11-27-2012, 07:13 PM
I subscribe to the "cold bore shooter" concept more than the cold bore rifle. Dry-firing helps eliminate this issue, as does shooting through a fouled, versus clean barrel.
During a military sniper instructor course some friends of mine were running, on the 2nd day, they took half the shooters and had them practice dry-firing for about 5 minutes, while the other half of the class did not. Guess which group had a bunch of "cold bore" fliers, and which one didn't?
I think a great topic has potentially emerged from this, in that the OP asked, "How accurate is my rifle?", when maybe we should be asking, "How accurate am I with my rifle on the first shot?", especially as most of us place a high importance on whether or not we can place that first shot within a certain predictable cone of error, whether it be .5 MOA as stokes' requires to be competitive, 1 MOA for me to make a hit on a 12" steel plate at 600yds with leeway in my windage estimation, or 2 MOA for the hunter drawing down on a buck at 245yds with leeway for windage estimation.
During a military sniper instructor course some friends of mine were running, on the 2nd day, they took half the shooters and had them practice dry-firing for about 5 minutes, while the other half of the class did not. Guess which group had a bunch of "cold bore" fliers, and which one didn't?
I think a great topic has potentially emerged from this, in that the OP asked, "How accurate is my rifle?", when maybe we should be asking, "How accurate am I with my rifle on the first shot?", especially as most of us place a high importance on whether or not we can place that first shot within a certain predictable cone of error, whether it be .5 MOA as stokes' requires to be competitive, 1 MOA for me to make a hit on a 12" steel plate at 600yds with leeway in my windage estimation, or 2 MOA for the hunter drawing down on a buck at 245yds with leeway for windage estimation.