A (considerably) less sophisticated experience-----------------

At the point in time when Slick Willie et al were fussing and fuming about "Assault Rifles", I decided if Slick was against them, I was for them-----never mind I didn't really know what they were talking about. Off I go to my favorite LGS----"Tell me about these assault rifles." They did. I left with a Colt Sporter (AR-15). Given our wont to not leave well enough alone, it wasn't long before it had a Trijicon ACOG up top, and whatever the trigger du jour was down below. Other than that, it's as stock as a stove. I still have it. It works fine.

Works fine means it shoots 1/2-1" groups at 100 yards. It does this with pretty much whatever ammunition I stick in it------which is to say it's never been fed anything it didn't like.

Here's how that works: This performance starts off from one of those "portable" bench rests-----portable if you're really strong. There's the fancy front and rear rests on top---pretty much any and everything to make it easy to be a good shot.

All of it works. That is, if I do my job. My job, made remarkably easy by all these fancy accessories, amounts to this: Shoot slow---slow shooting makes those 1/2-1" groups. Shoot other than slow----still very carefully, but other than slow, and the groups change---for the worse---and the faster you shoot, the worse they get.

So what's the difference between slow and not so slow? Heat---at least that's the only only thing that comes to mind---my mind because I know next to nothing about fancy rifle shooting. And not enough heat to really feel, much less talk about---but my rifle knows it when it feels it.

I mention this because no one else has---and because I know the accuracy of my rifle goes all to hell if/when I shoot anything other than slow.

Ralph Tremaine

It occurs to me it might be worthwhile to try to define "slow". Here's the best I've got: I reckon "slow" means the rate of fire one would achieve if he was loading one round at a time into a bolt action rifle, getting all hunkered down again, sending the round, ejecting it, picking it up and putting it in the shell holder, fetching another round, sticking it in the gun, chambering it and closing the bolt, getting all hunkered down again----------shooing away some bugs---getting all hunkered down again---and sending the round. Do otherwise with my rifle at the peril of your group size. And, of course, given an auto-loading rifle, that's not real world----unless you're after those tiny, little groups. You pay for your thrills!