The title of this post is, of course, paraphrasing the late, great Townsend Whelen. But was he correct? To answer that, you have to know if you are basing your ideas on what you think he said, or on what he was actually talking about.
The point of shooting a weapon is to hit a target some distance from you. Accuracy is needed for that job. Whelen defined what he meant, calling it the “measure of accuracy.” In today’s terms, he was talking about precision. Whelen considered any rifle that shot into 3 MOA or better to be accurate. What?! In 2022, I don’t know how many people would be content buying a 3 MOA rifle, even when they can’t shoot that well under most circumstances. I know I want more precision, and you probably do too.
Wanting more precision and needing more precision are two different things. Being able to take advantage of more precision is different still. Now, if we are talking school-trained snipers and their issued weapons, then more precision is in order. It’s awfully hard to hit a 2 MOA target at 1000 yards when your gun shoots 3 MOA. It’s hard to even when your gun shoots .5 MOA, but that is for another day.
So, what can you do with a 3 MOA rifle, since sniping beyond a few hundred yards become problematic? Well, you can do basically anything else that a rifle can do, which isn’t much actually. Just two things, really. You can hunt and you can fight. That is what guns are for. You can also have fun on the range with them, either alone or in formal competition, but that is not truly what guns are for. There are no animals, that are appropriate to shoot with whatever caliber we are talking about, that cannot be taken with a 3 MOA rifle. There are no self-defense problems that cannot be handled with a 3 MOA weapon. On a practical level (sniping aside as we have already covered it) there are no military problems that cannot be handled with a 3 MOA rifle. Well, of course there are but when they occur, a rifleman is generally not the correct choice.
By the way, before we leave the sniper issue, modern snipers have more gates to pass and more training to go through than almost anyone anywhere. Way more time behind the gun than any historical professional (gov) shooter, and way more time behind the gun than almost any modern shooter. Exceptions exist, of course. So realizing how much time snipers spend in training in order to take advantage of their inherently more accurate rifles, how much time do you have behind your gun? Can you read wind to within 2 mph out to whatever distance you want to be capable at? Does your gun weigh almost 20 lbs.? Cost almost $10,000 all said? Can you carry it all day? Snipers tend to be in pretty good shape and have a whole host of skills that go far beyond pulling the trigger.
When spec’ing out this .5 MOA sniper rifle, the government doesn’t ask the rifle maker to recommend ammo for it. The gov tells the maker what ammo it needs to perform with. As long as it works together, all is well. The gov is not going to go buy Portuguese surplus ball to feed their rifles and then wonder why it only shoots 4 MOA.
For hunters, no hunting round will be as accurate as match ammo. I have very lightweight guns that shoot tiny groups with match ammo, but will do no better than 2-2.5 MOA with my preferred hunting ammo. I do have hunting ammo that is closer to my match ammo in precision, but the BC is not really that close and so the very precise hunting ammo is still fairly limited in range. That hasn’t stopped me from harvesting my game, usually with just one shot and no fuss.
So then, next time you are looking at accuracy specs for your guns, honestly ask yourself if what you want is actually related to what you need for the job. If you require the gun to deliver more accuracy than the job really needs, you may be unhappy with the trade-off in weight, price, or reliability that might be required to get that level of accuracy. Of course, today’s guns are pretty amazing in many ways, and you may very well get what you want for weight, balance, price, and precision. I know I do.
Speaking of practical accuracy with rifles, are the SMS slings being produced? They are never in stock when I check SKD.
Thanks for asking! They are not currently being made but we are working on a gen2 version. Can’t give you an accurate timeline though.
There are quite a few match bullets that do a better job of killing animals than many “hunting” rounds. 147gr ELD-M out of factory hornady ammo is hell on mule deer and pronghorn and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it on elk given the opportunity. It also did .7″ 5 shot groups out of a Barrett Fieldcraft off a bench or prone off a pack, which is not a heavy rifle.
Lots of people would agree with you, but lots will also disagree. Glad it works for you.