Accuracy Benchmark

I might be opening a can of worms, but what do you consider the benchmark of accuracy for an airgun?

1” grouping at 100 yards?

1/2” grouping at 50 yards?

1/4” grouping at 40 yards?

All of those are very accurate for an airgun, speaking in generalities. IMHO an airgun that can produce better than 2 MOA (minute of angle) is pretty good. A 1 MOA gun is exceptional.

Take a look at  http://www.indecorous.com/bullseye/moacalc.html

Your three benchmarks are 0.95, 0.95, and 0.60 MOA respectively. Note the 40 yd result is actually the "most accurate". But viewed in consideration of the broad limitations of airguns, the 100 yd grouping is likely to be the most amazing. Pellets are not very good in ballistics, so holding very good patterns out past about 40 yds (let alone 100) is likely to be the rarity of your postulates. I would be amazed to see it in reality. But I'm sure someone will say it's easy...

As I have said, I saw the lady riding the unicycle and flipping spinning plates with her foot as she catches them on a pole balanced on her head. I suppose just about anything is possible.

edit:

Ted Bier has apparently done sub 1 MOA at 100 yds with an FX rifle shooting .25 cal pellets. He can probably ride a unicycle, too. http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/08/31/air-rifle-100-yards-sub-moa/

The problem with listing standards like that is that guys will be disappointed and think there is something wrong with their guns if they cannot shoot to the group sizes you suggest.   If you want a fair representation of what a normal guy will get with normal consumer grade airguns look at Tom Gaylord's blog on Pyramyd Air.  I think Tom's testing is a much better standard than what you mention.  Tom is normally testing new rifles with the three or four pellets he has on hand.  Tom has to shoot outside in less than optimal conditions.  His testing is very much like the normal guys testing.

David Enoch

I saw that video just last night and that’s what struck me for this question. From experience, 1/2” at 50 seems the norm for most accurate guns from a tin of unsorted pellets. 

I also seen his video on pellet sorting and that seems to have an impact on accuracy. So it would reason it is possible with some extra work and hours of meticulous sorting.

I like your opinion of less than 2MOA. That’s a good standard. 

David, 

valid point. Everyone has different shooting abilities. I’m guessing the best way to really test true accuracy from a gun is to put it in a vice and only shoot sorted pellets.  Normal guys like myself just shoulder it and fire from unsorted pellets. 

  I say this,shoot offhand and multiply by 3 whatever you can bench rest and when you get good divide that by what makes you happy....my thought is this,I would be  happy with your stated accuracy using a benchrest and would go from there.

   I does seem to me that most good PCP rifles  are about  as accurate as one another,the goal is to get the best out of the one you own.

Acceptable group sizes are a can of worms as there is no definition of what constitutes a group. When testing firearms I always used a serial of 10 shots fired on 3 different occasions as a minimum, a different occasion usually being a different day. The group size would then be the total size for all three groups. All fliers for whatever reason should be included.

However, when claims are being made for incredible group sizes they are often for only 3 pellets fired on one occasion. Other claims I have seen have been for a larger number of pellets but with fliers ignored based on various excuses. There is also the luck factor, just because you manage to fire one single hole group of 5 pellets at 100 yards does not mean that is your standard group size.

Incidently, group size is not accuracy, group size is precision (dispersion in other countries). The internationally accepted definition for accuracy is the distance of the group centre from the aim point. If you don't believe me you will also find it in Bryan Litz's book on the ballistics of long range shooting or in any textbook on ballistics.

Sorry Dragunz but, there is no real answer to that because it all depends on what you want to do with the airgun.

You will not go hunting prairie dogs with an Olympic Match gun

You will not go shooting FT with a plinker.

You will not shoot Olympic Match with anything other than 0.177" pellets

and so on.

EACH PURPOSE has its own accuracy standards.

If you are curious about what some "minimum standards" call for in different games, read this:

https://www.ctcustomairguns.com/hectors-airgun-blog/its-all-about-accuracy  

Keep well and shoot straight!

HM

What I've found curious is that group sizes I can shoot at 25 yds with my Vortek kitted HW 97 are not 1/4 the size of the groups I can shoot at 100 yds.  On a good day I can keep 5 shots to 1/4 inch or less c.t.c. at 25 yds but 100 yd groups are more like 2 plus inches and the slightest puff of breeze will open that up more.  I have had success shooting a 5.5 oz beverage can (2 inches wide, 4 inches high) at 150 measured yards, but I miss 3 out of 4 times.  I'm using a 20x scope so lack of adequate magnification is not the reason.  Note, I do not wash or sort pellets.

Interesting points DT, thanks.  If I want to pat myself on the back honestly for a good shot, hitting a 12 oz soda can at 100 yds is about the limit with a quality springer.  Further than that it's probably as much luck as not.

i say if you can shoot a quarter size five shot group at 25 to 30 yards is good for me but that is because that is minute of squirel head and thats what i mostly shoot

Great inputs. Minute of squirrel heads at 30 yards is good. LOL. 

There is no accuracy limit for paper target shooters...more is always better. Guess the actual outside target-shootting for score limit would be something like .15-.16" groups with a .177....so with a perfect hold/release, at least part of the pellet hole would still cover the center dot and count as max. Target shooting for group size has no limit.

In hunting, pretty much whatever range you can keep all the pellets (lets say a 10 shot group) inside the "off switch" of the critter you're shooting. I'll still use center-to-center measurement, but it's OK for a bit of the pellet hole NOT to be totally hidden under a nickle (don't think the critter cares if you cut a 3/4 round pellet hole though it's heart or a full sized hole).

My tree squirrels (gray squirrels) don't gow nearly as large as some of the Missippi river warf rats (some of those bad boys are HUGE by rat standards) So I'm more of a dime to nickle sized kind of guy.

So I hunt where I've prooved (by testing/shooting) where the rifle can manage a nickle sized group. I will miss on occasions, but I know it's becasue of something I did rather than something the rifle did.

As critter size gets bigger (lets say my heavy weight varmint critter of a Nutria, 'possum, racoon), so does the "off switch", but the energy level required also increases as those subruban-living trash raiders tend to be well fed/fat and happy.

So now you get into a line-in-the-sand where energy can run out before accuracy.

So for hand drawn squirrel targets for an example.

How much difference to the squirrel would this make (like +2X group size, but about as far as the energy of this carbine would justify)?

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For sure, one pellet shioots smaller groups than the other, but the end result would have been the same.

Forget pellet "sorting" . Get a pellet sizer from www.tactical-Airguns.com