The Price of Precision
How much do little groups cost?
Rifle shooters are continually looking for more precision and many are willing to pay for it. There are several ways to skin this cat. You can attempt to handload for your current rifle until you find a load it really likes. You can try to upgrade your rifle with a new barrel, stock, or something else to make it shoot better. Or you can just go out and buy a new rifle. There’s no telling how much time or money the first two approaches will consume, but if you decide to buy a new rifle, how much will you have to spend to get the precision you want?
I test a lot of new rifles and while it’s common to find one or two loads a rifle really likes, what’s rare is a rifle that tends to shoot well no matter what load you put through it. What’s also rare is a rifle that will do this while shooting multiple five-shot groups. I’ve found that if you want a rifle that shoots a lot of different loads well you’re either going to have to get really lucky or you’re going to have to spend some money.
A friend once owned a CZ Model 550 chambered for the 6.5x55 and it would shoot just about any load very well. It would consistently shoot sub-one inch 10-shot groups! That kind of precision is rare in any factory rifle, especially one that costs less than a grand. It’s also what we all dream of the first time we take a new rifle to the range, regardless of what it costs. So again, the question is, how much do you have to spend to find a rifle, that when 5-shot groups are the standard, will shoot multiple loads well?
The question might be impossible to answer and depends a great deal on what your idea of a good shooting rifle actually is. For most, it’s a rifle that will consistently shoot sub-inch five-shot groups at 100 yards. That’s also the “guarantee” some rifle manufacturers offer, but do these rifles really exist? They do, but their ability to perform at that level is largely dependent on who is pulling the trigger.
I’m a decent rifle shot and on my good days, with a good rifle, I can shoot sub-inch groups – sometimes nearly half-inch groups. If I break the half-inch mark you can rest assured, I’m shooting a very precise shooting rifle and that I’m having a hell of a good day. The reason I mention the good and bad days is that you should probably never rate a rifle’s precision – unless it just sucks – based on a single day at the range.
I recently finished up the 2023 Rifle Test for Field & Stream where we tested 10 new rifles. We evaluated the 10 rifles in a lot of different ways, and one of the ways was how well they would shoot multiple loads from a benchrest the 100 yards. And we counted every group fired, not just the good ones. What you might find interesting is how these rifles shot compared to what they cost, how the level of precision they delivered connected with their price, and how their best single group compared to their average.
The chart below lists the average precision for multiple five shot groups fired with multiple loads with each rifle, the cost of each rifle, the cartridge each rifle was chambered for, the best single group fired with each rifle, and the rifle’s weight. There’s also a pound for pound rating that I devised to compare rifle precision to rifle weight. I like to use this because based on my experience, the combination of good precision and light weight tend to impact price, but more on that in a moment. Also, two of the rifles were traditional lever action rifles, which generally do not deliver high levels of precision and they’re a bit of a different breed of rifle.
For all practical purposes, four of the 10 rifles delivered 1 MOA precision. Had better shooters been tugging the triggers, I’m sure they would’ve all averaged less than 1 MOA. Those four rifles each cost $2000 or more. Three of the rifles were in the 1 MOA to 1.5 MOA range and they cost right at $1500. I know, the Franchi only averaged 1.66 inches, but like I said, better shooter – better day – better results, we’ll call it close enough to 1.5 inches for gun writer work. The only rifle tested that cost less than a grand was the Stevens and it averaged nearly 2 inches.
Based on this test, with a new factory rifle you’re going to have to spend about two grand for 5-shot groups to average an inch or less, consistently, with multiple factory loads. And, about $1500 should put you in a rifle that will average about 1.5 inches. One-load rifles are common and even apply to good shooting rifles. The Wilson Combat NULA Model 20 averaged right at a half-inch with one load, but more than an inch with the other four. The Browning X-Bolt was similar; one load averaged less than an inch but the other four were closer to a half inch. Remember, consistent precision comes from the average of multiple loads not an example of one load, and especially not an example of a single group.
But there’s more to price than just precision and here’s where the Pound for Pound rating comes in. If you want a lightweight rifle that’ll deliver good precision, you’re going to have to pay a little bit more than two grand. As you can see, both of the most expensive rifles had a Pound for Pound rating better than 80. (For reference, a 7-pound rifle would have to average 1.25 inches or better, for multiple 5 shot groups, with multiple loads, to score better than 80. If you want to use the Pound for Pound formula you can access it and other ballistic formulas HERE.)
You might have an affordable – less than a grand – rifle that’ll shoot itty bitty groups. But there’s a high probability it will not average 1 MOA with multiple five-shot groups, with three to five random loads. That level of precision is something you can expect to have to pay for. For what it’s worth, this data dovetails with my experiences testing a lot of rifles over a lot of years. There’s been a few exceptions to this rule, sometimes you can get lucky like by buddy did with his CZ 550. But rifles like that are about as rare as Sasquatch tracks and unicorn poop. If you find one don’t get rid of it like my buddy did.