Briman

3 shot groups are great for bragging, but a 5 shot group will give you a better idea of what your rifle is capable of. You are alot more likely to get 'flyers' with 5 shot groups which actually aren't anomolies but a bigger picture of how your rifle shoots. I know its an uncomfortable subject for alot of people as they would rather believe that their 1/2" 3 shot rifle may only be good for 1.5" with a 5 shot group. Even better, a 10 shot group will give you a better understanding of what you can expect from the rifle.

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms... who's bringing the chips?

benhuntin

When sighting in a rifle, a three shot group is the quickest and
simplest way to get in the bulls eye. How do you pick the center of
a five shot group? Why not 4 shots or 6 shots? Once my rifles are
sighted in I practice with a variety of groups but only once its sighted in.

halcon

For a hunting rifles all we use is a three shot group and it works fine . On the target rifles (2) we usually shoot five shot groups ,which is what everyone did when I first started shooting on a range .

SMITTY03

A 3 shot group will tend to give better numbers on paper, but a 5 shot group will show the true accuracy of the gun. This is just my opinion. I use 5 shot groups. It also gives you a couple of extra shots on the range to practice and get familiar with your firearm.

1950KID

3 shots are enough for what I do.

eldeguello

A five-shot, or even 10-shot group will give you a much more accurate indication of how accurate your rifle really is. But, if you fire several three-shot groups over a period of time, and they are all acceptably small for your shooting activities, that' s all that is really needed for a hunting, rathert than a target, rifle!! I like to use premium bullets for hunting, and don' t mind using the number needed to zero a rifle and find out how well the bullets shoot, (3-shot group), but hate to use such expensive projectiles just for target shooting!!

model722

I' ve always done 3 shot groups. Then when I joined the service they also shot 3groups, so I figure if it' s good enough for the U.S. Army it' s good enough for me.


Now for the biggest reason: You shoot 3 times at your target, go see where your shots landed, they should have formed a traingle. example 1 shot is high to the left,one shot is high to the right, the other shot is low center. They all are within an inch or inch and a half of each other. They all have touched the center black. what would be the sence in shooting more rounds? Now lets say you' ve done the same thing, but the hole group is low and to the right, you take a pencil draw a line from hole to hole which will form a triangle. Go back to your gun make the adjustments that you need and fire again. Repeat this until your on target, if you only shoot 3 you can still use the same paper target until you can get your gun aimed in correctly. Every time you shoot the 3 shot triangle you will be able to see where your groups are landing. A 5 shot group is good for competeing, but overall it is a waste of ammo if your just trying to site in. Once you know that your on target you should be able to hit it with a 10 shot group as long as the gun your useing can handle that many shoots. The other reason people use a 3 shot group is, the first shot hits, the secound shot hits 4 inches away from the first, the 3rd shot hits 1/4 of an inch away from the first. The reason probably because the person flinched on the secound shot, but he still knows he probably has a good group.