bgordon
Well-Known Member
I have a 22-250 AI target rifle with a 1-8 twist barrel and it seems to shoot in a rather odd way. My bullet of choice is the 80 grain VLD Berger bullet at about 3150 fps.
The odd thing about the way it shoots is that it seems to shoot approx. the same size groups at all distances from 100 yards out to 600 yards. For instance, the last time I changed scopes, I took the rifle to the range and shot from the bench to get it on paper at 100 yards. It ended up taking quite a few 3 shot groups at 100 yards to get the setup in the right place because I installed a set of rings which use the Burris offset bushing inserts so I can get enough vertical scope adjustment to shoot 1000 yards someday. Out of the 7 groups that I fired, only one was smaller than 1" but none were bigger than 1.25".
Next I moved to 200 yards and shot 2 groups, both of which ran about the same size.
Since I know how many clicks to get to 600 with that particular load, I moved right to the 600 yard range and started shooting. The aggregate for 4 three shot groups was 1.32", with all but one bullet being within a 1" vertical spread. Most of the horizontal spread was due to the slight breeze variation. I tried to shoot each string as quickly as possible in order to keep the same conditions thru the string.
My question is if anybody else has seen this behavior out of the fast twist barrels and heavy .224" bullets?
Before you ask, this is something I have noticed out of this barrel from day one. It just really stood out that particular day because it was actually reasonably calm conditions, which is almost unheard of around here. Normally my 600 yard groups will be about 1/2" to 1 1/2" vertical spread X whatever the wind drift is horizontally, which is the reason for shooting 3 shot groups rather than 5 or 10 shot groups at longer range. Also, my normal routine is to shoot prone using a front bi-pod and rear bag. I clean the bore after every 7 shots, shoot one fouling shot, shoot a 3 shot group, let the barrel cool, shoot a second 3 shot group, then go down and change out the targets while letting the barrel cool.
The odd thing about the way it shoots is that it seems to shoot approx. the same size groups at all distances from 100 yards out to 600 yards. For instance, the last time I changed scopes, I took the rifle to the range and shot from the bench to get it on paper at 100 yards. It ended up taking quite a few 3 shot groups at 100 yards to get the setup in the right place because I installed a set of rings which use the Burris offset bushing inserts so I can get enough vertical scope adjustment to shoot 1000 yards someday. Out of the 7 groups that I fired, only one was smaller than 1" but none were bigger than 1.25".
Next I moved to 200 yards and shot 2 groups, both of which ran about the same size.
Since I know how many clicks to get to 600 with that particular load, I moved right to the 600 yard range and started shooting. The aggregate for 4 three shot groups was 1.32", with all but one bullet being within a 1" vertical spread. Most of the horizontal spread was due to the slight breeze variation. I tried to shoot each string as quickly as possible in order to keep the same conditions thru the string.
My question is if anybody else has seen this behavior out of the fast twist barrels and heavy .224" bullets?
Before you ask, this is something I have noticed out of this barrel from day one. It just really stood out that particular day because it was actually reasonably calm conditions, which is almost unheard of around here. Normally my 600 yard groups will be about 1/2" to 1 1/2" vertical spread X whatever the wind drift is horizontally, which is the reason for shooting 3 shot groups rather than 5 or 10 shot groups at longer range. Also, my normal routine is to shoot prone using a front bi-pod and rear bag. I clean the bore after every 7 shots, shoot one fouling shot, shoot a 3 shot group, let the barrel cool, shoot a second 3 shot group, then go down and change out the targets while letting the barrel cool.
