When we talk about rifle shooting, the words accuracy or precision come up a lot, as that is the aim of everything to do with rifle shooting (no pun intended). But, when is it correct to use accuracy vs precision, in what context and what is the difference between them? Especially concerning measurement when shooting, just because a rifle is accurate, does not mean it is precise. Let us take a look at how they differ and when to use which one.
In Short
You can measure your shooting results in both accuracy and precision. Precision measures how close shots are to one another, so you can measure how good and consistent your load is by how precise it shoots and how small the groups are. Accuracy however, measures how close shots are to the point aimed at, so how close the point of impact is to the point of aim. Accuracy is a measure of how well the rifle and scope setups is zeroed in or dialed in, whereas precision measures how consistently the load shoots from one round to the next.
Difference between accuracy and precision
What is the difference between accuracy and precision? Precision and accuracy are both measurement terms that define how close you are to hitting a target when shooting. Precision refers to how close the shots were to one another, or how small the group shot is, whereas accuracy refers to how close your shots hit to the point of aim or the target aimed for.
What is Precision?
Precision is how small your groups are, or how consistent your point of impact is from one shot to another. This is usually also measured by variation of muzzle velocity as well as shot dispersion vertically. This not only comes down to how consistent your load development and reloading method is, but also how suited that cartridge load is to your specific rifle.
What is Accuracy?
Accuracy is how well-centered your group is, according to your desired zero. So how close your actual point of impact of the shot is to the point of aim. In layman’s terms, does the bullet hit where the shooter aimed.
How do you measure or define your accuracy and precision?
To know if your rifle system is accurate and your ammunition or load is precise, you need to measure or track your shots on a target according to your shooting or reloading goals.
- Precision measurement: How close multiple shots in a string are to one another, usually referred to as a group size or grouping shot. This can be measure on a target and is usually stated as MOA or minute of angle. Typically a PRS competition shooter would be satisfied with a rifle and load that shoots 0.4 MOA or smaller, and would consider this rifle ready for competition. Benchrest and f-class shooters however want the smallest grouping possible from a rifle that is near perfectly still on a bench or shooting rest so they aim to do load development and get groupings down consistently lower than quarter MOA or 0.25MOA. There is some debate however between experts including the ballisticians over at Applied Ballistics, that with a rifle system, there are too many variables in the nature of dispersion, so if shot strings are increased to 10 or more even up to 50, all groups for even the most accurate rifles with the most precise loads eventually open up to a half MOA or 0.5MOA.
- Accuracy measurement: How close the shot point of impact is to the point of aim. In other words, how close the bullet hit the point of the target that was aimed at. This shows how accurate a rifle system is, from the rifle and barrel components to the sight or optic system, and how well the ballistics of the ammunition was set up for the distance shot at.
