Target Sports

TARGET RIFLE BASICS PART ONE: SEARCHING FOR THE ONE

Created on 14th May 2009

CHRIS WHITE looks at the myth of the one-hole group, the concept behind groups, and how to make them smaller

ONCE AGAIN we reach a point where there is a difference between smallbore rifle shooting and Target Rifle. When I was at school I was taught that not every shot goes through the same hole. If we fire a number of shots, what we end up with is a ‘group'. Indeed, benchrest shooters are constantly striving to attain the elusive ‘one-hole' group - theoretically possible, but in practice probably impossible. This is a message that over the years I have heard countless smallbore club instructors trying to hammer home to their charges. It is also a message that generations of military small arms instructors have tried to instil in their recruits.

Target Rifle shooters especially, I suspect, have not come into the sport via either of these two routes. This means they may have less understanding of the concept and its importance.

So let's look at what most smallbore club instructors will teach. It goes something like this, "You cannot put all your shots through one hole. Fire a number of shots at the same target and you will produce a group. This group will be roughly round. At this stage it doesn't matter where the shots go because we can adjust the rifle sights to make them go where we want. Concentrate on learning to shoot and the better you get at it the smaller the groups you produce will become. Ideally we want you to be able to shoot a group of ten shots which will fit inside the bullseye." This is all good stuff and even after almost 40 years I am still trying to achieve this Utopian ideal.

In reality, a half-decent smallbore rifle fed with good ammunition will do just that. It is of course the ‘loose nut behind the butt' who puts the fly into the ointment! Only the cream of smallbore shooters can consistently shoot tight enough to achieve this, which brings us neatly on to one of the bedrocks of group theory. Apart from weather conditions, which we do not want to consider just yet, three factors contribute to larger group size. These include inconstancies in the ammunition, defects in the rifle and/or sights and shooter-induced errors.

Use quality ammunition

If you are shooting in a competition where ammunition is issued (now less common than 10 years ago) there is little you can do about this. If you provide your own ammunition, though, you should only use the best you can buy or make. My old mentor Bill Fuller says on the subject, "Always shoot the best grade of ammunition you can get; not the best you can afford." (WH Fuller, 1963, Small Bore Target Shooting, Herbert Jenkins, London.) This is sound advice and a lesson I have never forgotten.

Early in my shooting career, while I was a student, I joined a local club so I could shoot when home on vacation. This club had an annual competition for ‘novice members' for which I was eligible. The only ammunition sold by the club was Eley Club, packaged in those days in a cardboard tray inside an orange coloured sleeve.
My main competitor was a brash loud-mouthed type who I disliked - I resolved to quieten him down!

Money was tight. I rang round the local gun shops to find out where I could buy a box of Tenex (same packaging but red sleeve) and the only available box was at a gun shop 30 miles away. I couldn't afford the train fare so I hitched - a trying and memorable experience, but one which strengthened my resolve. I turned up for the shoot with my single precious box of Tenex in a club sleeve. I won, and this was probably due to psychology (which we will come to later in the series). Still, whatever other errors might have been present, ammunition troubles were limited by buying the best product on the market at that time. We will deal with ammunition-related problems in greater detail when we go beyond the basics. Simply put, factors affecting the velocity of the ammunition will cause vertical changes and factors which relate to the accuracy of the bullet's construction and seating will cause radial errors. Some of which may of course, be up and down.

Rifle related issues

Problems with the rifle's bedding will (usually) cause vertical errors. In the case of full-stocked classic rifles such as Long Lee Enfield rifles these can be quite dramatic. Worn barrels and damaged crowns can cause radial errors. Worn sights can cause vertical and lateral errors and problems related to poor barrel fitting and/or chambering can cause all sorts of errors including lateral ones. The very design of the rifle may limit its grouping capacity or produce asymmetrical groups. We will get into all this in greater detail later, but for now it's important to remember that our rifles shoot groups and do not put all the shots through the same hole. We need to understand what the size of this group is likely to be so that we do not ‘chase errors'.

A competent smallbore shooter firing indoors, on losing a point in any direction will almost always blame themselves. In most cases that assumption will be correct. On the other hand, most TR shooters will assume lateral shots to be down to the wind and radial ones to be down to bad shots. Here is a fact that is well worth bearing in mind. Only when you shoot with good ammunition will you know how well or how badly you can shoot. If there is something wrong with our rifle then we need to have it sorted, and once again this is something which will be dealt with later in the series.

If you have learnt the lessons taught so far then shooter-induced errors should be reduced to a minimum. Remember, the harder you work the luckier you get! Having now understood the concept of a group, let's look at two examples.

In my hands and in stable weather and wind conditions, my three NRA target rifles (a Barnard and two Steyrs) will shoot groups between ½ and ¾ of a minute - about ¾ the size of the V-bull. By contrast, my .577 Enfield will shoot a group which is about seven minutes in diameter. It is important to make sure as quickly as possible that the centre of these groups, whatever their typical dimension, is in the middle of the V-bull. In the case of the Target Rifle this makes it feasible to score a possible. In the case of the Enfield it makes it unlikely that the score will exceed 35 (on an NRA target).

A smallbore shooter can see his or her group developing on the target as more shots are fired. TR shooters have to rely on more obscure methods by plotting a corrected elevation.

Readers should be familiar with this technique which was covered at the start of the series. (Target Sports December 2005 to April 2006 inclusive). If you have forgotten or have not got the appropriate issues you need to read them to become clear on this. It is of critical importance and do not ever let anyone persuade you otherwise! In the next article we will build on group theory.

TARGET RIFLE BASICS PART ONE: SEARCHING FOR THE ONE

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TARGET RIFLE BASICS PART ONE: SEARCHING FOR THE ONE

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