.300WM load grouping in pairs

[wombat13]

I posted this in Rifle Country and have gotten no response. Must have been the wrong forum.

I'm working on loads for my .300WM and shooting four shot groups to test the loads (4 rounds is what my Ruger Hawkeye holds). The load with the best accuracy yielded two distinct groups. Two shots were nearly touching and the other two shots were nearly touching but about 1.5" from the first two.

I've noticed this before with my muzzle loader, two shots touching and another two shots touching about an inch away. I think this indicates that the load is consistent in my rifle and the source of variation is me. What do you all think?

 

[murf]

your stock is probably touching the barrel in one particular spot. not familiar with the hawkeye setup. try slipping a couple of business cards between the barrel and the forearm tip (loosen the action screws to slip in the cards and retighten). another trick - when you retighten the action screws, have the rifle setting vertical on a solid surface. pull down on the barrel while you tighten the screws. also, don't over tighten the screws. try to tighten them the same every time.

this may be going in the wrong direction, but it is worth a try imop.


murf

 

[gamestalker]

It might be you cantering the rifle, this will cause separate groups of like quality.

 

[wombat13]

Thanks for the comments. The more I think about it the more it seems like the source of the problem has to be me since I've noticed it with two different rifles.

Can rifle cant change POI by 1 MOA (1" @ 100 yds). The pairs are separated by about 1" on maybe a 30 degree angle.

Thanks for your time thinking about this and responding.

 

[rcmodel]

Yes, canting the rifle could move the group 1" at 100 yards.

It could also be scope parallax if you don't have your eye centered behind the scope in exactly the same place every shot.

rc

 

[gamestalker]

I'm thinking one of two things may be happening. Either your stock needs tuning, floating the barrel or bedding, or you might be cantering the rifle slightly. But the consistent 2 shot touching thing sounds like the barrel touching the stock. I had the same issue with one of my 700s recently. As the barrel warmed up, the group would string upward ever so slightly. I ran a dollar bill under the stock and found a bad spot, apparently just enough to cause distortion. Did a quick floating job, no more stringing groups.