338, If only that were true. Not arguing or dissin' or nothing like that, just that I have never seen optics alone take more than 1/2" out of a rifles groups, and I have never seen optics make a 1" gun shoot as well as 1/2". 3/4" more like it. Accuracy, no matter from a rifle or handgun is a combination of factors that have been tuned for optimum performance. Once in a while, a rifle like Jeffs is made, that for some reason or reasons is all positive in every aspect of what makes a great gun great. His experience with this rifle is more the exception than rule. Not saying that he hasn't done some good work with it, just that he had a better platform than many to begin with. I've seen lousy rifles with great triggers, still couldn't hit the broadside of a barn from the inside. I've seen great actions and great barrels in lousily bedded stocks that wouldn't shoot. I've seen great barrels ruined because the so called smith didn't know how to use a lathe and couldn't make threads. I've seen perfect Mauser recievers reduced to scrap because a fellow clamped them in a vise, didn't use a proper jig and warped them in attempt to remove the original barrel. Wouldn't matter whose barrel, trigger, stock or optics, those guns wouldn't shoot, couldn't be made to shoot, so much scrap metal.
We like to believe that good reloads, even a great load will turn a 1" gun into a 1/2" gun. Some times. What we generally find though is that a great load takes a 1" rifle and leaves it a 1" rifle, with no flyers....ever. We like to believe that a perfectly floating barrel will shoot, not when the frame or reciever is binding the barrel, or the lockup is not consistent.
Optics are just that , optics. They help us see better, allowing us to make better use of the available light. they put the target and the sight on the same apparent plane, making focusing between the sights and target unnessicary. But optics will not of themselves make a good rifle. They will not even make a good rifle great. What they will do is allow us to squeeze another bit of accuracy from a system of which each factor has positive and negative influences on accuracy, with each beign a journey unto itself.
Townsend Whelen is often quoted as saying "Only accurate rifles are interesting". Judging from how the subject is appraoched by most shooters, I would say that only the search for another accurate rifle is interesting
