This has been bugging me. I've been wondering if it's really fair to make light of the fact that it took 69 tries to hit the target in this test. I decided to do some math.
Let's say that an accurate rifle is capable of 1
moa groups. What is 1 moa at 4.4 miles?
4.4 miles * 5280 ft/mi * 12 in/ft =
278,784 inches1 moa @ 4.4 miles:sin 1/60 degree = x / 278,784 in
0.000291 = x / 278,784 in
0.000291 * 278,784 in = x
x =
81.1 inchesmoa of an 8 inch circle @ 4.4 miles:sin y degrees = 8 in / 278,784 in
sin y = 0.0000287
arc sin 0.0000287 = .00164 deg * 60 min/deg =
0.0986 moa * 60 sec/min =
5.92 seconds of angle (soa)So about 1/10 moa or 6 soa. That's pretty small. How often would a 1 moa rifle be expected to hit a particular 1/10 moa spot? The area of a 1 moa target at that range would be:
pi*R squared
R = 81.1 in / 2 = 40.55 in
pi * (40.55 in squared) =
5166 square inchesThe area of a 1/10 moa target at that range would be:
pi*R squared
R = 8 in / 2 = 4 in
pi * (4 in squared) =
50.27 square inches50.27 sq in / 5166 sq in = 0.00973 or
0.973% So you'd have about a 1% chance of randomly hitting a given 8 inch circle with a 1 moa rifle at 4.4 miles. So hitting it once in 69 shots is pretty good, especially considering all the additional variables in taking a shot of that distance.