Rifle accuracy questions?

eldermike, note that places first down through tenth are the smallest 10 groups or aggregates shot. All the others are bigger. At the next match, those top ten may well place one-third down the way on the scoreboard.

People have been shooting 20 to 40 shot strings without cleaning their barrels and no accuracy fall off whatsoever is observed over decades of doing this. When I toured Sierra Bullets' plant in California years ago, the ballistic tech said he shot 10-shot test groups of production run bullets about 10 to 15 minutes apart. He'd grab 10 as they came out of the pointing machine (at about 80 per minute), seated them in primed and charged cases then shot 'em in rail guns. Good lots of 30 caliber match bullets would shoot in the ones group after group after group in their indoor 100 yard range. Never cleaned the match grade barrel between groups testing a production run of several thousand bullets.
 
It depends on what you call accuracy. Falling off could mean 5 shot group of .060 going out to .090. When I was shooting to world record was .009 5 shot group.

With all that said I don't clean sporters very often and they will shoot under 1 inch and that's plenty good for my purposes.
 
That sounds more like a rifle settling into its bedding than anything having to do with fouling shots. Keep a check on it and see if it repeats the pattern or it it now shoots OK at the new setting.

Jim
 
That sounds more like a rifle settling into its bedding than anything having to do with fouling shots.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree... talking about factory bolt action sporter hunting rifles, NOT custom worked-over competitive rifles...

My 243 vanguard was all over the paper for the first 10 rounds. I think I had a 4 inch group at 25 yards (about 10 moa). After that it settled down and tightened right up. Since then I have never noticed much difference between clean or fouled barrel. My guess is that the first 10 rounds did just what James K said.

Recently my nephew got a new savage 308, and he reported that accurracy "sucked" on the first box of ammo. The next day it was a different gun and he was able to sight it in easilly.
 
I often wonder about a rifle's "improved accuracy" after its first dozen or more shots fired. How much of it's part of the shooters' getting used to its trigger and holding/aiming it better versus anything else?

About the rifle settling in after disassembly and putting it back together, how many folks put their barreled action back in the stock and before tightening all the stock screws that final half turn, push the muzzle into something hard to seat the recoil lug hard against its abutment in the stock then hold it there while torquing the screws tight?
 
Well, that could be, Bart. But when I got my Howa-action 243, I was a pretty experienced shooter, and I was shooting off a bench. And like I said, I shot a 5 shot group and it was all over the paper. The second 5 shot group was only a little better. The third 5 shot group was a single hole (this was all at 25 yards)... so I then had the confidence to move out to 100 yards for sighting in. I always attributed it to breaking in a new barrel. But now I wonder if seating the action into the bedding might have been part of it.
 
I'm going to only partially agree with Bart. I've seen VERY experienced shooters (those who are not affected by the "newness" of an unfamiliar rifle) get much larger groups from a brand new rifle than they do from that same rifle once it has settled in.

Additionally, I've also seen scopes (even good quality scopes) take several shots after adjusting to finally settle in. An old shooting buddy of mine always taps the turrent area of a scope a few times with the handle of a screwdriver after making each adjustment. He's convinced that it forces the reticles to settle in helping to eliminate the same settling in that recoil will do. I'm not going to argue with him as he shoots far more accurately than I do.

In either case - shoot a couple of boxes through it before you consider it properly sighted and useable.
 
Doyle, your buddy would be better off tapping the power change ring if his scope's a variable. The two barrels holding lenses the slide back and forth different amounts have a much larger slop range than the turret adjustments.
 
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