This drives me crazy. Why?

[tenring]

I shoot 200-300-400 yd groundhog matches, with various custom rifles. The caliber and load does not matter, but 6ppc is very accurate. I notice this phenomenen (sic) mostly at longer ranges. Very accurate rifle, nice day in 60's, absolutely no wind or mirage. My 5 or 6 sighters put me right on ten ring. First shot on the target, goes 3 o'clock in 9 ring. So I hold off to the left side of 10 ring in the 9 ring or close to 10 ring, good hold, next shot goes right back to the right in 9 ring. Third shot, I hold a little further to outside of left 9 ring, shoot again & it goes to the right once more. Finally move over further to the left in 8 ring, and maybe shot goes in10 ring if I am lucky.

I do not clean between relays, and two of the others do not. One guy does clean and has same experience, says he cannot explain it, drives him crazy too.

I recently talked to 3 other very good shooters who have the same problem and cannot explain it. Is there a plausible explanation for this? Any others experience it?

 

[Tim Singleton]

How many flags are you shooting over?

 

[CaptainMal]

If the impact moves left or right, conditions have changed. You just do not see it. The change could be downrange where it's not felt or noticeable visually.

It could be a barrel thing but if others deal with the same conditions and get the same results look at conditions.

Oh. If you solve the issue let me know. I need devine intervention at times.

 

[snowpro440]

"changing conditions" ? or unseen un readable conditions , I just send it and hope..

 

[TonyR]

I have certainly seen this happen when I've been shooting ladder tests and I have also wondered about it. One possibility is barrel harmonics in the horizontal plane. Tony Boyer addresses this possibility in his book and he apparently likes loads that produce round groups over loads that have less vertical but are not round. I know fly rods have a "spine" that rod-builders find before they put the fittings on a blank and I suppose a barrel could have something similar that could cause it to vibrate left and right instead of up and down under certain conditions.

 

[driver69911]

Sounds like St. Thomas, yesterday. Great day!

 

[6BRinNZ]

if its not conditions - I would look at my load dev process. Typically we load development - take our time - manage heat etc etc...but in comp we often don't have the luxury of managing heat for example.

In some cases I believe we can end up with a very accurate load that doesn't behave as expected under match conditions.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

How bout a bad scope?

 

[tenring]

1. We do not use wind flags

2. Scope is a 1 yr old NT 12-42BR, no problem there.

Yep, St.Thomas yesterday.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Wnd or another bad scope. It wouldnt be the first and its not immune

 

[Erik Cortina]

You were "behind the condition". What happens is the wind start building as much as you are holding, but you are one shot behind therefore they are all going in the 9 ring. It happens all the time in F-Class, mainly to new shooters. The reason it happens more to new shooters is because they move very little at a time because they are afraid to shoot a 9 on the other side. Be aggressive next time by moving twice what you would normally move and you'll be fine.

 

[tenring]

Thanks Eric - but I don't understand this. Please explain:


"the wind start building as much as you are holding"

At our shoot the other day, there was absolutely no wind at the bench nor downrange.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Thanks Eric - but I don't understand this. Please explain:


"the wind start building as much as you are holding"

At our shoot the other day, there was absolutely no wind at the bench nor downrange.

What I meant was that after you shoot a right 9, if you hold 1/2 MOA left the wind will also increase by 1/2 MOA, therefore making the shot land in the same place again.

There being no wind and you seeing no wind are different things.
What kind of flags do you guys use?

 

[Dusty Stevens]

He said they dont use flags

 

[RGRobinett]

Thanks Eric - but I don't understand this. Please explain:


"the wind start building as much as you are holding"

At our shoot the other day, there was absolutely no wind at the bench nor downrange.

What I meant was that after you shoot a right 9, if you hold 1/2 MOA left the wind will also increase by 1/2 MOA, therefore making the shot land in the same place again.

There being no wind and you seeing no wind are different things.
What kind of flags do you guys use?

Mr. Cortina has this (both posts) pretty well figured out! 8) Especially, in very 'light' conditions, refraction can work ya over - that is, the target ain't where ya see it . . . it's on the end of a LOOONG stick! Trust your rifle. RG

 

[diego-ted]

Thanks Eric - but I don't understand this. Please explain:


"the wind start building as much as you are holding"

At our shoot the other day, there was absolutely no wind at the bench nor downrange.

What I meant was that after you shoot a right 9, if you hold 1/2 MOA left the wind will also increase by 1/2 MOA, therefore making the shot land in the same place again.

I was at least a 1/2 moa behind all weekend!

 

[4xforfun]

I think that the tracking system circuit shorts out during the heat of a match!!! Guidence system failure is common during match conditions for many, many shooters.