Hot Barrel Accuracy

[Karl Blanchard]

Question for OP, if you took those 3 seperate groups that were all sub moa and laid them on top of each other what would that 9 shot group look like?

[hunter399]

This is the one that always got me...

ot any kind of expert but how long between shots? When I'm shooting from a bench rest and going after a tight group, I use a watch and wait 2 minutes or more between shots to allow a bit of cooling. Good news is when hunting, your most effective shot should be coming out of a cold barrel.
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My DAD always fouled the barrel when we got on the range to shoot for accuracy or when working up loads.  I always thought to myself, well, I have a cold cleaned barrel when I was putting a drop on something downrange.........

I never had a clean barrel when I was rifle hunting. I always shot a fouling round or 2 before we left for a trip.

I've always heard that you NEED to fire a round if you've cleaned your barrel and have used any oil or solvent. Fire a round and that gets burned out of there. If I clean a barrel close to a hunting trip, I'll only use a dry patch.

Everybody always does it different.
I've always got 10- 20 rounds dirty.
Clean it ,final sight in,which was a week ago.
Then I don't touch it till season.
I want a fouled,slightly dirty barrel ,I want it to shoot like my last shot on sight in.

Range trip I do take three rifles,hot weather like now ,I don't shoot more than three shots before I let it cool.

One other thing I like to check,on a different day than range day is. Cold bore shot. Your first cold bore shot is the only one I care about. If it turns into a 2 moa gun on hot barrel ,that doesn't bother me. My most important is the cold bore accuracy.

20 rounds dirty barrel doesn't bother me.
After 50 rounds I like to clean.

Like said everybody does it different.
You have to find your process.

[Stein]

Question for OP, if you took those 3 seperate groups that were all sub moa and laid them on top of each other would would that 9 shot group look like?

 

3 shot groups do not provide any value statistically.

I would load 20 rounds.  Shoot the first 10 shot group real slow, I wait 3 minutes between each shot or use a barrel fan.  Second group shoot all 10 as fast as you can get 100% good shots.

[fishngamereaper]

Barrel heat maybe
 Although I've shot several comps before that required 10-20 round rapid succession target engagements...
No issues with heat affecting poa/ poi...(quality barrel though)
Fouling/ cheap ammo would be more likely.
And flinching would be another.
Have a buddy blind load (or not load) your rifle after 5-6 rounds and see what you do.
Sometimes after a few rounds the body naturally flinches. You won't notice it until you press the trigger on an empty chamber...
Anyway..

[WoolSocks]

Question for OP, if you took those 3 seperate groups that were all sub moa and laid them on top of each other what would that 9 shot group look like?

Here’s the target with the 1st-5th groups labeled. 2nd and 3rd groups have 2 of the 3 rounds through the same hole. 4th and 5th get progressively worse. 5th group has 4 rounds.

Did some adjusting during this, so look at the groups, but disregard their location relitive to the red dot bullseyes.

[WoolSocks]

At 25yds, 100yds, 300yds, 600yds?
Did you check your base and rings torque between groups?
Were you changing positions? Did you have the rifle locked into a rest?
Could you clearly see the target or was it like a mirage?
Were you getting tired? Shooting in direct sun, getting hot and uncomfortable?

There’s so many factors that have to come together. The only way to get as close to a conclusion is to eliminate as many variables as possible and keep the shooting as consistent as possible.

9 sub MOA shots sounds like a good shoot to me when you’re past and well past 100yds.


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I did check the base and rings a few times. Everything kept tight to vortex torque specs.

Shooting eld-x ammo at 100 yards.

There was a “mirage” effect, with the heat radiating up from the ground. Still had a clear view of the bullseye though.

[Buckjunkie]

You have a problem. You should expect good groups hitting the same impact point, not walking around the target.

Temp can make a difference, but if it’s more than a one MOA from group to group, you need a new load…or work done on the rifle.

I shoot two fowlers with a clean barrel, 5-10 if I have stripped copper.

I wait until the barrel is cool to the touch between groups. Easier when it’s 40 than 70-80. I don’t work up loads when it’s hot.

Check, the scope stick screws… make sure your rest is solid. I don’t care for lead sleds and I remove the front sling swivel when shooting on a bag. I prefer free recoil.

Most of my rifles like a carbon free barrel, but all need to be fowlers to shoot their best. If you strip copper, make sure you shoot 5-10 rounds before working up loads. All this is assuming you are shooting cup and core bullets. If you shoot mono’s, the recipe changes.

[JWBINX]

Maybe a little shooter fatigue?

[yogru]

I shoot a Browning A-bolt (predecessor) and have always noticed the same thing.  My barrel heats up and the groupings get all wonky.  A few years ago I bought this plastic barrel fan you put the nose in your chamber and turn on the mini fan and it cools the thing down in a hurry.  Had much better luck getting groupings since.   I see amazon has something resembling mine called a "chamber chiller" but mine just uses a AA batery and cost like $15.  Can't recall exactly where i got it.

[huntnfmly]

Maybe a little shooter fatigue?

You just beat me to it a little fatigued and hurrying and flinching

[fishngamereaper]

Try different ammo
I haven't had much luck with eldx groups...
Eldm shoots much better for me.

[WoolSocks]

You have a problem. You should expect good groups hitting the same impact point, not walking around the target.

Temp can make a difference, but if it’s more than a one MOA from group to group, you need a new load…or work done on the rifle.

I shoot two fowlers with a clean barrel, 5-10 if I have stripped copper.

I wait until the barrel is cool to the touch between groups. Easier when it’s 40 than 70-80. I don’t work up loads when it’s hot.

Check, the scope stick screws… make sure your rest is solid. I don’t care for lead sleds and I remove the front sling swivel when shooting on a bag. I prefer free recoil.

Most of my rifles like a carbon free barrel, but all need to be fowlers to shoot their best. If you strip copper, make sure you shoot 5-10 rounds before working up loads. All this is assuming you are shooting cup and core bullets. If you shoot mono’s, the recipe changes.

I don’t think it’s “walking around” - I was trying to site in, so you’re seeing groups in different places as I make adjustments.

Interesting notes on “Fowlers” have never heard that before, but I guess it makes sense. You can’t swab every bit of oil out.

[WoolSocks]

I shoot a Browning A-bolt (predecessor) and have always noticed the same thing.  My barrel heats up and the groupings get all wonky.  A few years ago I bought this plastic barrel fan you put the nose in your chamber and turn on the mini fan and it cools the thing down in a hurry.  Had much better luck getting groupings since.   I see amazon has something resembling mine called a "chamber chiller" but mine just uses a AA batery and cost like $15.  Can't recall exactly where i got it.

This is good to know. I’ll get a fan. As I mentioned before, the barrel got HOT by that last round, even though I was waiting several minutes between shots. Hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch.

My main question here is if the floated barrel should mitigate hot barrel inaccuracy, but maybe it only partially does. It’s a 300prc, and the barrel isn’t particularly heavy. Perhaps a floated barrel only does so much..

Not ruling out recoil flinch, but this thing doesn’t kick much with the muzzle break. It’s a real pleasure to shoot, except that you have to get a second mortgage to buy ammo. .

Will try some cold groups and report back.

[idaho guy]

 I don’t think that’s a hot barrel issue. I agree an easy test would be to just shoot a new group with a cold barrel taking a few minutes between shots. My experience is my first round from a newly cleaned barrel is often a flyer. Once I break a barrel in and get it shooting I won’t clean it again until I notice it’s not shooting well. There’s lots of theories on cleaning guns and accuracy but leaving them alone has worked well for me. People tell me they have great luck with vortex scopes. My experience with vortex rifle scopes is not good and I had a similar issue with my 28 Nosler with a vortex scope. Tight group but as I tried to dial the scope to zero, the groups got larger and wild. I replaced with leupold and fixed issue. I just wanted to mainly mention the scope issue as your target gave me a little deja vu. Not wanting to beat up on vortex’s but that looks very similar. If your cold bore shots don’t group I would definitely look at the optics.

[jaymark6655]

If you can put your hand on it, it is not a hot barrel issue.

I would check scope base screws, scope rings screws, and action screws.

In one rare case I had a bad scope and reticle was moving with each shot.

From there, if it were me, I would start wondering if it was me or the ammo.

Maybe its fouled barrel, but I can't imagine 15 rounds being too many between cleanings.