How to shoot tight groups?

[270WSMANIC]

Damon555, I keep my shoot and see stick-ons with sub moa groups on the inside of my garage door, every now and then I keep a 1 1/2 or bigger target gust to remind me that they ain't all always 1/2 groups.
Somebody once told me they knew a guy that would fire one shot into the target then fire the next 2 or 4 off the paper then claim his gun always puts them in the same hole, RIGHT.

 

[Nature Boy]

You're right about that 270WSMANIC.

Whatever it takes to shoot tight groups, I didn't have it with me on Sunday. Trying to do too much with to many different load combos, fiddling with the chrono, guy next to me shooting his 50 BMG, 99 deg and I could not for the life of me compensate for the horizontal sway. I should have stopped and went home, but I kept trying.

 

[270WSMANIC]

Nature boy, In my experience horizontal movement usually caused by heartbeat. Sense we can't pause that like we can our breathing. Get chest away from the shooting bench. Shift body ever so slightly, change seat height. Keep trying till the heartbeat disappears or nearly so, from the crosshairs.

 

[bikemutt]

Nature boy, In my experience horizontal movement usually caused by heartbeat. Sense we can't pause that like we can our breathing. Get chest away from the shooting bench. Shift body ever so slightly, change seat height. Keep trying till the heartbeat disappears or nearly so, from the crosshairs.

So true.

I've found some rifles like to be left alone, some need to be handled.

 

[Nature Boy]

That's exactly what it was and I knew it. Just could not adjust my position to eliminate it. I will try your suggestions next time. Thanks

 

[P89DCSS]

I was shooting 2" five shot groups with my pimped out 700 SPS varmint at 100 yards. (Don't bother showing or bragging about three shot groups, they're bs). I joined snipershide.com and paid $8 for one month premium membership which gives access to Frank Galli's teaching videos. I did what Frank said to do and now I can shoot occasional .75" groups (five shot) and they're always under 1.25" if the weather is good.

 

[Nature Boy]

I have a weather related question. How does 100 deg heat affect accuracy, other than having sweat constantly running into your eyes? The obvious one to pops to my mind might be barrel heat. Not sure how that or other factors might translate to inconsistent results.

 

[P89DCSS]

When it gets hot here in Colorado the mirages start to form and I can't get a clear view of the target through my scope. I was surprised when I finally shot in cool morning air, clear view of the target, lots of 1" and smaller groups. In the hot sun I find it's hard to get under 1" (from 100 yards).

 

[270WSMANIC]

If y'all will look at my other post on barrel heat under Rifle Country and look at some of the answers to my question, you will find some suggested a good properly installed barrel should be mainly unaffected by heat. Others might get 2 or 3 shot groups before going downhill.

 

[gamestalker]

At the range I shoot off a Caldwell Lead sled, with the rifle secured at the action. But there have been a lot of times I've managed with nothing but sand bags. When used right, sand bags can work quite well, but it requires a good deal more skill on behalf of the shooter.

I recently got a Ruger American, with a horrible trigger BTW, to shoot 3/4" groups. It was a tough feat though considering the heavy, creeping, crunchy trigger, a Timney is on the way. But in general, I've been very successful with production rifles, lots of Savages, countless Remington's, a couple Mossbergs, numerous Winchesters, and of course the Ruger American. I've had a lot of American's shoot under an inch for me, including 22-250, several .243's, and several .270's. With decent glass, a bit of tuning, and the right load development, they're not a bad budget rifle, IMO. That said, I can get most production rifles to shoot 1" or better with a little bit of tuning.

When I'm getting a rifle ready for a hunt, the cold shot is the one that matters. I'll still shoot groups, but the shot that counts if the cold one. so what I do is make sure it's shooting where I need it to with the barrel dirty, then run a patch through the bore, thus putting it away as is until the hunt. But if I'm just shooting to get range time, I fire a couple rounds to foul the bore and warm the barrel up, then I start printing, with about 5 minutes between shots.

GS

 

[jmorris]

Getting one of these would make it pretty easy.

http://www.benchrest.com/magnummetal/

http://www.benchrest.com/youngrails/

 

[270WSMANIC]

With one of those, jmorris, I could kill a buck in the lower forty without going to the lower forty.

 

[jmorris]

Just pointing out that one can achieve accuracy without "human" factors being an issue at all.

 

[270WSMANIC]

JMR40.Your post was the key to why my groups were not as small from the new barrel as they should have been, I thought it was all due to barrel heat. Turns out that under certain conditions I was having trouble seeing the bulls-eye clearly. My range is a path cut out of the woods. This time of year heavy foliage on trees means most of the day 100yd target is shaded while most of the day shooting bench is in the sun. The target I was using was a shootnsee 6in in diameter black with 1/2 in red bulls-eye. That day I was getting mostly 1 1/2 groups and I realized the crosshairs in my scope were tending to hide the red dot. I then changed to a different target with a 1in red bulls-eye. First 2 shots near touching 3rd opened group to 3/4in. I decided to fire my last 6 shots at the same bull with cool down every 2 shots. Since I was cooling the barrel anyway I walked to the target 2 shots touching, next 2 touching, next 2 ( I was almost afraid to look) still touching. I had a 6 shot group just over 3/8in center to center, in one ragged hole. With the 1 in bulls-eye I could see the crosshairs divide the dot in 4 equal parts and know I was holding center.
As you said in your post to hit small aim small. Thanks for the advice.
I love those shoot n see targets but I think from now on will spray paint a white 1 in or so square for an aim point.