well, in order to loose something, you have to have it to begin with... but here is my story.... ive been hunting for some time.. and would consider myself a good shot, both on the bench, and on the stand... i picked up a used remington 700 adl 30-06 a few months back... my intention was to turn it into something i can shoot 200, 300, hopefully 400 yards. before i went out, i bought a cheapo bushnell scope, and kept the factory rings, and factory synthetic stock... first time out, i had some pretty terrible groups. 4" at best at 100 yards. wasnt real happy with it. i was using some of my fathers old reloads. which, according to him, are very close to the factory load that comes in the 150 grain remington coreloct box. in any event, the rounds were old. old enough that the casings were splitting 4/5 times.
so after that, i decided some changes needed to be made. i swapped the scope out for a vortex diamondback 4-12. got a set of game reaper one piece integral rings. for the heck of it, i also got a boyds stock. both because i loved the look, and because i heard a lot about the oem tupperware causing some accuracy issues. i also got some factory loads to eliminate the possibility of issues with my dad's old reloads. basically, i wasnt trying to necessarily discover what the issue was, but to be sure i got rid of it in time for hunting season...
i just took the gun out yesterday, and i improved my 100 yard range to somewhere around a 3" group. better, but still pretty disappointing. at 200 yards, i had 3 shots within 5", but one was about 8" low.
as for my steadyness... this was from a "lead sled"... i also am not a flincher. im a pretty confident shooter.
2 things im unsure about... barrel heat... i probaby shot the 100 yard shots with about 2 minutes between the shots.. the 200 yard shots were probably a bit quicker.
eye positon... now here is my big question.... ive always wondered, and i did a bit of research today... the shadow you get around the outside of the scope... aka if you hold your eye too far back.. does that affect your shot, and how much? i feel like an idiot, because after all these years, i never really took that into consideration. 2 things... how much accuracy do you loose if you have that "ring" off centered? and how much accuracy do you loose if you have your eye too far back, and thus, have a thick ring?
http://i.imgur.com/v0WhORi.png
could it be that, which is affecting my groups that badly? id feel really stupid, but wow, that would change a lot. kind of like finding out your motorcycle wont start cause the gas is turned off. stupid mistake, but easy fix for a night and day difference.
the only other things i can think of would be that the barrel is shot out, or i need to look into bedding the stock... but it seems like i shouldnt need to do that in order to get decent groupings at 200 yards.
so after that, i decided some changes needed to be made. i swapped the scope out for a vortex diamondback 4-12. got a set of game reaper one piece integral rings. for the heck of it, i also got a boyds stock. both because i loved the look, and because i heard a lot about the oem tupperware causing some accuracy issues. i also got some factory loads to eliminate the possibility of issues with my dad's old reloads. basically, i wasnt trying to necessarily discover what the issue was, but to be sure i got rid of it in time for hunting season...
i just took the gun out yesterday, and i improved my 100 yard range to somewhere around a 3" group. better, but still pretty disappointing. at 200 yards, i had 3 shots within 5", but one was about 8" low.
as for my steadyness... this was from a "lead sled"... i also am not a flincher. im a pretty confident shooter.
2 things im unsure about... barrel heat... i probaby shot the 100 yard shots with about 2 minutes between the shots.. the 200 yard shots were probably a bit quicker.
eye positon... now here is my big question.... ive always wondered, and i did a bit of research today... the shadow you get around the outside of the scope... aka if you hold your eye too far back.. does that affect your shot, and how much? i feel like an idiot, because after all these years, i never really took that into consideration. 2 things... how much accuracy do you loose if you have that "ring" off centered? and how much accuracy do you loose if you have your eye too far back, and thus, have a thick ring?
http://i.imgur.com/v0WhORi.png
could it be that, which is affecting my groups that badly? id feel really stupid, but wow, that would change a lot. kind of like finding out your motorcycle wont start cause the gas is turned off. stupid mistake, but easy fix for a night and day difference.
the only other things i can think of would be that the barrel is shot out, or i need to look into bedding the stock... but it seems like i shouldnt need to do that in order to get decent groupings at 200 yards.
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