Odd severe bullet drop yesterday

ID-shooting

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Dec 15, 2012
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Dover, TN
Gonna toss this one out as I am trying to figure out what the deal is. Shot a local iron sight service rifle match yesterday and could not hit anything past 400 yards. not near misses, but with three spotters watching my lane, determined my bullets were impacting several feet low.

Here are the details. Rifle is a Bushmaster CMP/DCM rifle done by Compass Lake, 1/4 MOA elevation, 1/2 MOA windage, 20 inch heavy barrel, shooting 69g SMK match loads at 2775 fps. Shooting position is prone, front bag only. 5-10 mph headwind.

100-400 at 50 yard intervals, come-ups were dead on, 100% first round hits dead center on 3/4 sized silhouettes. Every shot past 400 hit feet below the targets, windage was dead on.

Range topagraphy has trees for the first 400 yards that block the wind, more open 400-600 where wind has more affect. Elevation slightly dips out to 400 then rises the rest of the disatance.

Shot the same rifle, ammo lot, shooting position last month and had no troubles connecting at 400-600 yard plates. Only cleaning I did last month was a field strip, wipe down excess oil, re-assemble. Same as I do between each shoot for the season.

I know the head wind affected hits, but to forecully drop the bullets like that? At one point I maxed my elevation and was still hitting feet below the 500 where last month I was tagging the 600 with my come-ups with no problem.

If I can get away, going to the 200 yard line and confirm zero.

What are your thoughts on this condundrum?
 
When you mention elevation dip at 400yds, downdraft comes to mind, but this wouldn't be consistent. Down drafts are usually sporadic and last for only moments.
Assuming nothing moved with your sights, and you didn't accidentally use a heavier bullet, then you obviously had a drop in velocity. So what caused this??
Different powder batch, different temperature, different primer, difference in brass, neck tension, seating depth.???
Just thinking aloud here, curious to know what you figure out.
 
Did you chronograph the loads. Out to around 300 yards 100-150 fps difference doesn't make a HUGE difference in trajectory. The farther you shoot the more dramatic the differences. I also think, there was a difference in velocity between yesterday and last month. The question is why. Could be a combination of several factors including temperature.
 
ya, they are crony'd avg 2775 with spread of 20 fps for this batch. All ammo was out of the same lot and kept in the same can so pretty darn certain nothing changed in the ammo. Temp was a bit cooler by about 20 degrees. Can't think it would put it off that far. Range today only went to 100 but 10 rounds in 3/4 MOA in the center ring like always. Next week is vintage sniper so will have to wait till next month to see what happens.
 
Did you forget that elevation was only 1/4 minute while thinking you were making 1/2 moa clicks? Having windage and elevation different values could cause problems under stress, and I have seen problems when the shooter and the spotter are not using the same arc measurement for “clicks”.
 
Did you forget that elevation was only 1/4 minute while thinking you were making 1/2 moa clicks? Having windage and elevation different values could cause problems under stress, and I have seen problems when the shooter and the spotter are not using the same arc measurement for “clicks”.

I have done this. Shot a service rifle all week at Camp Perry, with one MOA Clicks on the M1a, then brought out the Match Rifle with 1/4 MOA clicks for the 1000 yard match. My two sighting shots fell well before the 1000 yard target! Luckily the spotter saw the dirt fly, I was real low because I forget match rifle sights have different click counts.

Unless there is some invisible alien space ship behind your target, your elevation was off due to mechanical issues, like something got loose. You know, maybe your barrel puked and died. See how much rifling you have left.
 
Sight alignment, MOA problems. I've done it. It's super amazing how easy it is to adjust w/ scope but how FU it can get w/ irons. Millimeters of misalignment between the front and back equates to several feet at that yardage.

I'm definitely thinking there was nothing at all wrong with your loads, and even if there was they wouldn't cause that big of problems. Unless you were shooting some Subsonic loads loaded with Titegroup accidentally.
 
The shots should be about 9 inches lows and very super sonic at 400 yards.
If I was shooting and all of a sudden started missing by feet at 400yd I would think the scope had worked loose.
 
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