What do you consider an exceptable group for hunting I’ve been told touching to a dinner plate at a hundred yards. Are shots are 50-100 yards max

A good rifle better shoot less than an inch at 100. Often times, the rifle can but the shooter can't. If you can't hit consistently at 100 with 2 inches or less it is time to consider restricting yourself to 50 yards.

Depend on what you are hunting i would suspect

Deer

An inch or less for us.

As much as i loved chasing one oval shaped hole 100 yard groups I would be lieing if I said I was not comfortable hunting with a 2"-2.5" grouping gun. At 100. My incorrect muzzloade i hunted with for over a decade was a 2.5 inch gun an i killed everything I shot at with it.

There is accuracy anf then there is practical accuracy.

Example i dont need a .5 inch grouping gun to shoot coyotes inside 200 yards. An inch and a half grouping gun will get the job done just as well. Yes i prefer better than needed but good enough works just fine.

I always wondered who was buying the rifles I got rid of. I would not own a rifle that would only do 2 inches on a good day. I am not a one hole precision snob (or shooter) but 2 inches is not acceptable in a hunting rifle.

honestly.. with any modern .30 cal... realisticlly a fist sized ground at 100yd ...so like 3-4". kill zone on a deer is like 8-10 " . I love trying to get tiny groups but honestly if your just double lunging a deer at 100yd with something that makes a decent hole ...eghhhhh

for smaller calibers that you'll need to make more precise shots .. 2" is still plenty for under 100yd ..

now if you like using .22 cal stuff or are head shooting .. 1" or less

idk all I know if you say you NEED to have a gun that shoots 10rd into a .5" groups .... e eyon and their mom will tell you how them their dad and grand daddy where and have been putting deer in the freezers with pie plate accurate guns with irons.

that being said I feel if your able to consistently hit a 4" gong a beer can at 100yd from Field positions your good. I've seen a lot of guys with these super great shoot guns but God forbid they need to make a shot that's not supported off a lead sled or something

one thing I think it really comes down to is the shooter and conditions. if you know you get buck fever bad and you have a hard time keeping that cross hair right where it needs to be .... yeah you want the tighest groups you can get.... but if you just don't get that and can constantly just put bullets in that 10" kill zone welllll as long as that gun shoots at least a fist sized group you still have plenty big of a target and room for error

Back when I was a youngster we hunted with open sight 30-30’s. If we could pie plate it at a hundred we considered it dead on. Then along came bolt guns, scopes, and better ammo choices. All of a sudden if you can’t shoot sub 1” inch groups at a hundred you get a new gun. If you mainly shoot for the shoulder a 4” group is probably good enough as long as you don’t try to stretch the barrel. Back in the old 30-30 days if it was brown it was down, had a lot of fun and killed a lot of deer back then.

Are we talking the guns accuracy or the shooters accuracy? And then i have to ask how is the group being shot? We talking off a bench or prone with good front and rear support?
In theory id say a 4" 5 shot group at a 100yds would be good enough but i couldn't live with a 4 moa gun off a bench and if the shooter is only capable of a 4" group off a bench there is something very fixable in their shooting technique.
An eight inch dinner plate at a 100yds doesn't leave any room for error as thats about tye size of tye vitals on a deer.

A dinner plate at 100 yards? Are you shooting slugs out of a 12 gauge?
I consider a pie plate at 200 yards acceptable. And I'm not a stickler for accuracy.

Yes Sir nailed it !


























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when I was a kid 3 inches from the bench at 100 yards was a hunting gun all day long , I don't think deer have changed in 40 years so I recon that still works fine.


as for your range take a paper desert plate 6 inches and put it up , fire 3 rounds how every you intend to shoot hunting.
if all 3 hit you get to shoot like that at that distace.

so if you hit that 6 inch plate 3 times with the 3 rounds standing at 100 yards then you get to shoot standing at 100 yards.

What if he's using a shotgun?

I would find 2 inch groups in a hunting rifle more than acceptable. What kill zone are you missing with a 2 inch group.

I like to have mine set to achieve a one inch group at 100 yds. On the bench.

On a bench no less sled just resting barrel on a shooting bag

A lot depends on caliber. Where are you hunting, and how.
Smooth bore shotgun used on deer drives. Pie plate.
30 30 still hunt. 4 inch group
Most stand hunting in the trees where your longest shot is 100 yards. 2 to 3 is fine
Box blindi on a field where you might stretch yourself and guns ability. Sub 1.5

I wouldn’t use a gun that shot pie plate groups at 100yds free hand. For me, I can put 4 rounds out of my M94 3030 inside of 3” free hand at 100 if I do my part. That’ll easily do for a bush gun with shots inside of 70ish yards.
Park the pie plate gun. Even any cheap bottom end rifle will blow the doors off that thing……lol

Maybe I’ll get to stretch the legs on the 7PRC Antler Rocky Mountain in a couple days……..

Green county and wolfdog understand what I was geting at.

Everyone is always talking under an inch then I see them actually shoot and have to assume they have never used a tape or roller in theit life. A lot of people talk a lot of smack and believe it.

Then ther is growing up in a shotgun black powder or handgun state. Where a pie plat accurate 12g smooth bore with rifle sights that shot 4" to 6" at 75 was realistic. And whi i hunted with that .50 50 cal encore that was cheaper to shoot, less recoile and more accurate.

Today we can use rifles and i have them i can shoot nickels and some dimes with. But realistic hunting accuracy required to shoot deer with large kill zone im comfortable with is 2 ton2.5 inches. That leaves 3x worth of wiggle room of kill zone when shots hardly ever get to 100 yard distance. I also killed at least 75 deer with a gun that groups like that and im not a smack talking hypocrite. Yes if I bought a new gun today I prefer as close to 1/2 to 3/4 inch shooter and depending on the gun may not be happy with that. But accuracy im comfortable hunting with for a huge deer and has worked for me in the past is as stated.