The accuracy and equipment needed for long-range competition is more than most hunters need. Dependability, light weight and ease of handling can mean more than a tight 600-yard group.

Every one of us loves an accurate rifle. We all know members at our gun clubs who carry around a cut-out section of target with a tiny cluster of holes in it. Their talisman proves they own an accurate rifle. Talk at the club invariably swirls around the guaranteed accuracy of this factory model, or that custom rifle, or the performance of a particular load.

And yet the most consistently successful hunter I have ever known has brought home a deer from the north Michigan woods every season since the days of the Eisenhower administration. His rifle? A Winchester M-94 in .32 Winchester Special that had the bluing worn off before Jimmy Carter was president.

He let me shoot that rifle a few years ago, and I eagerly took a few shots at our 100-yard gongs. The first few shots didn't connect on the 10-inch plate. He told me, "It hits a bit left," so I held on the right edge of the plate. In 10 shots, I rang the gong four times.

How did he get a deer every year with this rifle?

"I neck-shoot them in the swamps," he said. "The farthest is about 30 yards, and they drop like someone flipped a switch."

In the hands of a hunting master like him, what advantage is a sub-MOA rifle with a taut-string trajectory? None at all. What about the rest of us? Do we really need to struggle for the last quarter-inch of group reduction? Do things other than accuracy matter? And how much is enough?

It depends on what you do and where you do it. A rifle is the sum of its functions and its qualities--sights, trigger, balance, power, second-shot ability--and not just its accuracy. There are times when the proper rifle selection can leave accuracy last on the priority list. And then the sum must be wielded by you, the shooter.

Even on bowling pins at high speed, one-hole accuracy means less than dependability and correct technique. These pins provide good practice for varmints and big game.

Let me make it very clear that I am not at all condoning sloppy shooting or poor sportsmanship. We owe our game a quick and efficient end, and spraying bullets across the hillsides doesn't cut it. If you buy a new rifle and test it with different loads and brands of factory ammunition, you will probably find a combination that will group two inches or less at 100 yards. Once you get under two inches extra accuracy is nice, but it may not really be necessary in a big-game rifle.

The delivery of a bullet to its intended target depends not only on the rifle and ammunition being accurate, but also on the proper handling of the rifle and in the shooter's confidence to perform and prevail. We shooters spend a lot of time on the rifle and ammunition, and we should spend more on our performance and confidence. The fixation on sub-MOA groups also keeps us securely fastened to our chairs and shooting benches.

I have a Volquartsen-barreled Ruger 10/22 that will put 10 shots at 50 yards into a group you can cover with a fingertip. If only accuracy mattered, we would be using .22 rimfires on deer. No matter how accurate a .22 rimfire rifle may be, I would never use it on deer-size game. Besides being illegal virtually everywhere, I think it is immoral.

Were I to go off and search out a suitable Cape buffalo, I would not take a Sharps buffalo rifle. Yes, it is accurate and has plenty of power, but when playing tag for keeps, I want more bullets, not less. Selecting a rifle solely because it is accurate is somewhat like selecting a mate on one physical attribute. Those who have done it usually regret it.

To consider the value of the relative accuracy of one rifle over another, you must compare them to the intended target and the usual distance. Three sizes come to mind: varmints, deer-size animals, and big critters like elk and moose.

Varmints are small and usually far away. With many proper varmint calibers and bullets, a hit anywhere does the job. A deer has a kill zone nearly a square-foot in size. The average whitetail here in Michigan stands, at most, 3 1⁄2 feet at the shoulder. An elk can stand as tall as 5 or 5 1⁄2 feet, while a moose is 6 to 7 feet. Their corresponding heart/lung area is much larger than that of a whitetail.

Striking a killing blow on any of these animals at typical hunting distances is usually more a test of the shooter than the rifle or cartridge. Provided you punch a properly constructed bullet through the kill zone at a reasonable velocity, the game will fall.

Rather than worry about groups on paper, work on a gong at realistic hunting distances. If you can hit this with the pressure of your hunting buddies watching, you will do well on game.

Most shots at big game are not at long range. Even in the wide-open West, shots over 200 yards are uncommon. Here in Michigan, no whitetail is going to wander more than a few yards from cover, and a long shot might be 100 yards. For that do you need sub-MOA performance? No, what you need is decent performance from the rifle and confidence in your own abilities.

If you are a varmint hunter there is no such thing as too much accuracy. When trying to work over a prairie dog town at 300 yards, you need and want all the accuracy you can get. Or do you? If all your rifle will group at 100 yards is two inches, then at 300 yards the group will, in theory anyway, be six inches across. A prairie dog still fills an appreciable part of a six-inch circle.

Before becoming concerned about the potential loss of a couple of inches of accuracy, consider wind drift. With a 52-grain Sierra hollowpoint at 3,200 fps (a superbly accurate load out of my varmint AR-15) a 10 mph wind will generate more than 10 inches of deflection. A miscalculation of the wind by two miles per hour can cause greater error than a less-accurate load. Putting it another way: Even if your load put every bullet through the same hole at 300 yards, any change or miscalculation in the wind would cause a miss.

What about competition shooters? Surely they need superbly accurate rifles, right? They have to not only make the shot but make it before the next guy does. Wouldn't a superbly accurate rifle be just the thing? Psychologically, yes. As a practical matter, maybe. One year the brilliant revolver shooter Jerry Miculek won the rifle event at the Second Chance match. (Jerry is really good with everything, but with a revolver no one can touch him.) The rifle course is comprised of 15 falling steel plates shaped like bowling pins, in three banks out to 90 yards. The fastest shooter to knock them all down shooting offhand wins. Re-entries are not only allowed but encouraged.

Jerry had to re-enter to post a better score after someone else edged his time. He managed to scrape enough ammunition together to fill a magazine with a mixture of five or six different loads. On his final and winning run he knocked over the 15 pins with 16 shots in 14 seconds.