After 20 years of test firing over 2000 different military rifles for accuracy I would put a good M-17 in the top 5% . You really can't go wrong with the 168 SMK . A basic guide would be 168 with a burning rate of I-4064 to 180 with I-4350 . The large hole on the rear sight does not help with small groups using iron sights , the rifle is more accurate than the sights lets you shoot . A scope eliminates that problem and the rifle will really deliver small groups . My five original rifles are good for about a 1.6 inch 5-shot average at 100 yards . My one scoped sporter is a 1 inch rifle at 100 yards . I measure my groups in inches as I do not have a measuring tool that reads in MOA or want to do the math to convert from inch to MOA . Plus MOA is a linear optic measurement and since all of my rifles shoot bullets in a parabolic curve , not linear , a MOA size does not make sense to use unless you are mapping terrain .