first shot

M

midnightrider

New member
Hi

I have an old Ruger M77 in 30-06 and the first clean bore shot I make with it slips high and to the left about an inch away from the next follow up shots. To take an animal at distance clean first shot what do you guys do?

Should I take it to the range with the same ammo and clean the barrel out each shot and sight it in that way?
 
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"...sight it in that way..." No. Rifles are daft things. No two will be alike. Even two identical, consecutively serial numbered, rifles will shoot the same ammo the same way. Has to do with the wear on factory tooling.
Your barrel just likes a 'fouling' shot. Not entirely unusual. It's not a terrible thing either. It's how rifles can be. Sight in after that shot.
What bullet weight? An inch isn't a lot. Certainly not enough to worry about.
Sight in, then practice shooting, off hand, with your hunting ammo, at a 9" pie plate, at 100 yards, until you can hit it every time.
 
Thanks T.

Last ammo I shot was Nosler B-tips 168 gr. with a max load of 4350 bullets seated .005 off the lands. Those loads are very accurate from a rest. I can hold 3 shots inside an inch at hunded yards with those after the first shot slips high left.

The factory Remington core-loct 180 gr. I held about 2.5 inches at a hundred yards. Not bad for a 40yr old rifle.

thanks for the info was very helpful!
 
HI,
Best thing to do is to sight it with ammo from the same box / batch you are going to hunt with, see that your 3rd and 4th bulltes hit the same POI, and leave it like that.
A bit of fouling in the barrel for a day or two won't destroy your barrel.
Brgds,
Danny
 
Many rifles are that way. Only clean your hunting rifle's barrel once a year. I clean mine really good after season is over, then oil it. Before season, I'll get the oil out and re-sight it in at the range. The first couple of shots I don't even try to aim - just send any old left over garbage ammo downrange. Those are known as "fouling shots". After sighting it in, I give it one pass with a clean patch and then don't touch the barrel again for the rest of the hunting season.
 
+1 on the fouling shot. I have some rifles for which it isn't necessary, but I still do it on general principles. My sight-in is generally via shots #3 through #5 from clean, but after a cool-down.
 
Before season we go out and practice alot. I then clean it, and go back out about a week before, and do about ten fouling shots then leave it without cleaning it till the end of season. So it is dirty when sighted in. I keep the outside wiped down etc.
 
my savage 111 i 7mm likes a fouling shot, but my encore in .204 starts tossing bullets after 20 rounds till i run a patch thru it.
 
Just fire a fouling shot, leave it uncleaned, and go hunting.

Won't hurt a thing to leave it 'till after the season to clean the bore.

Daryl
 
If the first shot is only off by an inch, I wouldn't lose sleep over it. Just don't clean the bore on you last visit to the range.
 
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