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Could these groups be the ammo

Digger0051

Private
Minuteman
Nov 4, 2020
11
7
Florida
My son and I took out my new rifle today to see how it shoots and we were a little disappointed. The rifle is a Savage Elite Precision in 6.5 creedmore. The first shots on the paper were at 50 yards to site it in . The next shots on the yellow targets were at 100 yards using Sallier and Beloit 140g rounds. If I was to switch and try match ammo would it make a difference in these groups?
 

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Measure your groups at 100, it may not be as bad as you think. Are you using a rear bag? From your pic it looks like you are only using a bipod. Try again at 100 with a rear bag.
Match ammo probably will make a difference but, at the end of the day there is a reason why a lot of people put 2 and 3k into a rifle that reliable shoots 1/2 an inch. Play around and find some ammo it likes. Plus shoot it for a while find some ammo it likes and break it in.

Someone will chime in with better answers/
 
I’m a fairly good shooter. I can get sub MOA groups out of my .223. I did have a rear bag, my sons arm was just wrapped around the bag in that pic and it was a bit windy at the range today so it made it hard to tell if it was the ammo and wind combined together or if maybe it needs to be worn in a little. I also noticed the groups seemed to spread out after letting the barrel cool off for a while and tighten up with the last shots with the barrel warm.
 
Thank you for your suggestions. I am willing to give them a try see if I can improve the groups next time
 
Wearing mask while shooting = -20 accuracy points

jkjk.

not terrible groups honestly for regular degular ammo. I’ve shot well in matches with worse looking groups from my 6br

I second the question - what was being used for a rear bag? If at all. The vertical stringing in the first group tells me something funky with position
 
Your not straight behind the rifle, the bipod does not appear to be loaded.
 
Lol yes the mask.... they make you wear them at this range by my house. We had a small bag for the rear but I think you are right about position. We were in the last position shooting left handed against a wall sitting in a chair instead of a bench like the other stations there. The chair was lower than the other stations at this range but it was the only lane open. It was hard to get comfortable while shooting. That may have had some of the issue as well. I will be going again in a few weeks and I’m going to try some Hornady match ammo and see how that works...

Lol on found the problem.... It’s a Savage..... I have had Savages for many years and have had almost 0 problems with them. That’s why I selected this rifle
 
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Lol yes the mask.... they make you wear them at this range by my house. We had a small bag for the rear but I think you are right about position. We were in the last position shooting left handed against a wall sitting in a chair instead of a bench like the other stations there. The chair was lower than the other stations at this range but it was the only lane open. It was hard to get comfortable while shooting. That may have had some of the issue as well. I will be going again in a few weeks and I’m going to try some Hornady match ammo and see how that works...

Lol on found the problem.... It’s a Savage..... I have had Savages for many years and have had almost 0 problems with them. That’s why I selected this rifle

I’m betting you’ll see improvements with higher quality ammo and a more comfortable position.
Happy shooting!
 
My Seekins Havak shoots S&B to about 1.5” five round groups and shoots Hornady 147gr ELD-M to 0.5-0.75”. So I’m gonna vote yes.
 
Having to shoot off a bench that forces you to be that much “beside“ your rifle really sucks. Vertical stringing can often times be attributed to your “table manners “. So if it’s a new rifle that you’re not used to shooting and you’re not sure how it rides the bag (it seems like each of my rifles has a particular spot that works best for the rear bag whether it’s the “bag rider” portion or not) then I would start by thinking about your position behind the gun and how the rear bag relates to the chassis. If it was REALLY windy then you might be able to attribute some of the horizontal to wind but AT 100 yards with 6.5 Creedmoor it shouldn’t be much. I’m not sure if other guys will agree with this or not but for me the difference between good ammo and not so good ammo is not usually that the groups get really big but rather they get more unpredictable. Some bullet holes will be touching and then there will be a flyer. The worse ammo gets the greater the number of inexplicable flyers. That is, of course, assuming I felt that each shot broke perfectly.
 
Try hornady 140 grain match works great in almost every 6.5 Iv tried. Sometimes rifles tighten up as the barrel breaks in
 
Before I started reloading, 140 Hornady ELD match worked great in my tikka. 1/2 MOA when I did my part.
 
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Like others have said i think it’s a shooter issue more than the ammo...initially

100 yards

one group is pure horizontal
One group is pure vertical

if the shooter was more consistent the group would be circle/oval dispersion if you overlap them

overlap those and it’s a perfect cross

trigger finger

Natural point of aim on a bench is a pain

Strait Behind bench if possible but that really aids in spotting your own shots more than pure accuracy. Many benchrest records have been shot using the cut out on benches

Check parallax as well.
 
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I think that more time behind the rifle will offer improvement of both the bore and the shooter.

For my own purposes (factory barrels only), I simply shoot 100rd to fireform the brass, deep clean the bore, then begin load development. After some decades, I'm taking shortcuts with load development and simply setting an arbitrary initial charge by rounding down to the next .5gr below max, and seeing what the target says.

If you have some commercial ammo left over, shoot about ten or so down the pipe to season the bore before starting the actual load development.

Last week, after waiting through over half a year's worth of lockdown, the target told me that two of the three guns were doing well enough with that initial load, and that the third one could use a smidgen of improvement, so I'll be doing bracket loads (just above and just below the initial charge weight) to see which way improvement lies. Doesn't always work, but it sure looked good this time.

I pack too much junk with me, but sometimes it pays. At our club range, the seats are ancient kitchenette chairs and the benches are concrete. The spots where the seats go are so worn, it's a reach up to get onto the bench. So I bring a commercial folding shooting table, and a large-ish folding chair. It makes a big difference. Sometimes a 2" foam seat pad (Boater's Flotation cushion) is all you really need.

The new chassis rifles usually employ an AR style grip, and they vary. I don't shoot chassis rifles (yet), but I have fair number of homebuilt AR's. I've standardized on the Luth AR Chubby Grip, and I think it does a good job of helping me control my finger/trigger interaction. They also offer a trigger finger position trainer.

Greg
 
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