Hi everyone, i am living a very weird situation with the new rifle i recently put togheter. 308 barile in barre, defiance action and manners stock with mini chassis. It was put togheter by a very good smith here in Italy. The rifle shoots very well, it is by far the best rifle I have had in this regard, it prints consistently .3 MOA 5 shot groups at 100 m (110 yards) with three different factory ammo. I didn’t believe it was possibile until i got this jewel. That said, i am struggling. I used to use 250 meters max rifles. They are easy to use: mpbr, point > press the trigger > dead deer. With this rifle i installed a scope capable of longer shots (NX8 4-32x50) and i use the high magjification as a spotting scope for selective hunting. Shots are anyway inside 500 yards (on a small 50 lb roe deer this is already a pretty long distance). That said, what gives me issues is the zero: I went to the shooting range 2 times lately, on the first time groups were forming 1.5 inches above the bullseye at 100 m, exactly as i want. Second trip (no changes in anything but the day) bullets were impacting 2 inches above the bullseye. I thought it was a matter of bipod loading and a little bit more relaxed handling of the rifle during the shot or stuff like this. That said, i adjusted the zero stop 1 click (0.1 MIL, so 1 cm at 100 m) in order to get lower shots (at this point between 1.25 inches and 1.75 inches depending on the hold of the rifle and positional shooting while hunting). I went hunting, killed a nice buck (75 meters from me) and then i took a couple shots to confirm all my zeroing in field conditions. I was expecting impacts max 1.25 inches above the bullseye since i was resting the bipod on a softer surface in comparison to the rubber mat used at the range. Two shots in one hole, as usual for this rifle, but more than 3 inches above the bullseye!
Why is that?
The scope is mounted properly and i rececked everything today, inculding another box test (not firing, only paper), torque values, etc. Everything is perfect. I didn’t accidentally moved the elevation turret.
Something came up to my mind: I used to keep ammo in a cooler room before but we are talking about a few degrees difference and i also zeroed the gun at 250 feet elevation and today i shot at 800 feet more or less. The temperature was also a bit warmer today and i was slightly on a slope
When shooting (a very mild slope so i was shooting from up to down. To me a difference of more than 2 inches at 110 yards is definitely too much. (2 inches talking into account that regulation i did moving 0.1
MIL down the shots before going hunting.
Could just my position behind the rifle on that terrain (very different from the Shooting range Conditions) Impact the POI This Much just because i am now using a bipod? The fact that the groups are still very tiny confuses me..
I should add that during the test in field conditions (after the hunt) the target was in the shade of some threes and i had the sunlight getting almost on my face directly, when i zeroed it was the opposite (i was in a pretty dark room at the range and the target was in full sunlight)
Why is that?
The scope is mounted properly and i rececked everything today, inculding another box test (not firing, only paper), torque values, etc. Everything is perfect. I didn’t accidentally moved the elevation turret.
Something came up to my mind: I used to keep ammo in a cooler room before but we are talking about a few degrees difference and i also zeroed the gun at 250 feet elevation and today i shot at 800 feet more or less. The temperature was also a bit warmer today and i was slightly on a slope
When shooting (a very mild slope so i was shooting from up to down. To me a difference of more than 2 inches at 110 yards is definitely too much. (2 inches talking into account that regulation i did moving 0.1
MIL down the shots before going hunting.
Could just my position behind the rifle on that terrain (very different from the Shooting range Conditions) Impact the POI This Much just because i am now using a bipod? The fact that the groups are still very tiny confuses me..
I should add that during the test in field conditions (after the hunt) the target was in the shade of some threes and i had the sunlight getting almost on my face directly, when i zeroed it was the opposite (i was in a pretty dark room at the range and the target was in full sunlight)
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