Probably a stupid question....

[bobtodrick]

So...been shooting precision rimfire for a few years now. Had good success with a Savage with Harris bipod and TAB rear bag...the squishable kind.
Upped the ante this year and stepped into centerfire...nothing extravagant...a Mossberg Nighttrain with one of the new Nikon tactical scopes.
So here's the issue. Trying to zero it at 100m I seemed to be all over the place.
Yet my son who is 16 was having no issues printing 1moa groups with annoying consistency.
My scenario would be one shot dead centre, the next shot 4" high or low and the third shot may not even be on the paper.
Yet he took over and...a one inch group in the 9-10 ring.
Didn't think it could possibly be the issue (yet not wanting to believe I am that bad) I tried his rock hard Calwell rear bag.
And got a nice 1" group dead centre.
Went back to the TAB (which I've always liked and gets such great reviews) and...well a nice 5" group.
What the heck am I doing wrong?

 

[spife7980]

How tight/loose is the rear bag? AKA is the rifle down in it firmly or just barely touching it? Are you having to squeeze it so hard to make height that you loose the support of it? Have you tried it with your bipod at a different height which would require a different squeeze/pack of the back that might work better for you?

 

[bobtodrick]

How tight/loose is the rear bag? AKA is the rifle down in it firmly or just barely touching it? Are you having to squeeze it so hard to make height that you loose the support of it? Have you tried it with your bipod at a different height which would require a different squeeze/pack of the back that might work better for you?

So what has worked with my .22 is just to have the stock resting on the bag...I take it I should be squeezing the bag so it becomes more solid?
It seems to be at the right height, but I have noticed that because I am just resting the stock on the bag, and it is soft that the stock slides around a lot with recoil, whereas on the Caldwell it seems to 'stay put' a bit better.
Thanks for your time.

 

[skulldragr17]

First ensure that there is no perceivable movement at all with your reticle. If there is any slight movement, you need to adjust your position, change bags, put less pressure on the rifle, etc in order to fix that problem. Next, dry fire and see if there is a lot of movement of the reticle; you may need to modify how you are pulling the trigger or the amount you are loading into the bipod. Seeing as that you are so used to rimfire, I wouldn't be surprised if you are anticipating due to the amount of recoil and you don't even realize it. It happens ALL the time with people. Since you shoot the rimfire fine, I'm assuming focusing on the reticle is not the issue.

Most commonly the anticipation will be an issue. Do some ball and dummy drills and that will help out a lot!