I would say, if you have a good stroke, the long straight in should be no less than 50/50. Probably more like 80%+ for the straightest shooters, especially once they have taken a few tries and really get dialed in. Dunno what the gun percentage would be, but it sounds pretty difficult.
Accuracy of the Long Straight-in Shot
- Thread starter Jen_Cen
- Start date
Allow me to blow my own horn a bit here. As a former Missouri, and Arkansas, state shooting champion in Matallic Silhouette, and Combat, and former pistolsmith, it is my considered opinion that there is no valid comparisons here at all.
Shooting pool is not like shooting handguns and rifles. The reason, of course, is there are no functioning sights on a pool cue. A pool cue would be more akin to using a shotgun where the bead of the shotgun and the tip of the cue are pointed at the desired impact point and the subconscious mind takes care of the rest. As an aside, these aiming systems that have been traveling about the forum lately are merely gimmicks promoted by modern day snake-oil salesmen and only confuse and delay the progress of new players.
And by-the-way. If you own a quality bolt action centerfire rifle that won't shoot at least minute of angle (5 shots at 100 yards in a group no larger than one inch), trade it off. Back in the day I used to shoot MOA off the side of my leg with a modified Remington XP-100, with open sights.
Shooting pool is not like shooting handguns and rifles. The reason, of course, is there are no functioning sights on a pool cue. A pool cue would be more akin to using a shotgun where the bead of the shotgun and the tip of the cue are pointed at the desired impact point and the subconscious mind takes care of the rest. As an aside, these aiming systems that have been traveling about the forum lately are merely gimmicks promoted by modern day snake-oil salesmen and only confuse and delay the progress of new players.
And by-the-way. If you own a quality bolt action centerfire rifle that won't shoot at least minute of angle (5 shots at 100 yards in a group no larger than one inch), trade it off. Back in the day I used to shoot MOA off the side of my leg with a modified Remington XP-100, with open sights.
That used to be my "test shot" on 5x10 snooker tables. If I could drill the shot 5 times in a row, my stroke was working. The other day a couple of friends and I stopped at a fellow's house to visit for a bit. He had a 5x10 table set up and I told him that I just wanted to try one shot. Using a cue from his wall rack, I set the "test shot" up and fired it into the opposite corner, put the cue back in the rack and thanked him.
There was no way on earth I was even going to try for two in a row. :smile:
There was no way on earth I was even going to try for two in a row. :smile:
I was riding my bike in the woods and trying to cross a creek on some rocks yesterday. I was having great difficulty as the rocks were wet and a bit mossy. There was a goose that was watching me from about 50' away and I promise you I heard it laughing at me.
Once I crossed and got to land- 1 foot wet:sorry:- I grabbed a smallish rock and lobbed toward Daffy. I think I hit it. Major arc, spot on.
Duck lived/ left/ learned lesson
.Was I wrong? Didn't really think I could hit it...
Look out for the poll.
dubbubb...
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As far as centerfire's go, I am a CZ guy, iron sights. As far as the pool shot goes, I found a "gimmick" that works great for me on these long straight in shots. Cue tip one tip width side of center on CB. Which ever side you move your tip to, aim at that outside edge of the OB. Then pivot back to center of CB. I make the great majority of them that way.
easy answer
To hit a dime at 100 yards you have to add together the diameter of the dime plus the diameter of the bullet. Anything inside that area scores a hit. A quick check of results or records over at benchrest.com will show just how easy it is to hit a dime at 100 yards with a decent rifle. I'll bet that I can hit a dime ten times out of ten at 100 yards with not only my benchrest guns but with an AR-15 military style semi-auto rifle I have sitting in my safe. I'll bet everything I can rake, scrape, borrow, or steal because this is as close to a sure thing as I have ever had in this world.
Anybody want to bet big money that they can go ten for ten on a typical Diamond nine footer on the pool shot diagrammed? One try for all the marbles?
There is a lot more to go wrong with the pool shot than the rifle shot.
Hu
To hit a dime at 100 yards you have to add together the diameter of the dime plus the diameter of the bullet. Anything inside that area scores a hit. A quick check of results or records over at benchrest.com will show just how easy it is to hit a dime at 100 yards with a decent rifle. I'll bet that I can hit a dime ten times out of ten at 100 yards with not only my benchrest guns but with an AR-15 military style semi-auto rifle I have sitting in my safe. I'll bet everything I can rake, scrape, borrow, or steal because this is as close to a sure thing as I have ever had in this world.
Anybody want to bet big money that they can go ten for ten on a typical Diamond nine footer on the pool shot diagrammed? One try for all the marbles?
There is a lot more to go wrong with the pool shot than the rifle shot.
Hu
If you've done any kind of benchrest shooting at all then you know that a group the size of a dime will get you last place in a benchrest match, all day long. Slightly more than one hole groups are the norm in benchrest. That's why they have movers behind the targets. I was watching a friend practicing one day, looking through a 20 power spotting scope as a fly lit on his paper (this was his .30 caliber gun at 200 yards). He said watch this. The gun went off and the fly vaporized.
If a guy could shoot pool like that he'd be king of the world.
If a guy could shoot pool like that he'd be king of the world.
My thoughts exactly..............................
One way to think about the question is to ask what diameter would the bullet have to be for the rifle shot to have the same margin of error as the pool shot.
I won't bore you with the details, but I did a quick calculation that assumed a 9' table with 4.5" pockets. For the same margin of error, you'd have to use a bullet with a diameter of about 0.75"! That's slightly larger than the dime (0.705"D) and much larger than any caliber you'd see on a shooting range
Therefore, the rifle shot requires much more accuracy for typical calibers (caliber is roughly equivalent to bullet diameter.)
As others have stated, however, the comparison is pretty meaningless as the skills required are so different.
Robert
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shooting rimfire with Don Geraci
I was shooting a rimfire match at the bench next to Don Geraci. He asked me if I had crossfired onto his target as they are close together and this isn't all that hard to do with the small viewing area of a 36 to 45 power scope. I told him it was a fly, it had just left my target. He said "Yeah, you are right, he is walking over to the hole in my target, he is looking in the hole, . . . got him!" Don head shot a fly in the middle of a competition without opening up his group size any.
I protested Don's target claiming the entire splatter mark should be considered part of the group size.
Hu
I was shooting a rimfire match at the bench next to Don Geraci. He asked me if I had crossfired onto his target as they are close together and this isn't all that hard to do with the small viewing area of a 36 to 45 power scope. I told him it was a fly, it had just left my target. He said "Yeah, you are right, he is walking over to the hole in my target, he is looking in the hole, . . . got him!" Don head shot a fly in the middle of a competition without opening up his group size any.
I protested Don's target claiming the entire splatter mark should be considered part of the group size.
Hu
Going purely on memory (IOW, I wouldn't bet the farm on this), I recall that in one of Bob's BD articles many years ago he said something about how exact your bridge hand placement had to be to accurately shoot this shot. It was a pretty tough number, like maybe to within 1/64th of an inch, but I'm really out on a limb on that detail.
Lou Figueroa
where's Bob
when you need him?
It is for me. I remember the first day i discovered that. I'd been playing probably a year and hadn't had too many long straight ins so i didn't know i had a problem. Long story short-I was friggin amazed- I made maybe 2 out of 20.
After that day, every practice session consisted of my trying that shot. Other than a few times-very few, where i would make maybe 5 in a row, I never consistently made it to this day. It would piss me off that almost everyone called it the "hardest shot" yet they would never miss it but i had no chance. 20 years later-no improvement.
I was shooting a rimfire match at the bench next to Don Geraci. He asked me if I had crossfired onto his target as they are close together and this isn't all that hard to do with the small viewing area of a 36 to 45 power scope. I told him it was a fly, it had just left my target. He said "Yeah, you are right, he is walking over to the hole in my target, he is looking in the hole, . . . got him!" Don head shot a fly in the middle of a competition without opening up his group size any.
I protested Don's target claiming the entire splatter mark should be considered part of the group size.
Hu
I shot a couple of 'fun' matches off the benches with two .22 rimfires I had, but it was a good friend who did the centerfire stuff. It was amazing to watch thru a spotting scope, very scientific and all, but it was one of the most boring sports in the world, otherwise. You mostly just stood around watching shooters reload their ammo. And some people think One Pocket is tedious. :smile:
I believe that Roy Rogers here is onto the correct way of answering the OP's question... but I'll admit that it is my intrepretation of that question.One way to think about the question is to ask what diameter would the bullet have to be for the rifle shot to have the same margin of error as the pool shot.
I won't bore you with the details, but I did a quick calculation that assumed a 9' table with 4.5" pockets. For the same margin of error, you'd have to use a bullet with a diameter of about 0.75"! That's slightly larger than the dime (0.705"D) and much larger than any caliber you'd see on a shooting range
Therefore, the rifle shot requires much more accuracy for typical calibers (caliber is roughly equivalent to bullet diameter.)
As others have stated, however, the comparison is pretty meaningless as the skills required are so different.
Robert
I believe that the question is... which situation (hitting a dime at 100 yds. or pocketing the ball as diagrammed) requires the lesser margin of error when aiming.
I'll do similar calculations using my table... which is a 9' Diamond Pro Am with pro cut pockets.
The calculations that I'll do is to compare the MOA (minute of angle) for both situations.
Since the diameter of a dime is 0.705", if a shooter were to keep the centers of impact of all of his 5-shot string within the diameter of a dime, he would characterize his rifle and himself as being capable of shooting a .705 MOA group. BTW, the caliber of the rifle bullet does not come into play here... just sayin'. Rifle accuracy is based on the distances between the centers of impact.
So... the real question is, for the shot diagrammed, what is the MOA deviance in aiming to hit the OB contact point for making the shot in the extreme LH side of the pocket and making it in the extreme RH side of the pocket? Make sense?
Time to measure some distances and do some calculations.
BTW, I hunt elk with a .300 WSM rifle that is capable of shooting 0.25 MOA with top of the line factory ammo... it's a Browning A-Bolt with BOSS that is beautifully dialed in.
Oh... Robert, no disrespect with the Roy Rogers crack... just pokin' a little fun, ok? :thumbup:
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The only interesting rifle is an accurate rifle, eh cigar? And to Robert. Roy Rogers was a hero to all of us. And Dale was a hottie. :smile:
