9mm Accuracy At 50 Yards
Sharon Harris
I've shot both kinds out of an unchoked barrel and been less than impressed with their precision: From a bench rest I don't think I've seen extreme spread less than a foot at 100 yards. But I have no idea whether this is actually bad or if that is the limit of precision on a smoothbore.
Slugs are better now. To 75 yards they have become extremely accurate. My current favorite is Brenneke's K.O. , which has an attached plastic wad that works like the tail of a badminton bird to keep the the slug flying straight. Stores around here stock huge piles of K.O.s prior to deer season and sell them for very little. At 75 yards they will shoot 1 " to 2" groups all day, which was unheard of when I started deer hunting. At 100 yards they usually print 3"-4" groups but the K.O., like any smoothbore slug, often loses stability somewhere between 75 and 100 yards and one may tumble far off target.
A smoothbore "slug gun" with rifle sights will usually shoot groups in the 3" (6 MOA) range at 50 yards/meters, making them satisfactory deer hunting weapons at short range. An occasional example will do better, and some do worse. Their effective deer hunting range is limted by their accuracy, but the slug itself is dangerous to other hunters at far greater distances, an important point to keep in mind.
Shotguns aren't usually used for their accuracy, but at the same time whitetail deer (probably the most common application for slugs) have a kill zone 10 inches in diameter, so you should be fine with a shotgun out to 100 yards with 6 MOA (which of course will depend on your gun and the conditions).
I have this idea in my head that I need to rework the load for my Shadow 2 as the accuracy isn't there. I've been zeroed at 15 yards and have not had any perceived accuracy issues. I've attached a photo of 10 rounds fired relatively quickly off hand. I believe the paster is a 3" target and this was at 15 yards. I've recently changed my zero from 15 to 25 yards and even using a rest I can't get a better group than 6-7". These are Acme 147 Flat Noses with range brass @ 1.13" and 3.2g of Titegroup.
I've found Blue Bullets 135gr TC's in front of 3.6g of Sport Pistol gives me a 3-4" group at 25 yards off a rest which is better, other than having a few thousand of the 147's loaded already. I've also ordered some 115 and 124 plated TC's from RMR.
My question is off a rest with an optic what accuracy is "good" at 25 yards? I'd like to stick with a 25 yard zero as it does make sense to me. I don't want to chase my tail here pursuing a ragged hole which I also understand isn't necessary. With a 25 yard zero I've found I'm roughly 1" low at 15, 1.5" low at 5, and 2" low at 3 yards. Maybe not enough to matter I guess?
I used to spend a bunch of time trying to make sure everything was as perfect as it could be when it came to things like accuracy. Then I realized I was spending more time messing with the reloading side of things than the shooting side of things, and I had gotten into reloading to maximize the shooting side.
Now, I come up with a load, make sure it cycles well and then go straight back to the 25 yard line and start on the plate rack(making any RDS adjustments as necessary to dial it in first). Once dialed in, as long as I'm hitting the plates at least 90% of the time, I call it good verify my chrono numbers and move on(My assumption is that with a high enough hit percentage, the 10% is more likely than not just me).
I was just as bad about 3gun. Spent a bunch of time coming up with sub-MOA .223 loads, when in reality anything relatively close to MOA is going to get the job done and even that is only going to come into play on the long range stages. USPSA isn't bulls-eye and 3gun isn't PRS. All we really need is practical accuracy with extreme reliability. I'd say keep your 135gr load and move on, but that's just me.
I think your post might be confusing people. Sometimes on the internets we don't read everything. Your picture is a sub 2" group, and you're mentioning being concerned with accuracy at 25. It's not crazy for someone to read your title, look at that picture and say something like "I wish my gun shot that good"
IMO, 6-7" groups off of a rest aren't good enough for USPSA. That means off a rest you can barely keep your group in the calibration zone of a mini popper. If I were shooting that gun and had any trouble on distant steel I'd start wonder if it was me or the gun. And going 1 for 1 on steel is vary important in this game, make up shots eat up time in a hurry.
How big is the dot on your "optic" you mention? If its 5MOA or larger, you should turn down the brightness to minimize flare so you can get the dot on the same point each time. Any lens flare might be keeping you from aiming at exactly the same point each time.
I don't think 7" off of a rest equates to that. I recently shot 09-04 and on the 17 yard open target I had an alpha and a delta that skirted the perf. It kept me away from a master time. Can't help but think that apparently if I had my shadow 2 orange it would have at least been a Charlie instead of a delta.
On another note, I'd recommend going back to your 15 zero (with follow-up testing at 25 yards). I've run ballistic calculations on several loads and found that, with a 15 yard zero, everything from 5 to 40 yards is within 1".
The saga continues... lol. I put about 900 rounds through my barrel this weekend without cleaning using acme's and tite group trying to burn up about 2000 rounds I have already made and it leaded my barrel up terribly. I spent about an hour this morning to get it clean. I'm going to make the switch to jacketed as soon as I run out of acmes. I started using a lee undersized die and was able to back my crimp die waaaaaay off to the point I'm wondering if a crimping die is even necessary...
It is interesting to think about, the rifle folks will tell you that longer barrels do not improve accuracy so you wonder what the real limit is for handguns which are not a special purpose design target pistol and which are shooting a common caliber.
Long range hunting has certainly become vogue in the past few years. Frankly, I have mixed feelings. To me, there is hunting and then just shooting. For me personally, hunting is about getting as close as possible, pitting my wits against that of a mature animal that, frankly, has all the advantage. It is not spotting an animal at extremely long range, getting into shooting position and taking a shot. I know there are those who will disagree with me. But those are simply my personal feelings.
Something to consider is that at a distance of 1,000 yards it takes about two seconds between the time the bullet leaves the muzzle until it strikes the target. Animals during that time can take one or two steps. A bullet that was destined to strike the shoulder or immediately behind the shoulder of an animal can in fact impact the body way behind the shoulder resulting in a gut-shot or hindquarter-shot. Too, by the time a bullet strikes an animal at extremely long range, the down-range energy could possibly only result in wounding, rather than killing, depending, of course, on the caliber, cartridge, bullet style and load.
If a long-range hunter shoots an animal at extremely long range, even if drops in its tracks, if he or she does not have someone to direct him or her to where the animal lays, it might not be recovered. Terrain looks a whole lot different once you start toward a downed animal. Many do not practice enough to truly become proficient at properly hitting long-range game targets. Someone may have all the proper equipment for long-range shooting/hunting, but it still comes down to who is pulling the trigger. Just some thoughts to consider.
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