Cold bore or fouled barrel.

[Crunchy]

Ok.  I have noticed my first shot on a clean and cold barrel is about 2.5 inches high and a tad to the right at 200 yards.  Is it a clean barrel or cold barrel that likely causing this?  It is also about 30 fps slower.  I didn't clean my barrel after shooting today to see what it does on my next range trip.  Anyone figure this out?  Groups awesome and roughly 12fps SD over 25 rounds.

[ELKBURGER]

Ok.  I have noticed my first shot on a clean and cold barrel is about 2.5 inches high and a tad to the right at 200 yards.  Is it a clean barrel or cold barrel that likely causing this?  It is also about 30 fps slower.  I didn't clean my barrel after shooting today to see what it does on my next range trip.  Anyone figure this out?  Groups awesome and roughly 12fps SD over 25 rounds.

I have noticed similar affects with cold bore mostly. Since it is mostly noticed between coyote hunts with very few shots, I dont clean the barrel after every hunt. When I check zero with a cold bore, first shot is a bit high and subsequent shots will stack on original zero.
Question is, do you zero for cold bore or follow up shots on warm barrel. For a hunting setup, cold bore shot should be the most important.

[fishngamereaper]

In my previous life we had to document every cold bore shot.
My rifle's where always high right. Still sub moa....but off.
Every gun is different.
Was it off enough to make a difference for hunting...no
But for what we did it was necessary knowledge.
We also fouled our barrels after cleaning.
A clean barrel seemed to make the cold bore worse.

[Mtnwalker]

Shoot a 5-7 shot cold bore group with ample time between shots and never hunt or zero on a freshly cleaned bore  you shouldn't be getting movement like that from cold to warm unless you're getting contact somewhere when things heat up or something else weird is going on. My guess is the culprit is the clean bore more so than the cold

[Bob33]

For hunting purposes the way I often test the accuracy of my rifles is to take one shot, take the target home, come back another day and take another shot...

A three to five shot group taken that way tells me much more about what I can expect while hunting. The first shot is the one that should matter most in a hunting situation.

[jrebel]

Clean bore shots are way worse than cold bore shots in my opinion.  I never hunt on a clean bore.  I usually deep clean my barrels once a year before I put them away for the winter.  From spring till the deep clean cycle, I may run a couple patches through the rifle ever 50-100 shots or as groups start to open up.  After a deep clean, I find it could take 3-5 shots to foul the barrel before my groups start tightening up again. 

Same is true for a muzzleloader.....though usually one fouling shot is plenty.   

[GWP]

I have had rifles AND pistols (long range) that would shoot different on a cold bore shot and/or with a clean barrel. Some others it made no difference. One of my best shooting rifles was in a stock not make for it and had misc contact in various places to the end of the wood stock. I eventually cleaned up the contact points, bedded it and it made ZERO difference that I could tell, but that one was certainly the exception. I often wondered if it cancelled out the harmonics, touching in so many places.
The only way to know on yours is to experiment, like you and others have said.

[Buckjunkie]

I have a rifle that shoots good cold and clean, but all the others like to be fowled…at least 3 - 5 shots.

All shoot good cold fowled.

[pickardjw]

Easy solution, stop cleaning the barrel.

[30.06]

I fire 2 fouling shots from each rifle before arriving in hunting camp. 3 would be better but I am a cheapskate and don't reload. If I miss I clean the rifle and switch to the other one. I probably wouldn't miss so much if I fired 4 fouling shots from each rifle.

Probably as many different ways to approach the problem as there are different ways to hunt. Great topic!

[Stein]

Clean bore shots are way worse than cold bore shots in my opinion.  I never hunt on a clean bore.  I usually deep clean my barrels once a year before I put them away for the winter.  From spring till the deep clean cycle, I may run a couple patches through the rifle ever 50-100 shots or as groups start to open up.  After a deep clean, I find it could take 3-5 shots to foul the barrel before my groups start tightening up again. 

Same is true for a muzzleloader.....though usually one fouling shot is plenty.   

 

Clean barrel for sure.  When you really get a barrel hot it will likely also stray, but that's not in the first several shots.  My hunting rifle only takes 2 shots before it's back on, so I clean before hunting season and then one trip to the range for 5-10 shots to verify everything.

You can also sight in for a clean bore, but then it's only on for 1-2 shots so that never made any sense to me.

[zwickeyman]

Clean bore shots are way worse than cold bore shots in my opinion.  I never hunt on a clean bore.  I usually deep clean my barrels once a year before I put them away for the winter.  From spring till the deep clean cycle, I may run a couple patches through the rifle ever 50-100 shots or as groups start to open up.  After a deep clean, I find it could take 3-5 shots to foul the barrel before my groups start tightening up again. 

Same is true for a muzzleloader.....though usually one fouling shot is plenty.   

  Right on the money

[Crunchy]

I just loaded a fresh batch of ammo.  Going to leave it dirty and see what happens.  Ive been shooting a lot lately so I usually clean it after each trip and 20/25 rounds.

[Sneaky]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvLQ1rkpUTwo

Worth a listen/try

[pickardjw]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvLQ1rkpUTwo

Worth a listen/try