One Extra Thing Beyond Basics to Improve Accuracy

[Jet]

Larry

Alex is spot on. Understanding how to wring out the utmost accuracy from your rifle through proper load development and testing is the path to shooting the smallest groups and highest scores possible. Sure a tuner can get your rifle to shoot smaller but does it get it to shoot the best possible? You will never know if you don't learn proper load development first.

Good Shooting

Rich

 

[savagedasher]

Larry

Alex is spot on. Understanding how to wring out the utmost accuracy from your rifle through proper load development and testing is the path to shooting the smallest groups and highest scores possible. Sure a tuner can get your rifle to shoot smaller but does it get it to shoot the best possible? You will never know if you don't learn proper load development first.

Good Shooting

Rich

What wrong with small ?
I just have a hard time choosing do I take the vertical or horizontal trending And the one above or below the point of aim . Larry

 

[Jet]

Larry

Absolutely nothing wrong with "small". Your question would be answered through methodical testing and evaluation.

Rich

 

[savagedasher]

Larry

Absolutely nothing wrong with "small". Your question would be answered through methodical testing and evaluation.

Rich

Nothing wrong with testing . That can be where we think different . I try to get a gun to shoot small in the least amount of shots .
That is the same as I do with race cars
They have much in common Ever round or ever lap cost money . With me I try to get the gun to shoot with the least amounts of rounds. Or the stock car to turn with the least amount of laps .
Your way or my way . I think we both are correct . Larry

 

[BoydAllen]

All of this advice is predicated on one thing, that the shooter knows how to shoot his rifle, that is get the most out of whatever ammo he happens to be working with. My experience is that it is very common for shooters to have basic faults in their techniques and setups. This is not because they are not bright folks, but because they have little opportunity to receive one on one, at the range coaching.

For example, some time back, I ran across a father and son who were both shooting Savage .308s. It was sighting in season, before deer season at a range where I was one of the volunteer RSOs. Knowing that one has to be careful about how one offers help, given that some take it as an insult, I sized the father up, and decided that it might be worth the risk. He said that he would like some, and based on what I had observed before speaking to him, I made two suggestions that literally cut his groups in half. The first was to gradually apply pressure to the trigger until the rifle fired, rather than making it go off at a particular instant, to let the rifle "surprise"him, adding that this was a bench technique, and that other situations call for a different approach.

The second thing was follow through. I find it common for shooters to have developed bad habits in this area. The best advice that I can give is to watch the cross hairs move off of the target as the rifle recoils, before making any move. The best way to self coach on this is to set up your digital camera to take a side view video of you, while you are shooting, and then review the video carefully. One fellow that I am helping, that lives a long distance from me, sent me an email with just such a video, and I was able to be a lot more help to him because of what I learned by watching it.

 

[savagedasher]

All of this advice is predicated on one thing, that the shooter knows how to shoot his rifle, that is get the most out of whatever ammo he happens to be working with. My experience is that it is very common for shooters to have basic faults in their techniques and setups. This is not because they are not bright folks, but because they have little opportunity to receive one on one, at the range coaching.

For example, some time back, I ran across a father and son who were both shooting Savage .308s. It was sighting in season, before deer season at a range where I was one of the volunteer RSOs. Knowing that one has to be careful about how one offers help, given that some take it as an insult, I sized the father up, and decided that it might be worth the risk. He said that he would like some, and based on what I had observed before speaking to him, I made two suggestions that literally cut his groups in half. The first was to gradually apply pressure to the trigger until the rifle fired, rather than making it go off at a particular instant, to let the rifle "surprise"him, adding that this was a bench technique, and that other situations call for a different approach.

The second thing was follow through. I find it common for shooters to have developed bad habits in this area. The best advice that I can give is to watch the cross hairs move off of the target as the rifle recoils, before making any move. The best way to self coach on this is to set up your digital camera to take a side view video of you, while you are shooting, and then review the video carefully. One fellow that I am helping, that lives a long distance from me, sent me an email with just such a video, and I was able to be a lot more help to him because of what I learned by watching it.

I have a apple phone it does super slow motion it is the best tool to show shooters inexperienced to competitive things they are doing wrong . Great answer Boyd
Larry

 

[bsekf]

Actually, the article went into considerable detail about his case and, in particular, neck prep, involving sandpaper. The author singled out consistent neck tension as the #1 key to Virgil's accuracy (but not to the exclusion of all the other keys, like action build, barrel length, bag setup, etc.) That's why I mentioned it in response to "consistent neck tension" being mentioned.

Virgil seated using a Wilson inline seater by hand (no arbor press) and he rejected a case if it didn't have just the right feel when seating. He used only flat-based bullets and after a few preparatory firings a slight detent ring formed in the neck, and he could feel and hear the heel of the bullet click into place when seating. Otherwise, he discarded that case. As I recall a case was good for about 20 cycles, and no annealing along the way once a case was prepped and in the rotation. (He did anneal the cases one time, in the forming process from Sako 220 Russian.)



+1 That's an excellent tip!
-

Brian, I sent you a PM.
Bill

 

[TomSawyerNW]

I skimmed through all these...there's a Bible's worth of good stuff here! Thanks everyone!

 

[BoydAllen]

One more piece of advice, get the big stuff working before you start to obsess about minutiae. I see lots of fellows who do not understand that unless their rifle has been properly pillar bedded, or glued in, and they are shooting over some sort of indicators of wind activity, that worrying about little tiny details is a complete, absolute waste of time. Back in the day, I would expect to be able to tune up a sporter barreled Remington in .222 or .223 to shoot well under half inch five shot groups, with crappy dies, no flags, triggers that measured in pounds, and a home made rest setup. I see fellows today that have large amounts of money in their setups who do no better. They may have a wallet group or better, but they also have a lot of excuses.

 

[jlow]

One more piece of advice, get the big stuff working before you start to obsess about minutiae. I see lots of fellows who do not understand that unless their rifle has been properly pillar bedded, or glued in, and they are shooting over some sort of indicators of wind activity, that worrying about little tiny details is a complete, absolute waste of time. Back in the day, I would expect to be able to tune up a sporter barreled Remington in .222 or .223 to shoot well under half inch five shot groups, with crappy dies, no flags, triggers that measured in pounds, and a home made rest setup. I see fellows today that have large amounts of money in their setups who do no better. They may have a wallet group or better, but they also have a lot of excuses.

Hey, what's wrong with trigger in pounds. Sniper rifles need "pounding" triggers....

 

[johara1]

Hey, what's wrong with trigger in pounds. Sniper rifles need "pounding" triggers....

What is wrong with them them? Maybe he should have said clean pound triggers. The truth is they will not shoot with once triggers,simply because you have to hold the gun for them to work and most can't do that. The exact same pressure exerted on every shot. Again you are in a discipline that doesn't require ultimate accuracy. ....... bench rest weather point blank or long range br. require the ultimate in repeatable accuracy. This is the part most don't understand, one shot or one group that is nice but will it repeat ? can you in the conditions make it repeat? It takes the best components to do this, attention to detail is key leave nothing up to chance. You must have the mental state to be driven to that level, you must be able to concentrate and nothing else enters your mind. It is hard to do and very tiring....... jim

 

[Brians356]

The second thing was follow through. I find it common for shooters to have developed bad habits in this area. The best advice that I can give is to watch the cross hairs move off of the target as the rifle recoils, before making any move.

A good way to practice follow-through is to shoot a very light-recoiling rifle to develop the habit and muscle memory. A 22 WMR is ideal, since it develops more recoil than a 22 LR, but it's not going to induce a flinch. If you are in the habit of watching the reticle movement during such practice, you will be more likely to follow through (if not actually follow the reticle) even when shooting your heavy-kicking hunting rifles. Dry firing is good practice as well, as it exposes excessive jerking of the rifle during the trigger squeeze.
-

 

[charlesasmith]

If using a 22 mag for dry firing, don't forget the snap cap. Not the same as dry firing a center fire rifle.

Chuc

 

[Brians356]

If using a 22 mag for dry firing, don't forget the snap cap. Not the same as dry firing a center fire rifle.

Chuc

Thanks. I meant dry fire the center-fire rifle, but good advice.
-

 

[Steve Ladino]

Lapua brass and the best bullets available (Berger or Sierra) were responsible for the biggest accuracy improvements in my experiences.

Very true

 

[Steve Ladino]

I have a friend who got into reloading about two years ago. Frankly, even though I have been reloading for over 30 years, I believe his techniques are beyond what I use. He asked me what was the one thing I would recommend beyond the basics to improve accuracy. I told him that what I chose years ago when faced with that "dilemma" was to get a higher quality bullet seating die. I have Forster seating dies for every caliber I shoot to fulfill that purpose.

Assuming the basics are what is at the beginning of a reloading manual, fl size every time and de-prime (trim if needed), prime, charge, seat bullet, etc. and assuming basics include to be consistent in all measurements (powder charge, seating depth, etc.), what other single technique and/or device would you recommend to an individual with the same question? Thanks in advance. Maybe he and I can learn something here.

I have found that ringing out powder charges to the one tenth of a grain helps and when the best group is achieved then chrony it and just duplicate the velocity with a new jug of same powder as you go.

 

[Tommie]

As I became better educated in bench technique it was amazing how my guns mysteriously started shooting better groups.

Hardware grabs our attention and is the easiest to fix. "Software" is the #1 accuracy component. The top shooters have great equipment but that's not the reason you see the same names at the top of the boards.

 

[Webster]

I have a friend who got into reloading about two years ago. Frankly, even though I have been reloading for over 30 years, I believe his techniques are beyond what I use. He asked me what was the one thing I would recommend beyond the basics to improve accuracy. .

Buy a custom barrel.