Thread: The Howikka Test Bed

Originally Posted by Tentman

Much useful information coming through on this thread. I'm just back from the range. Low light here but no wind. Shot a heavy 308, sub MOA with the 168 S&B factory, and a smidge above 0.5 MOA with TMK reloads, only 5 round groups but it proves I was going OK.

Would the S&L shoot . . . NOPE. All groups with its new scope were over MOA for both 5 and the one 10 shot group I put down. Very frustrating but the joys of light rifles. And the scope is heavier than spec'd.

I find it does take some time and quite a few rounds to get a light rifle shooting consistently for each position, and the trigger makes a difference. It's not the $$ you spend on the trigger that counts either, I sold a $500 Tiggertech and replaced it with a good Bergara I had here, the let-off on the Bergara is way superior. The Howa triggers vary considerably, if you've lucked onto a good one or know how to tune them they can be excellent.

Post your targets?

On shooter error with light rifles. My .223 weighs 3.6 ish KG all up (8lb). More or less. It isn't ultralight but it is light in comparison to anything generally considered a precision rifle.

I think that on average the shooter error contribution to precision for me is maybe .1 or .2 MOA extra group size. With my 80gr handload the average group size just lying down and banging out 10 without special care is about 0.7MOA. Today I took additional care to really focus on fundamentals while checking zero - produced this result - 10 shots with MR 0.044MRAD - A 0.5MOA group. Maybe just random variation in group size, maybe extra focus on NPOA, position and hand pressure, and trigger control really did make that 0.1 or 0.2 MOA difference in group size. But that's about the size of shooter error I think I have. It's hard to imagine shooter error contributing 0.5MOA or more into the error budget.




This is i think the first time I'd have managed to get 10 shots on a 1MOA target. It's incredibly difficult to do. It shows how irrelevant precision really is for hunting, because even though I can shoot a 0.5MOA 10rd group with the rifle, centred enough to be entirely on a 1MOA target, I still miss animals. I missed a goat at 290m the other day for no clear reason at all. Probably just yanked the trigger. Much better value focusing on fundamentals of shooting than increasing precision past 0.15MRAD mean radius, for hunting of almost any kind