What do you think is WRONG with my bench shooting?? Group?

[Ingwe]

I'll start by saying that I do not like shooting off the bench. When I do I use a front rest and rear sandbag.

Whenever I shoot off the bench for a group, I usually ALWAYS, for a 3 shot group, touch 2 rounds then throw one an inch away. When it's a 5 shot group, I will touch 2 or 3 then throw 2 away an inch away, just like I do with a 3 shot group. I wanted to try to find a pattern as to what I am doing wrong, so what I thought to do was to superimpose the old targets that I had saved onto one of my 1" targets dots. I then drew a small circle (17cal sized ) into the center of each bullet hole. I hope that you can envision what I am talking about?

So look at the picture that I attached...it is 50 shots superimposed onto 1 one inch target dot. My rifle is a 7mmRemMag. The grouping that you see pictured is a bit deceptive, because they are not 7mm sized. Initially, I traced the 7mm bullet hole, but when I did, the orange dot is barely visible and the misses are all clustered together making it hard to see the exact point of impact. The smaller dots show better where the individual bullets impacted on the target.

As you can see, 15 of the 50 shots are outside of the dot but 35 are in or touching the dot.

Of my total misses, it seems that I cluster my misses at 3 o'clock, 5 o'clock, and a few at 2 o'clock.

I would like to hear your thoughts on what I'm doing wrong...I THINK that I am varying the amount of pressure that I put on my cheek-piece as well as NOT following through on my trigger pull....maybe even subconsciously looking up when gun fired to see my impact?

Oh, and I'm LEFT-HANDED too.

I would love to hear what you guys think...gotta give me some credit for posting a bunch of misses right? LOL. I know...we NEVER miss! Me neither

PS: the attached 5 shot group is typical of what I get....I can NEVER touch my whole group or even put them all in the dot!

 

[sedancowboy]

I am not an expert but I am left handed and that has nothing to do with your problem. There are so many things that could be causing your flyers or outliers. Your reloading could have a flaw in it that causes occasional flyers. ie.. Neck tension would be my first guess. Try annealing.
Your firing pin could be striking the side of the bolt or the spring is weak. Disassemble the bolt and inspect the firing pin and replace the spring. Look carefully at the firing pin for any shinny spots to determine where it is hitting the bolt.
Your barrel could be touching the stock and as it heats up it moves.
Or it could be you. Are you syncing your self out.
Henry

 

[BoomFlop]

I'm not sure what you are trying to do with the drawing, but anyway....

We don't know anything about the rifle and scope.

Are your shots that touch always the first 2-3 shots and the fliers happen after that? If so, maybe it is mental pressure/focus. Try shooting a group without check where they go until afterwards, and you might want to try longer period of time between shots. This would also eliminate heat as a possible issue.

Make sure your sling studs are not touch any of your rest before or during recoil.

Watch parallax as well, move you head around and make sure crosshairs don't move.

Steve

 

[Mram10us]

More info on barrel contour, model of rifle, work done, etc please.
You can always put some sandbags on the top and free recoil for a 5 shot string to take your cheek pressure out of it.

 

[Barrelnut]

Is the barrel of the rifle rising off the front bag and jumping to the right during the shot? Kinda looks like it. Maybe putting the rifle more forward on the front bag and being very conscious of check pressure would help.

 

[Ingwe]

I'm not sure what you are trying to do with the drawing, but anyway....

We don't know anything about the rifle and scope.

Are your shots that touch always the first 2-3 shots and the fliers happen after that? If so, maybe it is mental pressure/focus. Try shooting a group without check where they go until afterwards, and you might want to try longer period of time between shots. This would also eliminate heat as a possible issue.

Make sure your sling studs are not touch any of your rest before or during recoil.

Watch parallax as well, move you head around and make sure crosshairs don't move.

Steve

Boom, as I mentioned in my OP, the reason that I traced the impacts is because I wanted to establish what my groups were/are over allot of rounds, and I think that my photo shows that.

YES, I am going to pay more attention to my parallax thanks for that!

 

[Ingwe]

More info on barrel contour, model of rifle, work done, etc please.
You can always put some sandbags on the top and free recoil for a 5 shot string to take your cheek pressure out of it.

Rem 700 26" 1:8 #4 contour barrel. It's a remage with a Criterion barrel. Had it blueprinted and stocked by Manners with a mini-chassis too.

 

[Ingwe]

Is the barrel of the rifle rising off the front bag and jumping to the right during the shot? Kinda looks like it. Maybe putting the rifle more forward on the front bag and being very conscious of check pressure would help.

I think that you hit something with your post! I do place for-end pretty far back on the ft rest...closer to the magazine than to the end of the for-end.....I am looking foreword to trying to put the for-end way forward. And YES, I think it is varying cheek pressure as well....THANKS!

 

[Barrelnut]

Great. Hope it helps. It can change the balance point a bit and help keep the muzzle down with higher recoiling hunting weight rifles.

 

[L.Sherm]

I'm thinking along the line with sedancowboy, I would be looking at load.

 

[Backcountry sports]

I'll start by saying that I do not like shooting off the bench. When I do I use a front rest and rear sandbag.

Whenever I shoot off the bench for a group, I usually ALWAYS, for a 3 shot group, touch 2 rounds then throw one an inch away. When it's a 5 shot group, I will touch 2 or 3 then throw 2 away an inch away, just like I do with a 3 shot group. I wanted to try to find a pattern as to what I am doing wrong, so what I thought to do was to superimpose the old targets that I had saved onto one of my 1" targets dots. I then drew a small circle (17cal sized ) into the center of each bullet hole. I hope that you can envision what I am talking about?

So look at the picture that I attached...it is 50 shots superimposed onto 1 one inch target dot. My rifle is a 7mmRemMag. The grouping that you see pictured is a bit deceptive, because they are not 7mm sized. Initially, I traced the 7mm bullet hole, but when I did, the orange dot is barely visible and the misses are all clustered together making it hard to see the exact point of impact. The smaller dots show better where the individual bullets impacted on the target.

As you can see, 15 of the 50 shots are outside of the dot but 35 are in or touching the dot.

Of my total misses, it seems that I cluster my misses at 3 o'clock, 5 o'clock, and a few at 2 o'clock.

I would like to hear your thoughts on what I'm doing wrong...I THINK that I am varying the amount of pressure that I put on my cheek-piece as well as NOT following through on my trigger pull....maybe even subconsciously looking up when gun fired to see my impact?

Oh, and I'm LEFT-HANDED too.

I would love to hear what you guys think...gotta give me some credit for posting a bunch of misses right? LOL. I know...we NEVER miss! Me neither

PS: the attached 5 shot group is typical of what I get....I can NEVER touch my whole group or even put them all in the dot!

 

[Backcountry sports]

Seems like your tilting the gun use a lead sled to test it

 

[30BR]

I think you are putting too much shoulder pressure on the stock, or rather inconsistent pressure, since A lot of your misses are right.

 

[Sledhead406]

I like your target idea with a high round count superimposed to show the pattern.
I am also a lefty, and have this same problem with a 223 Howa with #6 heavy barrel that I put into a B&C stock, bedded, etc.
I can put 2 of every three shots right on top of each other, the third round will almost always be 1/2" off at 2 o'clock. Any of the 3 shots can be the flyer but the results are the same.

I even dremeled out the first bedding job I did as I was sure that was the problem, to no benefit.

I am no help to you except to say you're not the only one with this problem. For me, it is just this one rifle that does it. Current theory is: my cheek weld is slightly too high on this particular stock and will test slightly higher rings next.

An above idea about interference with sling studs is a good one to explore as well.. I especially like it because removing the studs is free!