That sounds like a great exercise Dave, I think I'll incorporate something similar with handguns when I instruct the new recruits for the P.D. The norm has always been letting them shoot full size silhouettes at moderate distance, which I have never liked. I always shoot at longer than usual distance and "aim small, miss small".

Sounds like good advice. Have use the exact system for all new hunting rifles in the past. Kinda gets me ready to tackle the new center fire. I usually buy chepo ammo for the first few shots in my new gun, once the scope is mounted. After a few rounds and adjustments to the scope, and l/2 way to bulls eye, then I get serious and use the hunting Ammo for fine tuning my new rifle. Once you get a new rifle zeroed, it should hold close to point of aim for many seasons unless some jerk airline handler throws it like a bale of hay. I use steel mounts/rings, and so far been ok. However, prior to each hunt, I dble check 0 and fire a few extra rounds to make sure gun is on 0 and I need the additional pratice with that gun for the game I;m hunting.Non of us so-called hunters are perfect, and all the pratice we can get prior to a hunt, is money in the bank with that moment comes. With enough pratice, we should be able to know wher that bullet is goona hit. As a rule, I can tell when I pull the trigger if I made a deadly shot or a so-so. Those so-so's are why we need the pratice prior to the hunt, and a 22 bolt actions is by far the best, cheapest way to go. With hunting Ammo at 2 bucks a round, makes sense to use 22's for pratice. I wish I had to replace my bbls on my hunting guns every year from to much shooting prior to the hunt. Never knew too much pratice was bad for us hunters. Ask any Outfitter in the Rockies and elsewher, and he will tell you the # 1 problem he has is a guy comes with a new 2K $ gun and has only been bore sighted. Kinda upsets the outfitter when he has to spend hours with the guy and his gun so maybe he can hit the barn door when time comes to shoot. Whne you spend thousands of hard earned $ for a hunt, you need to be able to hit your target in a vital area when teh animal prsents itself. Good hunting & pratice a lot.

Dave, as a retirement gift (from me to me), I bought a new model Weatherby XXII. I looked around at the various rings on the market for 22 scopes and found most of them look like they belong on a used BB gun. I started looking in my box of old scope rings and other things we gun nuts accumulate over the years. I came across a set of medium height Warne split rings left over from a trade I made with one of my buddies. I removed the cross bolt pin and they fit the 22 groves like a glove. Then I mounted a 3X9 Zeiss Diavari C on top. The end result is thing of beauty and a real shooter with the right ammo. Like you say, trigger time will make us all better rifelmen. Never realized the fun I was missing and the practice with the 22 is really helping me with my center fire boomers. Too bad we have to get old, bald and hard of hearing before we can afford the things we dream about all our lives.

No, perfect practice makes perfect.
You need to have the same concentration, good mechanics and confidence on every practice shot as you will have for the kill shot.
When 'The Moment' comes, we will shoot as we have trained ourselves to shoot.

Mack,

Don't get your feathers in a wad (pardon mixed metaphor) over the results of one simple test. Dave isn't saying plain vanilla ammo always outperforms the good stuff, just that there are many exceptions to the general rule getting what you pay for. Each firearm will vary.

A high-end firearm like yours might be better able to take advantage of the better consistency offered in a premium brand, but all guns are individuals with differences in barrel hardness, harmonics, stresses, machining, etc.

Sometimes a cheap brand will outshoot the good stuff in a rifle, in spite of the good stuff's consistency, because a particular brand of cheap stuff often happens to be more compatible with the harmonics of a particular rifle.

Test a variety of guns with a variety of ammo; you might be pleasantly surprised.

I recently purchased a Kimber Montana 8400 in 270WSM because I was told by their rep at the Elk Camp or SCI show in Reno (I went to both and am not sure which one I spoke to the rep at) that they shoot sub minute groups at 100 yards.

After testing the rifle with 6 different factory ammos, with different bullet weights, I find that I cannot get a group tighter than 1 3/4 " at 100 yards. And the 1 3/4" group is with the inexpensive Winchester ammo. Most factory ammo was shooting between 2 1/2" and 3 1/2" at 100 yards. When I called Kimber to discuss this with them, I was told to replace the new Kahles scope because it was probably a bad scope.

I did that and put a Vari X lll on it but it didn't help the accuracy. I sent the rifle back to Kimber (at my expense) to be recrowned and that didn't help either.

When I contacted them again I was told, in no uncertain terms, that their factory specs only call for a 2" group at 100 yards and that is all anyone needs to hunt big game in North America. They actually said that an 8" group at 400 yards was acceptable for any rifle. I also learned that Kimber test their rifles at an indoor 50 yard 'range'.

When I explained that I have rifles that cost half as much that will consistently shoot tighter much groups, they became defensive stating that it not meant to be a SNIPER rifle and is for hunting. And... for a LIGHT rifle it was the best on the market.

To say that I am disappointed in an understatement. I cannot believe that their reps claim their rifles shoot sub minute groups and their TV commercials claim their rifles have unequaled performance!

I was wondering if any other of your readers have had problems with Kimber rifles. It's really disappointing to deal with a company that doesn't care about customer satisfaction & misrepresents it's products.

Dennis Flaherty
Bishop, CA

If it won't shoot, take it to the gun show and unload it. I can't recall a gun rag article extolling the accuracy of Kimber rifles, but I may have missed it.

Most of the gun rags seldom throw one of their advertisers under the bus. From the looks of it, Kimber does a lot of advertising.