanding than others as to what is "acceptable".
For me, if I can keep all my shots, offhand, in a six inch circle at 50 yards, I'm happy.
Pete
 
Back
Top