8541 Tactical - Budget Precision Project Remington AAC-SD Accuracy Testing

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Accuracy Testing
by John McQuay
02.12.12

Gun magazines abound with sub-MOA three shot groups. Every time a new rifle comes out, you will see a cut out cherry picked group showing the best of who knows how many groups.

Of course then you flip a couple pages deeper and you notice a paid, full page add for that same rifle. I am not saying that anyone would ever falsify those type of results, or lead a reader to believe something that isn't true, but it makes you wonder.

This section of our build is sure to make some shooters mad. Everyone wants to cheer lead for the rifle that they scrimped, scratched and borrowed to buy. When it doesn't turn in dime sized groups people play the blame game.

When determining how we were going to proceed with this series, I knew the key point was going to be accuracy. We needed to demonstrate how each step affected the accuracy of the system. I knew that a baseline accuracy test was going to be needed. We needed it to not only show accuracy improvements, but to show the new shooter what he could expect from the rifle he just bought.

I also knew that this is the part of the initial evaluation that was going piss people off. I have seen the groups posted in the online forums. They look almost too good to be true. Many of them look like the group to the right. That is five shots at 100 yards on a 1.5" diamond. It ends up being a .59 MOA group. If you toss out the "flyer" then you end up with a 1/4 MOA group.

Now many owners will see this and tell everyone that they pulled the "flyer" and that the rifle will shoot 1/4 MOA all day long, IF they do their part.

The reality of the situation is that shot is NOT a flyer. It was executed with the same attention to the fundamentals as the other four shots. So why should be throw it out? The answer is we should not. It is as valid as the shots that are in the neat little hole. Four shots or even five shots are not representative of the accuracy of a system.

When we are testing the accuracy of a rifle I prefer to use five consecutive five shot groups. Each shot is taken on it's own with a rest in between. This minimizes shooter fatigue, but still allows for a representative group. No shots are called as "flyers" unless the error was called when the shot was fired. We don't get to go downrange and kick out the shots that hurt our groups. If the shot is a flyer, that group is pretty much useless for our purposes and another group needs to be fired.

Now when we back up and look at the target on the left, we see our "cherry picked" group from above (#2) in context with the rest of the groups. They vary from 0.6 to 1.4 MOA. When we average the size of all the groups, we can say this is an average "MOA" rifle. However, you can't say that it will shoot MOA "all day, when I do my part" because it just isn't true.

Very rarely will you see shooters actually run a test like this on a factory rifle. It really doesn't look very good and when it's put up against the scores of selected 3-shot groups it looks downright ugly. I am sure that the reason you don't see more of these is that the owners feel that it would make them look like a bad shot because other guys are getting "quarter moa groups".

We need to stop lying to ourselves and make a realistic assessment of the equipment we are using without any emotional attachment. Rifles aren't children. They don't need our encouragement and adoration to succeed. Judging them objectively will serve us all well.

Now our question is, why is the AAC-SD producing these relatively large groups? They are frankly, unacceptable for a precision rifle.

The accuracy, or lack thereof, can be blamed directly on the Hogue stock. When holding the rifle the Hogue appears to be free-floating. It does not appear to touch the barrel of the rifle at any point. However when you set the rifle in a bipod, the stock makes intermittent contact. This can alter the harmonics of the barrel and cause shot groups to open up.

There is a quick an easy way to counter this. We will cover than in the next installment.

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