First shot accuracy....

K

kolineman

Guest
Just wondered if anyone has any secrets on how to improve first shot accuracy from a clean barrel. My cleaning procedure definitely gets a barrel clean, but takes 1-3 shots to get back to normal grouping. Any techniques that provide close to normal accuracy from first shot? I'm normally around 1/2" to 1" off with first shot from my 222 and 6ppc, after that, they group as expected...

Thoughts?
 
kolineman said:
Just wondered if anyone has any secrets on how to improve first shot accuracy from a clean barrel. My cleaning procedure definitely gets a barrel clean, but takes 1-3 shots to get back to normal grouping. Any techniques that provide close to normal accuracy from first shot? I'm normally around 1/2" to 1" off with first shot from my 222 and 6ppc, after that, they group as expected...

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

That's pretty difficult to do.

When shooting over a Chronograph, any of my Rifles will experience quite a drop in velocity through a clean barrel. The entire tune characteristics are different through a clean barrel,than through a barrel with rounds down it.

Why are you worried about it?
 
My rifles take a few shots as well after a clean barrel.
I have noticed at times it's only one or two and its on. I think some of it is the bag settling down.
At times when I've got it back in the bag better it hits closer other times it hits inch and half away and takes more shots to begin grouping
 
Just seeing Jack S...

If there was a solution that I have not read about....just trying to improve my overall shooting game I guess.
 
if you HAVE TO

kolineman said:
If there was a solution that I have not read about....just trying to improve my overall shooting game I guess.
Click to expand...

have first shot on from a cold rifle, foul it with 1 or 2 shots before you put it away. Talk to SWAT shooters about that.
 
First Shot accuracy

Techniques that provide close to normal first shot accuracy.

1. In short range Benchrest 100/200/300 yrs. I use the sighter target, until the POI is where I think it should be.

2. When I "sight in" for a Deer Hunt, I don't clean the Rifle until after Deer Season.

Works for me.


Glenn
 
As far as competition Benchrest is concerned, just foul the barrel on the sighter target every time you go to the line...clean barrel or not. Shoot it somewhere other than at an aiming point on the sighter because you don't want to even see it much less base anything on it. Additionally, it takes a second or two to aim it and you mess up the sighter.
 
fouling shots

I ve got a Shilen select match on my 6ppc and it will clean out with one fouling shot. My production barrels might take 5. I always thought it was the bore finish. Doug
 
We have a 6.5/223 AR that throws the first shot about 2" low from the rest of a 5 shot group.. Any suggestions?

Clean or dirty barrel.
 
No suggestions other than you simply have to shoot a sighter shot. I've seen folks go to the sighter after waiting for a minute or two for the wind to blow their way...and often I wished I had. If you had to hit a dime on the first shot you might aim two inches higher.
 
Several fellow BR shooters have found using Eezox as your bore lubricant and protectant, will aid in making our 1st and 2nd shot touch or be very class together out of BR grade barrels. Same idea as Lock Ez just a different product.
 
I can give you a good example as to how a clean barrel shoots in relation to a barrel with rounds down it.

I attended a 600 yard claybreak match in Huntsville in the spring. I was shooting my 6BR with 108 Bergers.

After the last match, I did not realize I was in the shoot off for 2d or 3d place. The shootoff is one shot, in one minute, at a 2 inch orange dot at 600 yards. The problem, I was cleaning my Rifle when they told me.

I had no idea where the round would hit, so I held for windage only.

The shot was dead on for windage, but dropped about 5 inches below the 2 inch dot.

I took some friendly ribbing from my buddies. It ain't over untill it's over.
 
With my 6 PPC Farley with a Hart barrel and my 30 BR Shilen DGA with a 3-groove Lilja, the first shot is pretty much right on. Cleaning and Lock-Ease don't seem to make much difference. I clean between targets only for something to do and to make cleanup at home easier.

Hunting rifles, of which I have many, vary widely. Most are close enough to POA, clean or fouled, hot or cold, that I don't worry about it. One Weatherby Vanguard .30-06 in particular seems to throw the first shot left. It certainly has not cost me any animals but someday I'll get around to thoroughly testing it to look for a pattern.

I think fouling is one factor and heat is another and each has its own effect. Is point of impact shift the result of fouling build up or is it due to heat warping the barrel a bit? You could sort that out by letting the barrel go totally cold between strings while leaving it fouled.

I read once, in this forum I think, of an old hand telling a guy with a finicky Weatherby magnum to run a box of shells through it as fast as he could. After that, it shot consistently well. It had something to do with the heat aligning the molecules in the steel. Sounds extreme, but if you've tried everything else, why not?
 
I'll write this again...differently this time. Speaking from strictly a centerfire group position, you simply have to shoot the first shot away from the record target. I recommend, but don't always do it if the condition is a very good, to shoot the second shot at a sighter bull so you can see where the rifle is hitting in that condition.

vtmarmot makes a fair point that his rifle shoots the same point of impact clean or dirty but I've never had one that would do that...wait...maybe I have and just didn't know it. Habits are hard to break!!
 
Wilbur said:
I recommend, but don't always do it if the condition is a very good, to shoot the second shot at a sighter bull so you can see where the rifle is hitting in that condition.
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Wilbur, can you explain why it matters where the second shot hits? (Assuming, of course, the condition stays the same between shots 2 and 3.)
 
It doesn't matter at all as long as that's where the rifle is shooting at the moment. The thing is, if your first record shot doesn't hit where the sighter shot hit you would know instead of taking a WAG at it.
 
Wilbur is correct, I think... You have to know exactly where your poi is BEFORE you take your first record shot.. If that first record shot does not hit where you established it should you can then allow for it..

Disregarding a clean/dirty bore a lot of shooters have struggled with their first record shot. This might be due, in part, to the shift from the sighter to the record target.. Make sure your rifle is settled in the bags before that first record shot.. At least that is something that helped me from time to time..
 
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