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Advanced Marksmanship question about my groups. (sorry if this doesnt belong here)

aaronraby1

Gunny Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Dec 19, 2010
653
8
37
southern california
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I was at the range today shooting out to 100yards. running 200g accubonds over a starting point of 72g of H1000. I shot ten groups today and these seven got me really confused! I have a consistent flyer that's not consistently in the same spot.
rifle is a 26" bartlein SS 5R.
.05" off the lands.
is there any way this can be corrected? on more than half of them, the first two shots would be touching then the third a flyer. wind was very very light coming from behind. it was about 75 degrees. any help?

in the top left picture, the hole away from the group was the fouler shot.



thanks for any input guys!
 
What do your five shot groups look like?
 
I don't know if we could say that the load isn't the best for the rifle, or if the shooter has some inconsistency in technique.

Have you just started working up a load for this rifle, or has this load been working well?
 
I have not shot five round groups. would you suggest shooting five round groups and then going from there?


im starting to work up a load with this rifle. today with this bullet and powder combo, I started with 72g and ended at 73.8g working in .2g increments.
some groups had as little as 4fps difference where others had up to 165fps difference.

barrel was pretty cooled before each group but I was also sitting in direct sunlight.

is it possible that in the time it took me to get to the third shot on each group, the sun heat up the barrel to a certain point along with the two rounds going through the barrel, that it caused that third round to wander?
 
It sounds like you have a good barrel. What barrel contour is it? I would hope it isn't moving much with increased temperature.

What cartridge are you shooting? If it's a 300 WM you may want to consider stepping the powder charges by 0.5 to 0.7 gr.

I have come to the realization for myself that when I shoot my 300 WM I see point of impact changes, in the amount you're seeing, due to differences in tensions in my body.
 
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Could be;

-Shooter
-Load
-Bedding

I would try and work with the load to improve things first.
 
try shooting some 5 round groups and see if you can get the first 4 to droup and then have the 5th be a flyer. the reason I say this is because it's often a mental thing. you bang the first 3-4 shots all in a nice group and subconcieasly knowing you only have 1 shot left you forget about you fundamentals and that last shot turns out to be a flyer.

just some food for thought. :)
 
If testing for accuracy I don't like 3 shot groups. Shoot some 5 shot groups and lets see what you get.

Yes as stated before.....caliber? Sounds like .300WM.

I'm not crazy about shooting Accubonds for testing accuracy. I'd pick a different bullet for testing accuracy. To me those are like Nosler Partitions....while a good bullet they are not know for they're accuracy. The Accubonds are a great bullet and can shoot extremely well but I feel there are better choices to use for testing accuracy.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels
 
If it were me Id blame it on the train of thought as follows....

"Awesome, two touching this is going to be the best group ever!"

jerk trigger

"Fuck!"
 
Shoot 20 round groups. Plot both calls and shots. Look for trends. To see patterns, stretch your exercise to 200 yards. Shoot in cadence. Shoot at a bullseye type target such as an NRA HP SR repair center. Make it your mission to concentrate on the things that produce movement: muscling the reticle to target, poor trigger control, and inconsistent control of the rifle producing unpredictable recoil resistance. The way you are going about it now, the only thing you know for sure is bullets hit where the barrel was pointed, and that you have bad shots outside of groups, indicating movement of the barreled action, or an inconsistent relationship between shooter, gun, and ground from shot to shot. You have a heavy recoiling rifle and this can exasperate control of the rifle from the time you pull the trigger till the time the bullet leaves the bore. Make sure you follow through until recoil subsides.
 
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yes, indeed it is a 300 win mag! the reason im using accubonds is because I plan on using this as my hunting bullet. I forgot to mention that its sitting an an XLR ind. chassis. I will have to shoot some five round groups.
when I first got this rifle together, I got a box of federal 190smk. this is how the first group after getting on paper went...


not too shabby. I think you may have a good point about my technique and/or form changing with some excitement after the first two shots. this is my first custom build so im sure most of you understand! haha! this is also the very beginning of getting a hand load together for this rifle. thanks for all the input guys! ill try to get back out this weekend and shoot some more and go from there!