Tikka T3X shooting better when dirty and hot

Do the action screws move fore and aft while the stock/receiver are not fully tightened , or is it a rock solid fit once the recoil lug starts into its slot ? It sounds like a possible bedding problem .

Are you dry firing before you start live fire?

"Warm and fouled..."

Tacticle Andecdotle Evidunce from me and my old farts at the range:

Before packing it up for the day, some of us would CLEAN, then FOUL our rifles with 20 or so rounds of el cheapo ammunition.

Gets the tubes all prepped and ready for the next trip.

But, as those in the know do know...

Bench Shooters are a finicky, superstitious lot.

Jamppam said:

back then when he pulled that bad boy out of his cabinet we all were like, you still gonna shoot with that thing and he was like watch me and beat us all at the range, it was old sako rifle.

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That's because it was a Sako which is only two rungs lower than a Blaser...

All rifles are more consistent with a few shots down the barrel than if perfectly clean. Every rifle is somewhat different, the number of rounds needed to foul the barrel for best accuracy varies. Some may only need 1-2, others 10-12. As does how many rounds it takes before accuracy starts to suffer.

I will clean the exterior of my rifles and any gunk from the action after every shooting session. But the barrels only when needed. Some will start to show a decrease in accuracy after 50-100 rounds, others 200-300.

But once I clean the barrel I won't hunt with that rifle until I've had a chance to get to the range and put 10-12 rounds though it. Then I won't clean the barrel until after hunting season. During the rest of the year I clean as needed. Which isn't often.

Warm barrel vs cold barrel also varies. Almost all rifles will change POI some as the barrel heats up. But most don't change much. If you let one get too hot POI will also change. Once again it varies by rifle and cartridge. Some cartridges heat up barrels with fewer shots than others.

For best accuracy everything needs to be the same. A perfectly clean barrel is only that way for one shot. Once it has had a few rounds through it the barrel stays pretty much the same for a loooong time until copper fouling starts to build up.

Same with hot/cold barrels. The barrel will only be cold for the 1st shot. But it will continue to heat up as more rounds are put through it. Too many rounds, too fast will over heat a barrel. But if you pace your shooting and keep the barrel temp pretty close then you'll get best accuracy.

Jamppam said:

edit. and thanks everyone for their input and sorry if i misspelled something english isnt my native language.

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Your written English is far superior to that from many of the local boys here.

Well I don't even need to answer...jmr40 beat me to it, spot on...

Most of mine shoot best clean but some do like 5 or so fouling shots. It depends. Not unusual.

Every rifle is different. I'll share some old, boring, personal experience that brought me to where I am without outside guidance.

My first "precision" rifle I purchased is something I paid relatively allot for. It was used. A trade with my most pricey rifle at the time the seller as interested in and $ to make it within my means. I was cleaning it after every range session and shot it allot. FGMM, I didn't reload before this. This rifle is why I started reloading. I probably made it a pillow. I gained confidence in our combined abilities (shooter, rifle, reloader) and noticed the repeated 20rnd string to pull it in. The new car smell wore off and I started to skip cleanings, and then the observations & log book changed.
As an experiment, I ran 1200 rounds through this very capable 308 custom bolt gun w/o brushing or swapping the bore with anything. No bore snake (which as a side note is the best way IMO to wreck accuracy if you are not dry swapping after). Accuracy/Precision never fell apart. A USMC Scout Sniper who was the Instructor (and a awesome guy) near the 1k milestone weekend got wind of my story and wide-eyed pulled me aside and asked me 1-on-1 if it was true or if I was gaming the other shooters. I think I blew his mind and/or patting myself on the back. I shot well that weekend. Many times what you shoot alone and what you shoot in venue are very different.

The obvious question is why clean it at 1200? Why ever clean it? I started to feel guilty, I had made my point. I go through the same routine with rifles I acquired and try to master after this. Not all work to the same ultimate effect. However, across the board I now swab the bore after bore inspection or for longer storage and its not routine. Its VERY infrequent, I clean beater hunting rifle bores more then my tier-1 rifles. I still have this conclusion; good rifle barrels with jacketed HPBTs run hard are garbage in-garbage out. If I want a target rifle to shoot like crap for a bit I clean the barrel. With that said, keeping the chamber clean is totally different. The other aspect can be the crown if running a suppressor, I have made some carbon washers. "Crap" shooting is also a bit relative. And rimfire has no parallels. BR people would hang me.

Let the rifle tell you what to do.

Most rifles take 3 or 4 rounds after cleaning to settle back in and foul the bore. The solution to this is to stop cleaning it so much. You don't need to clean a rifle every 30 rounds and your likely just causing more wear and tear on the bore and muzzle crown by doing so. Keep shooting it till accuracy starts to degrade and make a note of how long that took. Some rifles that might be 50 rounds due to copper fouling, and some that might be 200 or 500 or 1000+ as noted above.

My 6.5 CM likes to be shot about 10 times after cleaning to group nice.

Jamppam said:

this rifle groups get better after about 10 shots

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My used Win M70 from 1965 vintage acted the same. Groove diameter was larger then the .243" bullets.

White targets showed lead swirls on target. Bullets made a slight oval hole on a cardboard target. (White liner that is between cans in a case of soda.)

Then one day, tried some of friends reloads containing Remington 70 gr? Match bullets. The 3 entered the 100 yard target perfectly side ways.

Rebarreled it with a Douglas bbl. Not great. Bough a new Rem 40X in 1976, still have the 40X.

A good factory barrel should place the first shot higher then the next 4 for group. In 243, as little as 1/4" to 1" . The 223, less then 1/2". I always clean before firing, with #9, after storing rifles with Break Free CLP.

If dirty guns shoot better, why do the best shooters in the world clean religiously ?

I will never know how my barrels will shoot dirty , seems crazy to me to wait for my accuracy to degrade to have to tell me it needs cleaning . I Never want my accuracy to degrade . A nice sharp bronze brush and harsh chemicals for me , over cleaning is a myth in my book . Now pounding a segmented rod without a bore guide through the bore and dinging up the crown may classify as cleaning to some . so yes that will damage your bore.

Jamppam said:

So this is my first rifle couped with grs bifrost, lately i have spent alot time on the range, shooting around 150 shots, about 30 per day, ive come a conclusion that this rifle groups get better after about 10 shots or so, after cleaning it can group well but shots arent even close to point where im aiming at, slowly but steady they start to group in the center, after a 30 shots ive always cleaned my barrel with vfg pellets squeaky clean, am i too harsh with the cleaning? the barrel is stainless steel.

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Maybe try a patch of bore tech carbon remover and a bronze brush then a patch with a tiny drop of oil prior to a range session, ill bet it wont take but a shot or two to get squared away.

South Prairie Jim said:

If dirty guns shoot better, why do the best shooters in the world clean religiously ?

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Not all of them

I haven't shot enough highly capable center-fire rifles, since I'm usually limited by my own ability. Sure, I've shot some one hole groups at 100, or 1" at 200...but not consistently enough to say I, or the rifle can definitively do it.

I do have 2 .22 rifles that will consistently shoot one hole at 25 yards with a particular Federal ammo. If the hole looks like it was shot with a .45acp, it's opening up and time to clean the rifle. Then it'll be 30-40 rounds each before they're back to shooting 9mm sized holes.