Two touching and one not?

[ttfreestyle]

3 shot groups with 2 touching and 1 not at 100 yards,what is the main cause? Thanks
308 win shooting varget ,tested 43 to. 45 grains with Berger 168 in .3 grain increments. Fed gm215m primers and win brass. It is consistently shooting .4s to .5 groups but not one ragged hole group yet.

 

[gilmillan1]

I think the load is too hot

 

[expiper]

If its vertical ,,,your load is either too hot or too cold (the primers will tell which),,if it is horizontal,you are missing the conditions,,,Roger

 

[Dusty Stevens]

The wind did it

 

[Lapua40X]

What does "2 touching and one not" mean? If "not" means it's two inches away from the two that are touching it's an all together different issue than if it's just outside of the two that are touching.
Not enough data here to offer any meaningful suggestions, IMO.
If you've fired 8 three shot groups along a horizontal line and haven't found a pattern for where they tend to move up or down along that line there's something else going on.

 

[JohnKielly]

Tried shooting 5 or preferably 10 shot groups? Three shots isn't much to make a judgement on..

 

[savagedasher]

What two were touching 1-2 2-3 or 1-3 ? Shows you can't get better the second shot. Larry

 

[Chappy]

Surprised no one has said anything about primer choice. Have you tried standard primers instead of a magnum one like the 215? Try some 210Ms or BR-2s.

 

[L.Sherm]

+1 on what Chappy says, non-magnum primer

 

[eww1350]

There is more than a few reasons for that..all of the recommendations are good ones to try..but that being said, I once had a Hunter Class rifle (308 win) that was a great shooter then after several thousand rounds it started shooting 3 and 2 shot groups. I could never put 5 shots together...after lots of load changes and messing with it, I re-barreled it and all way well.. :-[ :-[ :-[

Eddie in Texas

 

[GeorgeSpringer]

Switch to Fed210 primers.

 

[ttfreestyle]

It is never the same shot that doesn't touch, I will try diff primers. It is a brux 11 twist 308 with 1600 rounds on it, hope that's not the problem. Here are a few pics of the groups, it may be all me but my daughter shot the same groups with this gun so i dunno. I have at least a dozen groups similar to these. Primer change coming up. Top groups are a 168 hybrid and bottom groups are the 185 hybrid, all varget powder.

 

[Milo 2.0]

Is the rifle bedded? By pics, I look there.

 

[clowdis]

To me three shot groups are nothing but an indicator of how a load may work, so I don't shoot them. 5 shots are a better indicator and I don't use a load in competition until I test in 10 shot groups. You don't usually get a "wallet" group with 10 shots but it is a better indication of what your rifle will do when you get around to shooting 20 shots in a 20 minute time limit. If you take some of the same loads you tested here and reshoot with 5 or 10 shot groups the empty spaces may fill in or you may find you have more than 1 flier.

 

[ttfreestyle]

McMillan f class stock bedded with Devcon. I just got this gun so I am looking for an indicator of the load being good. I am familiar with f class shooting but usually start with 3 shot groups then move onto 15 shot strings after I can repeat a few solid 3 shot groups. Setup is a proven hart front rest and rear Edgewood Minigator. Gonna try again this evening with cci br primers.

 

[savagedasher]

It had ben so long that I had to tune a load that way I mite not be much help. Here goes 3 shot like you have only one of the 6 tell me much. and that isn't a lot. that is target 6 . That has a definite pattern of vertical and some horizontal. Without knowing if the point of aim is the same it turns into a guess.
If I knew where the first and second bullet were I can get some pattern.
Bullet impact to the point of aim is how I find a tune. Only two shot targets will tell that. Point of aim then becomes a factor. Any movement from the point of aim tells you about the load. Example if you have two shot all vertical 3/4 of a inch low of the point of aim. The next two with a half grain increase the point of impact rises above the point of aim but only 1/4 '' vertical .The next increase trends horizontal but still above the point of aim. Some where in that last change you will have a tune.
I have three Dashers that all take the same load . The load has low ES And good speed.
But with tuner I can tune the barrel to the load. Rim fire has ben doing it for years.
2 shot is all that is needed when tuning. Till some one can show me how they can make a group smaller then the second shot .
We have a total of 9 guns all shooting the same load With the use of a RAS tuner
Larry

 

[ttfreestyle]

Primer change helped some but not where I wanted to be so I switched to rl15 and I am very happy. I am a varget guy but this barrel made it clear it wasn't , thanks for all the replies. Troy