will heat (barrell)open up groups at 700 yards?

[30-06 boy]

i have a sporter wieght barrell(30-06) and am concerened if groups will open up as the barrell heats up during shooing at 700 yards? planning on 5 shot groups shot at 1 minuite intervals.will be doing most of my shooting around 30 degrees.jason

[Ballistic64]

I would venture to say that any variable will open up groups at 700 yds.

[arthurj]

Excessive barrel heat will open your groups up at any yardage. With a sporter weight barrel you will probably limited to three or four shot groups with a 1 minute interval. I would personally keep it at three.

[4ked Horn]

Just a thought. Look into your bullets velocity at this distance for the conditions and see if you are going subsonic around this distance. The bullet may be losing stability an your groups will fall apart.

[HoytemanPA]

I shoot three, not rushed but as fast as comfortable. If you wait a full minute between shots, you will end up with a plot graph of the wind conditions of your range moreso than the accuracy potential of your rifle. Many groups of threes. With an '06 skinny heat from 5 doesn't noticeably affect groups but with a mag skinny I have had groups start to open at around 4 or 5. With a heavy barrel I still shoot groups of threes but a lot more of them.

I can tell you now that UNLESS he's shooting "squibb" loads....the bullet isn't ANYWHERE NEAR SUBSONIC at 700 yards!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

[30-06 boy]

maybe i have confused some of you.i was just wondering if 5 or 6 shots shooting them at 1 minuite intervals would open up groups excessivley .i'm not going to shoot the rifle untill i can't touch the barrell.i know that would not be good.but under conservitave 4-5-6 shots.i am starting to load for a 30-06 and would like to know about when to stop shooting because the gun is starting to heat up and affect accuracy.