Accuracy Question

[TheClasonater]

THAT is probably your biggest problem.

You're right

I do, but normally at the range and once their sighted in for hunting season, I generally don't shoot further. If I shoot more with my hunting rifles, its in crappy weather to get used to it, particularly the windy cold.

I do shoot other calibers quite often, (308, 30-30, 8mm....a lot in iron sights) because I enjoy it. This is the first rifle I'm starting to fiddle with trying to get more out of the rifle, or me, thats not just plinking, or "minute of deer"

My life circumstances have also changed to allow more time devoted to shooting. Thats probably a more long winded answer then you were looking for, but I really enjoy and respect what people have to say on here.

 

[ford8nr]

Makes sense.
A rifle and load can only be as good as the shooter. Equipment can only compensate so much.

 

[Dale Alan]

If using dust as a point of reference it's hard to tell .

 

[JFrank]

Sometimes we just mess up a shot or two.

I missed a Lion from 40 ish yards with my 3030 this winter, man you wanna talk about bummed out!!!

 

[stillquietvoice]

That makes sense. Thanks for the reply. If I have time this weekend I might test a few .2 or .3 grns under. Conditions should be similar. And, I am well aware of my inconsistencies off the hood, even with a bipod. I've thought about dragging around one of them cheapo white wally world folding tables because of it.

I used one of those Wally world tables as a bench for several years, until it got burrowed, with Caldwell shooting bags, at 176 yds. Found it was more stable than the trunk of my car.

I also used the same set up at 550 with 223 rem not rifle, load was 50 gr hornandy vmax over a Max charge of blc2, 2.235" oal. That load would stack 5 in one hole. At the time, I was shooting twice a week, live and spent 20 min a day with dry fire, to practice shooting between heart beats, trigger control and breath control. Dry fire will show every time you jerk the trigger, any movement of the rifle after trigger break, with the cross hair being off target.

I don't get to shoot that much, so far, the last couple of years but van still shoot sub moa groups at 300 meters, most of the time.

Cheap practice, dry fire, will help sharpen your basic skills and make shooting sessions more consistent.

 

[Walkalong]

Curious thing is almost always, the misses are high.

Mirage boiling up instead of running side to side? But experienced shooters should overcome that. Dunno. We had a couple of shooters completely blank a stage yesterday, couldn't see misses, came off the bus mystified, one fellow hit all five #1 targets there, but missed all #5 targets, only difference was which bus window the steel "head" was in. Target holding bus was square with the shooting from bus. Just weird. I had six hits I think, all but one on target #1. Shooters thought spotters were missing impacts. I watched one fellows run through his 3K glass and never saw a thing. He was astonished that he never hit a single target. So was I, he was shooting very well and finished well overall.

 

[Bfh_auto]

This, especially at the short range we’re discussing.



Different harmonics should never promote multiple inches of POI shift at such a short range. If I ever owned a rifle which could fling bullets several inches off course at such a short range, I’d tear it apart to never have a chance of repeating. I shoot a charge weight ladder regularly (a dozen times per year) cycling the gap between 3 nodes - even loads in the antinodes won’t shift my POI by several INCHES at only 150yrds, not even several tenths of inches, frankly. Despite clearly shifting from node to anti node to node to anti node to node, increasing velocity by approximately 100fps throughout, my 100yrd POI only shifts by a couple tenths of an inch at the extremes.

Something else is going on if this rifle is truly shifting several inches at only 150yrds.

A 22" sporter barrel on my 22-250 had a large than 3" scatter from top to bottom. But sitting inside a 1 grain window gave me a 3/4" group on average.
It also goes haywire when I go over max.
I also have a different poi shooting off a bipod.
I'm confident he's stacking multiple issues.

 

[TheClasonater]

Well, I've had very little time to shoot in the last week, which is actually convenient. The farmers been hitting the field pretty hard, and I sprung for a tipton cleaning rod that's taking forever to get here. Gonna give everything a real good once over. Including the scope. I also got a shipment of different bullets in to work up another load. I'm learning a bunch from this.

I missed a Lion from 40 ish yards with my 3030 this winter, man you wanna talk about bummed out!!!

On another note, I've already heard a couple reports about lions in the area. Especially after goats. One of the farmers got the go ahead from game and fish to wack em and stack em. Might see what I can do here in the next couple weeks, with a different rifle of course. I got some wall space ready for one

 

[TheClasonater]

So, for all the guys that offered their advice to this thread a couple months ago, I have a few hundred more rounds down the tube since my last report. I feel much more comfortable with the rifle. My findings are: accuracy absolutely plummets after 60 or so rounds. The rifle much prefers 32 grain bullets. Misc brass is very forgivable in my current load. Except win. silvertip brass. Which is actually my most consistent brass, I just don't have a lot of it. I raised my bipod for a more solid purchase and have far less movement. I foundd a "node" near the minimum load data and have far less fliers. Reloader 10 does not seem as temp sensitive as others say, for me anyway. Almost 100 degrees yesterday. No noticeable difference in POA on prairie dogs at 100 yrds.

I'm going to benchrest a ladder test with some new bullets when I receive them. I feel more comfortable doing this now that I'm more comfortable with the rifle. I will also start playing with seating depth.

Thanks again

 

[stillquietvoice]

@TheClasonater thanks for the update and keep us informed.