Lemonaid,
As I understand it you are wanting to know how well an AR can shoot compared to a bolt gun. My answer is when you isolate as many variables as you can you are left with the potential of the gun. So I am assuming best ammo, best wind conditions, best stable platform, careful shooting and best quality parts (especially barrel, scope, trigger).
I was taught there are four factors that influence where the bullets go;
I will add to that the interface between the gun and the ground...the 'rest' is also an important factor. The best rest you can get is a quality mechanical rest that absorbs some of the recoil and the gun rides it well, i.e. tracks parallel in the recoil.
Which is why I said earlier that I am assuming results from shooting on a calm day, from the prone or seated on a concrete bench, with a steady rest (not bipod), with the best loads you have worked up, and are feeling good; calm, hydrated, motivated, rested, focussed.
I posted this a while back which is a test of 78 four-rd groups. I was trying to isolate everything except the two types of neck tension. The average for my gun with a Lilja barrel, high-end scope and Geissele trigger is 0.8MOA. I might be able to squeeze 0.75 average if I use 107SMK which shoot fractionally better than the 120NBT's in this barrel. When you eliminate as much as you reasonably can of all other variables you are left with what I think an expensive AR is capable of...0.8MOA on average with four-rd groups, at 100yds, and not discounting any shots. Someone else could probably squeeze a little more out of it as a better shot but that's the ballpark.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]13887[/ATTACH]
Having shot F-Class with 8kg guns for a few years I know that 0.5MOA with 10-shot groups is more their standard. Bench Rest shooters with their $1,000 mechanical rests and multiple wind spinners between shooter and target expect even better.
I think your idea of a standard test is great, but will be polluted by the occasional insecure poster looking for cheap online kudos. To be honest, and it's unfortunate but I don't pay much heed to posters proudly showing off their groups. Good luck to everyone but the temptation is too great to cherry-pick the best groups while implying that is the average, posting on an international medium where you simply cannot verify. Or a barrel manufacturer pretending to be an average shooter, covertly plugging their products. 'Trust but verify', on a medium where it's hard to verify, makes it difficult to trust.
.
As I understand it you are wanting to know how well an AR can shoot compared to a bolt gun. My answer is when you isolate as many variables as you can you are left with the potential of the gun. So I am assuming best ammo, best wind conditions, best stable platform, careful shooting and best quality parts (especially barrel, scope, trigger).
I was taught there are four factors that influence where the bullets go;
- Gun
- Shooter
- Environmental conditions (e.g. wind).
- ammunition.
I will add to that the interface between the gun and the ground...the 'rest' is also an important factor. The best rest you can get is a quality mechanical rest that absorbs some of the recoil and the gun rides it well, i.e. tracks parallel in the recoil.
Which is why I said earlier that I am assuming results from shooting on a calm day, from the prone or seated on a concrete bench, with a steady rest (not bipod), with the best loads you have worked up, and are feeling good; calm, hydrated, motivated, rested, focussed.
I posted this a while back which is a test of 78 four-rd groups. I was trying to isolate everything except the two types of neck tension. The average for my gun with a Lilja barrel, high-end scope and Geissele trigger is 0.8MOA. I might be able to squeeze 0.75 average if I use 107SMK which shoot fractionally better than the 120NBT's in this barrel. When you eliminate as much as you reasonably can of all other variables you are left with what I think an expensive AR is capable of...0.8MOA on average with four-rd groups, at 100yds, and not discounting any shots. Someone else could probably squeeze a little more out of it as a better shot but that's the ballpark.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]13887[/ATTACH]
Having shot F-Class with 8kg guns for a few years I know that 0.5MOA with 10-shot groups is more their standard. Bench Rest shooters with their $1,000 mechanical rests and multiple wind spinners between shooter and target expect even better.
I think your idea of a standard test is great, but will be polluted by the occasional insecure poster looking for cheap online kudos. To be honest, and it's unfortunate but I don't pay much heed to posters proudly showing off their groups. Good luck to everyone but the temptation is too great to cherry-pick the best groups while implying that is the average, posting on an international medium where you simply cannot verify. Or a barrel manufacturer pretending to be an average shooter, covertly plugging their products. 'Trust but verify', on a medium where it's hard to verify, makes it difficult to trust.
.