Groups versus Dots
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Trying to verbalize, as simply as possible, the difference between "Groups and Dots" ... or re-stated "What are Groups measuring versus what are Dots measuring?"
Here is an attempt:
Groups measure the ability to sustain the same (useful) position for a string of shots.
Dots measure the ability to consistently rebuild your position when required to change your position after each shot.
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Other attempts more than welcome ! And in general, I like the idea that "If we really understand something, it should be easy to explain in one sentence" :)
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Shooting a group demonstrates the precision of the system. Dots are individual targets, and thus represent accuracy of the system.
Yet I don't understand where you're heading with this.
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Right, I understand the difference in what we are ultimately measuring, precision vs accuracy as you say. I am trying to figure out if we are measuring any different aspect of what WE are doing when shooting groups versus dots. Or if all the aspects of the skills which we contribute to both groups and dots are identical, but we are just measuring the results differently.
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This thread reminds me that I, personally, am the disconnect to both the precision and accuracy of my system/s. ;)
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@kansas said in Groups versus Dots:
Right, I understand the difference in what we are ultimately measuring, precision vs accuracy as you say. I am trying to figure out if we are measuring any different aspect of what WE are doing when shooting groups versus dots. Or if all the aspects of the skills which we contribute to both groups and dots are identical, but we are just measuring the results differently.
All of the aspects of the skills are identical. We measure the results identically as well, depending on the goal.
If doing load development, and confirming the load... a tight cluster of shots does not need to be centered on POA to have value. When doing load development, accuracy and precision are both required.
No matter what the goal, the aspects of the skills, as you put it... are all necessary and are the same. You must perform all fundamentals perfectly to cut tight groups. You must perform all the fundamentals perfectly to center those shots on POA. You are only ever firing one round at a time.
Shooting small groups is easier, because you don't have to move POA or come off the rifle in any way. Separate targets require movement and thus pushes the discipline of one-shot one-target.
This is not something that gets boiled down to a sentence, or any other "specific bounds" created by someone. Explaining something simply doesn't inherently mean in a short amount of space. It simply means to explain successfully in such as way the subject matter can be more easily understood by the person you're explaining it to.
Oversimplification can do just as much harm as over-complication. I shoot groups on dot drills all the time. I shoot dot drills on dots all the time. The dot drill itself does not determine how the drill is to be used. The individual doing the training decides how it's to be used, and as long as their training technique remains true to form and they use the requisite correct method in measuring their results... then it has value.
