Long range rifles

Thank you! I figured if I screwed anything up it would give me a way to justify a KRG Bravo stock lol

 

Damn right!!!

 

Finally had a beautiful clear day, so I got some trigger time in. This was my first chance to zero the Burris on the 700.


After getting things dialed in, I shot a 3 round group and I wasn’t sure if I had screwed things up because I only saw 2 holes.


So I dialed right 2 clicks and up 1 and shot a 6 rounds group


I’d say I’m pretty happy with that. There’s certainly still some room for improvement. But I’ll wait until the new bipod gets here to do any more tweaking.

I also shot a 5 rounds group with the AR since I haven’t zeroed it to my hand loads yet.

 

Shot this 4rd group today. I pulled the last shot, on the left. I knew it as soon as the trigger broke. I could see the 3rds stacked on each other through the scope and I got excited and ended up rushing number 4. I’m going to dial right a bit and send out another group when I get a few minutes to step away from work. Without the flier the first 3 rounds were at .45”

 

I’m assuming that I’m doing something wrong. I adjusted right 1/2” from the group I shot earlier. This group is still 1/2” left but it’s now an inch low. Anyone have any ideas? I would assume that if it were an issue with my scope, base or rings that my groups would be more spread apart.

 

Conditions are the same, didn't adjust parallax because....wait. FACK. I can't remember, but I think I actually did turn the parallax adjustment a bit because I noticed it was set just below 100yds and I put it back on the 100yd hash mark. Could that do it?

 

Calling @ny700

 

The stock was touching the barrel. Filed away the high spots and shot this beauty.

 

Sorry been mia for a bit. Looks like you missed a little to the right there on one! Ha! Well done!!! That is certainly a fine group. 3 shots or 5? Definitely looks like you found the issue.

 

As far as the parallax question do not go by the numbers on the dial. They are simply meant to be a rough gauge but are absolutely not tuned to be exact in anyway. That is why a lot of very high end dollar scopes say like nightforce do not put numbers but hash marks. If they were that precise there would be no need for range finders. You would just focus your scope and read your parallax knob.

So you adjusted adjusted 1/2” right and it went down 1/2”. Is your Burris dials in MIL, MOA or IPHY?

It is always possible between groups you simply did not get back in behind the rifle the same, not exactly the same as having the parallax off but again we are only talking 100 yds

Did you use a torque wrench to set up you base and rings? Obviously you will want to check that. Keep an eye on those vertically split rings they do have a tendency to work lose more compared to the traditionally horizontal rings. Witness marks on you scope screws are never a bad idea for peace of mind.

Looks like I’m your following target after adjusting the stock you are dead on. Was that the last group fired? Is it holding center?

So scopes are one of the most important pieces for long range shooting they are also a potential week link. If your scope is canted at all, and it may be minor and you are adjusting for it in your shoulder pocket or adding a little pressure to the rifle to square it up you are going to have issues. Think of an ech a sketch. If it’s not perfectly plumb the. When you dial a correction your point of impact is going to shift as if you moved both dials on the etch a sketch.

Another issue is scopes fail. Even expensive scopes and scopes in that $600-$1200 range fail a lot. Before you get to wrapped up in testing the rig it’s a good idea to do some test. Hopefully you can measure the 100 yards very accurately. A lot of ranges set targets at 100 but they are 106-105 110. And that can make measurements off.

First hang a plumb line. Get a small level you can put on your scope base to make sure your rifle is level and check your reticle against the plumb line and make sure you don’t have any can’t in your installation.

Next use a couple yard sticks or tape measures on the targets and start dialing up and down left and right and see if your scope is actually tracking the way it should and if it’s going back tot he setting the way it should. There are ALOT of scopes when you say dial down 5 clicks then come back up 5 clicks only move 4. To try to overcome some of the slip in the scopes a lot of the old guys have a practice of dialing past the target. So if they wanted to dial down 5 they would actually dial down 7, then come up 2. This was to overcome the springs sticking. Honestly I think it’s BS on modern higher dollar scopes because the construction of the erroctors in the scopes have changed and if your scope is t tracking properly dialing more isnt usually going to help.

A lot of guys will then do a box test. Shoot dial down say six inches (depending on your scope adjustment mil/moa/iphy) then dial right 6 inches then dial up six and then left six and see if it’s grouping appropriately as you do that.

As far as shooting groups stick to 5 shot groups. You will be amazed how often in a 5 end group you will stack 4 and have 1 just off. It is a better sampling to test the rifle and also test how your barrel will adjust as it heats up some.

 

I just started using this method with the last three scopes I mounted.

Thanks for all of the info @ny700

 

Thank you, thank you. But unfortunately, I ****ed something up. Not able to leave well enough alone, I decided to fill in the massive gaps on the stock's forened with epoxy to stiffen things up. I let it set overnight, made sure none of the epoxy got into the recoil lug area and I made sure to level it all out so it didn't go above the ribs of the stock (I already filed those down to completely float the barrel). I went out today and shot two groups, both around 1MOA. A piece of paper still slides between the stock and the barrel, but I'm still going to take it back apart to make sure there's nothing sticking up.

I don't have any fancy torque wrenches or gauges. I'm just hoping for the best lol.

 

I sanded down all of the high spots on the epoxy to make sure nothing's touching. I shot a .66" group after putting it all back together. I'm hoping that I'm just having an off day. I assume that the stiffening definitely had an impact because all three groups from today are about an inch to the right, where before they were an inch to the left on an unloaded bipod and dead center with a loaded bipod.

It was suggested that I bed the recoil lug since now that's the only "cavity" in the stock and it could be creating a weak pivoting point between the foreend and the "bedded" area under the receiver. It's almost to the point that I want to just stop messing with it though.

 

That could be. But it may be simply the torque on the action screws. Are you using a torque wrench or just going on feel? Most rifles will have a sweet spot on torque setting some are very unforgiving

 

Feel. I don’t have a torque wrench that goes down that low.

 

Maybe it's time to invest in one before you go any further

 

This one is popular.

 

Yup the wheel fat wrench is what I purchased 8-9 years ago.

Couple others, probably one of the more popular in the precision shooting crowd is the borka
http://www.shooterstools.com/

One of the more precise is the torque limiters by fixit
Issue with these is they have a few set in/lb settings and if you need something a little different there is no in between but what they offer probably covers neerly everything
https://www.eurooptic.com/FISTLS11-...MIi7CuiKKC2gIVEbXACh3HawcwEAQYBSABEgL3L_D_BwE