I've never been a great group shooter. I might be on a roll, and here comes a flier -- my fault. But I really don't feel that a tight group tells the whole story. Since I primarily hunt with my revolvers, it is more important that I can get on my target with the first shot every time. This is a more realistic "test" in my opinion. I have had days where everything is clicking and falling into place and I am able to shoot decent 5-shot groups, but if I can get the first three touching, I feel good enough about it.
I agree completely, I use grouping from my Ransom rest to determine whether I've done my work right or not but even it's not perfect because I'm actuating the linkage which has a tendency to shift and therefore take unequal pressure from trigger pull to trigger pull. I also don't have a situation at this time where it can be mounted to a permanent, solid bench. The only way to even get that perfect would be to use an electric solenoid to actuate the trigger so human hands don't touch it at all. I've seen just as many, if not more good groups shot by accident than by skill. Ed Folmar who's probably one of the most accomplished handgun hunters I know doesn't even like to shoot paper, instead he shoots rocks at undetermined range. I think alot of us can get too wrapped up in group size, obviously you don't want a revolver that shoot a group closer to a shotgun pattern but truth be told if you were to try to shoot a group under the same conditions your under in the field you'd be lucky to keep it in a 12"x12" square at 25' after the first shot.
