Cold shots

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Forgive me, but I fail to understand the significance of four holes in four different places on a sheet of paper. Range? Ammo? Need some more info.
 
I'd hazard a guess of .303. My No4Mk1* is also reasonably accurate, but I don't have a scope.
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Above at 100yards.
Do love that rifle, though!:)
 
You don't know where your cold shot goes?

Wow! That is lesson # one guys. Where is your rifle zeroed? you bang away all moring at the range and get your 200 yard down, then pack your stuff up and go home. Next time your out you raise your old thunder stick up and see a 100 or 300 yard shot and then you hold and pull the trigger. Where is it going to go? You don't know and Bambi walks over the hill.:scrutiny: You don't get warm up shots to get that barrel back where it was the day you shot 30 rounds to zero. your cold shot is all you get boys. Know it.

When I get close I let the rifle cool down at least 1/2 hour. I take one shot to see if it changes. The target above is about 4" edge to edge small targets. Sure it's nice to hit that way out there but if you don't make it hard whats the point. The numbers indicate points for that shot, the outside circle is nada so your looking at ten points total from a possible twenty. Pony up with your sixty year old rifle in .303 at 100 yards with cold shots and see how it goes. Only cold shots count at the end of the day.. Debate me if you wish but it's a fact.

174g SMK
40g IMR 4064

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Cheers
MJ
:neener:
 
Okay, so MJ has a penchant for slightly odd posts. :scrutiny: :p

I've long believed that the "running group" is the truest indicator of rifle accuracy. My habit is to keep a target with each rifle. When that rifle goes to the range, the first shot fired is at "its" target, which then gets rolled back up and returned to the rifle case. After a few months, you've got a group that truly lets you know what to expect from that rifle in a "real" situation.

I'd hazard a guess that more than a few of us would be slightly dissapointed with our "pet" rifles if we all kept a "running group" going.
 
FWIW, Petzal at Field & Stream agrees with .38 and MJ. I read an article of his talking about a target with "12, 1-shot groups." Same thing .38 says. Every time you take a hunting rifle to the range, the first shot gets its own target. If you do it once a month, in a year you have a group of 12 single shots. You'll know where the first shot from a cold barrel is going to go.

BTW, this is relatively useless for Prairie Dog shooters. :D
 
I hadn't heard it put in quite the same terms as MJ and .38 Special put it in. However, I do figure a 4" circle at 100yds... anything within that circle oughta be well within punching a deer's lungs. 300yds though... that's making the shot a good bit tougher all the way around.

What I'm getting from this is, after four or five rounds putting my #2 tang sight dead on (busting clay birds) at 100yds as I did last weekend, I need to let it cool off a few minute and shoot it again. But whereas MJ's talking .303's, I'm talking .30-30 levergun. (I have a No.4Mk2 also, but the cold shot on it busted a clay bird at 100yds through the British-issue micrometer.) Maybe I should try to get a cold shot in with the Winchester this weekend and see. Usually though, if I get the sight dead on, it's still dead on the next range session with this particular rifle. Ya'll keep in mind MJ's talking scope with that Enfield sniper and I'm talking apertures with my .30-30 and Enfield both. Combine the cold barrel with the human element and the cone of probability widens somewhat.
 
Good enough for government work;)

With a rifle, its only the first shot that matters, everything after that is noise.:D



Edit: I think that people don't appreciate that if all of those shots were on the same target, it would be a heck of a nice group.
 
ive heard ppl talk about cold shots before but never really considered it. i always thought it was a really big bore african-game-style rifle thing where a ton of burning powder can get the rifle really hot in just a few shots. i do notice my groups widen up slightly if i put a bunch of rounds down range, but never really thought about the whole "cold shots" thing. gives me something to consider tho. maybe i should have start a running cold shot just for fun, and then go home and cry at my 7" group after a year...lol. ill bet my shots would be nowhere near as tight range-day to range-day in different temperature/light/clothes.
 
300yds though... that's making the shot a good bit tougher all the way around.
Two hundred yard running groups are for the hardened truth seeker.

Three hundred yard running groups are for people who will soon be limiting their hunting to two hundred yards!

Honestly, if I was king or dictator, all hunters would be required to keep running groups from field positions at the longest range they intend to shoot at game. My experience has been that the "average" -- read "one box a year" -- hunter fires hundred yard three-shot groups from the bench, looks at his best one, and then goes into the field believing that he can repeat that "best hundred yard three-shot group from the bench" performance at will, from a field position, in a hurry, out of breath, with the first cold, oiled barrel shot and at anything under three or four hundred yards.

Few things in this world make me as angry as three-legged deer.
 
It's just a method picked up over a life time.

It's better to have a plan than not.

Cheers
MJ
:neener:
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It's better to have a plan than not.

Yeah. If possible, I prefer to have a Plan B too.

Few things in this world make me as angry as three-legged deer.

Yeah. Two years ago Christmas Eve, my Daddy killed a big 6pointer... Daddy was seeing the rack and focussing on making the shot count- 50yds or so through brush with a scoped .30-06 with a handloaded Hornady RN- so he didn't emmediately see this buck was running on three legs. It was a perfect broadside shot too; I saw the results. And this was an older deer. We never really tried to figure out whether that one was missing a leg because of a collision with a car or if somebody tried using a rifle they weren't familiar with and shot his leg off. Either way, he was slightly disabled, but he was still a viable functioning buck who held his own up to that point. He was running this strip of woods close by me because he knew nobody was hunting down on that side of the hill. Daddy's shot was from a cold barrel too. Not only was it his only shot fired that day, it was literally cold as well... 24 degrees F.

with the first cold, oiled barrel shot and at anything under three or four hundred yards.

In my case, it's a clean cold barrel, but I learned a long time ago to clean so the bore ain't so oily. Actually, me and Daddy both. I put an oily patch through the bore and then a dry one so I figure it's not so oily and it'll be ready to go when I am. Excess oil, some experts say, will cause the barrel to be overpressurized and bulge. Same as if there was water in the bore.
 
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