Power or Accuracy

In various discussion, between accuracyand power, which one is more important are argued all the time. Especially for precise shooting guns, sometimes over power will affect accuracy performance. Shooters preferring precision will think that precision is more important. Even if the guns are delivering powerfully, you can’t shoot the prey. It’s meaningless. Is that real? Is power and precision so contradictory?

For firearms, there is indeed a contradiction at a certain distance. For example, 308 WIN rifles often have no enough accuracy at close range. Within close distance .243 WIN rifles are more accurate. But within 600 yards, .243 WIN rifles will lose its advantage, compared to 308 WIN. In the same situation, 300WIN MAG is not necessarily better than 308 WIN at 300-400yards, but regarding to 1000yards 308 WIN will definitely lose its advantage compared to 300 WIN MAGNUM.

Bullet fly a long distance requiring a long time, all external facts affect small caliber a lot. In contrast, few external facts affect within short distance. If small caliber bullet were pushed out from the muzzle smoothly, it will be more accurate.

Precharged Pneumatic Air Rifles are the same. 10 meters Air rifle/pistol shooting competition in Olympic Games, delivering 6FPE .177/4.5mm Cal air rifles/ pistols are most accurate than any others. But shooting this kind of air rifles/pistols at 50 meters, it is probably a disaster.

There are many Precharged Pneumatic Air Rifles power kinetic is only 30 FPE qualified and very accurate. But we still have a doubt. A .22 Cal 30 FPE hunting PCP shoot within 50 meters achieving a lot fantastic groups up to 0.5 inch. That is a extremely good results. But when you hunt a pigeon you use a 1 inch group spread or a 1.5 inch group spread, finally you obtained the same results hitting down the pigeon. However, the 0.5-inch group spread guns may be several levels higher, and the price is several times more expensive. what is the advantage of this extremely accurate gun?

I thought the answer was for long range shooting. Shooting 100 yards, 50 yards 1 inch group spread or 1.5 inches spread air rifles will probably miss the pigeon at 100 yards. The 0.5 inch group spread air rifles will obtain its advantages again.

But another serious problems will happen. A .22 Cal 30 FPE air rifle will be shot using 14-16 grains pellets as its reasonable velocity. The wind deviation of 100 meters is incalculable. Experienced shooter can adjust the pellets drops efficiently, However, for the correction of wind deviation, they can achieve 80% already masters. Well, 14 Grains pellets, in 5 mph speed wind, 100 yards can be blown off more than a foot. And this speed of wind is too common and not too strong. Even if the shooter is a experienced expert, the pellets will be deviated nearly 2-3 inches after their correction. Even a extremely accurate air rifle will miss the target.

Meanwhile, we supposed that there was a .22 Cal 70 FPE air rifle shooting at 50 yards groups spread up to 1 inch. It means this kind of air rifles can shoot 36 grains slugs as a reasonable velocity. The accuracy is not good as the .22 Cal 30 FPE(0.5 inch) within 50 yards. But we have mentioned above that the hunting results obtained at 50 yards with 1 inch spread and 0.5 inch spread are the same. Shooting 36 grains slugs at 100 yards, wind bias won’t be more 2 inches. So even a new shooter does not make any corrections. His hitting ratio will exceed that .22 Cal 30FPE group spread up to 0.5 inch accurate shooting rifle.

So these 30FPE outputting guns are accurate, except performing well in target shooting competition. Where are the other advantages? The heavy Slugs has a better storage speed, so the time when the projectile loses stability at a long distance is much longer than that of the light projectiles. So maybe the 50-meter Dispersion of submunitions is slightly worse. But it will be better at a long distance.

Compared these two models as follow: .22 Cal 30 FPE outputting accurate air rifle Shooting 14-16 grains pellets 50 yards groups spread 0.5 inch, 100 yards 2 inches, and 150 yards lost stability up to 8 inches.

.22 Cal 70 FPE outputting accurate air rifle Shooting 36 grains heavy slugs, 50 yards groups spread 1 inch, 100 yards 2.5 inches, 150 yards less than 4 inches.

Plus the advantage of low wind bias affects. So heavy SLUG is suitable for long-range shooting. Shooting heavy slugs require powerful guns.

So power is the basic guarantee for long-range accuracy. For short range shooting competitions, light pellets have some advantages. No matter how precise it is, it can’t help much more for hunting. Because it is not difficult to hit the target at close range.

Therefore, the accuracy concept of AEA is designed based on the real hunting situation, rather than pursuing an extreme indoor accuracy. The accuracy we really want is that the shooter can achieve in the wild.