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05 June, 2010

Accuracy… It’s all in Your Head!

Post by Ron Robinson:

It’s been said that only accurate guns are interesting, and airgunners are perhaps more spoiled to and obsessed with accuracy than most other shooters. Truth be told, a huge majority of good air rifles and air pistols will out-shoot an even huger majority of hands holding them. Nevertheless, how we obsess!

Of course “accurate” is a relative term; at least as regards shooting. Therein lies the conundrum… how accurate is “accurate”? Thankfully yet maddeningly, it’s all in the eye (and head) of the beholder. Worse yet, it also depends on what you’re shooting at!

Most airgunners would find the accuracy of big-bore double rifles downright laughable; yet those are the preferred tools-of-the-trade of many professional hunters. One might think they would want all possible accuracy when defending life and limb, however gilt-edged accuracy rates way down the list of priorities in such “hairy” shooting situations. Minute-of-huge, murderous-beast accuracy serves their purposes quite well.

On the flip-side, center-fire bench-rest competitors define the highest level of shooting accuracy, measured in tenths of minute-of-angle. That degree of accuracy puts even the most accurate air rifles to shame.

Testing hundreds of air rifles and air pistols gives me wide perspective on airgun accuracy, but in no way makes me an authority on what the reader should consider “accurate”. That I strive for half-inch groups at fifty yards with field-target pistols makes it somewhat ironic to consider one-inch groups at ten feet satisfying; however, with an airsoft pistol, that is the case. Such “accuracy” allows excellent defensive pistol cross-training; not to mention effective (and exciting) scorpion-control at the spitting distances involved!

Just as the term “challenge” is relative to the individual and circumstances involved, so is the term “accurate” a matter of one’s own perspective and criteria. Next post, perhaps we’ll better quantify some airgun accuracy performance and potentials.

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This blog shares information, ideas and knowledge about air rifles. It compliments the information Stephen publishes on the Archer Airguns website, on YouTube and the Chinese Airgun Forum.

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