MOA at 400 but can't get on target at 650?

Muzzle velocity input was 2975 (average of 5 shots) with the slowest being 2971 and the fastest being 2979. ballistic coefficient input was 0.507 Impacts were all around the rock, a couple high, a couple to either side and a couple low. all between 6 inched to 1 ft off the rock.

milo-2 said:

Tell us what they were, high, low, either side, apparently you have an idea of what happened.

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Impacts were all around the rock, a couple high, a couple to either side and a couple low. all between 6 inched to 1 ft off the rock.

Your shooting form might need a little help. You say when you shoot you lift your head up to see your hit. You are probably not "following through" with the shot. Don't move anything but your trigger finger, and count to two after the shot goes off. Lifting your head might be part of your foundation being unstable. Just a thought...…...

To me it sounds like you and the second shooter's "mechanics" are off. How's your cheek weld height on the comb, is LOP correct while shooting prone etc.

As Laelkhunter suggested you might have a follow through issue too. Do some dry firing on the 600 yard target, stay completely behind the rifle while dry firing and watch where your cross hairs settle after you break the trigger. By all means do not lift your head after the shot. Its not cool playing pop goes the weasel on the firing line lol.

When you go hot use the same method as when you dry fired and watched your cross hairs...at that distance you should be able to see your splash through your scope and do not break your cheek weld for nothing which will correct your follow through.

How's your trigger ---- is it tuned up properly? .... light enough not to cause you to push shots around the target?

What about caliber in relation to weight of the rifle?

You aren't running a 6 lb. 300 WM without a brake are you?

2C/1H said:

To me it sounds like you and the second shooter's "mechanics" are off. How's your cheek weld height on the comb, is LOP correct while shooting prone etc.

As Laelkhunter suggested you might have a follow through issue too. Do some dry firing on the 600 yard target, stay completely behind the rifle while dry firing and watch where your cross hairs settle after you break the trigger. By all means do not lift your head after the shot. Its not cool playing pop goes the weasel on the firing line lol.

When you go hot use the same method as when you dry fired and watched your cross hairs...at that distance you should be able to see your splash through your scope and do not break your cheek weld for nothing which will correct your follow through.

How's your trigger ---- is it tuned up properly? .... light enough not to cause you to push shots around the target?

What about caliber in relation to weight of the rifle?

You aren't running a 6 lb. 300 WM without a brake are you?

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Going to try again with follow through this weekend, it is a light rifle, browning stainless stalker with a Leupold vx5hd coming in at just over 7lbs. 300wsm no break.

The misses don't seem to group. Sounds like something in shooter form, cant, set up, parallax, etc. Or something is loose.
Back up to where it's known to work, and see if there has been a change

My first thought is shooting form/technique. Stay in the scope through impact. Lifting your head up is the wrong thing to do. If you are shooting MOA groups consistently at 400 yards, I would be surprised if something being loose would be causing the 3' groups at 650. As Greyfox stated, it very well could be a scope internal issue.
Shoot at 300, 400, 500, 600 and see what your groups do. Also, it may be a good idea to have a more skilled shooter shoot it and see what their groups look like.

My first thought is shooting form/technique. Stay in the scope through impact. Lifting your head up is the wrong thing to do. If you are shooting MOA groups consistently at 400 yards, I would be surprised if something being loose would be causing the 3' groups at 650. As Greyfox stated, it very well could be a scope internal issue.
Shoot at 300, 400, 500, 600 and see what your groups do. Also, it may be a good idea to have a more skilled shooter shoot it and see what their groups look like.

Didn't catch all the posts, but I'd see what the scope is doing. I have a target stand I built out of plywood cut at 3' x 6'. Put a white sheet of paper top to bottom. I use freezer paper. Draw a heavy black line top to bottom. When you set it up, use a level to make sure the line is plumb. First, put a bulls eye at the bottom. Then put a cross mark every 5" going up to 30". Assuming yer sighted in at 100 yards, set it up at 100 yds. Then shoot adjusting the scope to 5 MOA, 10 MOA, etc to 30 MOA. If the scope is on, you'll hit the cross mark at each marked MOA. If there's cant issues or the holes start going in different directions as you go up in MOA, you've got a scope issue. If they're spot on start looking at some of the stuff noted above. On a side note, I was shooting some Hammer bullets that I thought were gonna be the schitt. I was getting a consistent 7/8" - 1" group at 400 yards. At 700 yards they were spraying all over the paper. My Berger 230's meanwhile were still shooting 1/2 MOA groups at the same distances out of the same gun. The Hammers were destabilizing past 400. Got three boxes that I'm using as paper weights for the time being...

Do you have the twist rate the hammer bullets are calling for? You just don't hear of anyone disappointed with them on here.

Do you have a level on your gun?

Perhaps, it's scope or rifle can't, and/or a combinations of other things like proper focus and/or parallax, or not staying in the center of the scope's "fishbowl" as it called, a 600 yards/meter targets from a rest shouldn't be any problem... if it is'..., something would have to change dramatically from 400 yards/meters to 600 yards/meters not to connect if you're doing well at 400 meters from a bench rest, then what? I'm thinking parallax or scope can't or both. Good luck.

Sounds like parallax wasn't adjusted possibly. This would make the target appear to be in a different location simply as a matter of focal point. This could easily cause what your describing.

Tommy1984 said:

Muzzle velocity input was 2975 (average of 5 shots) with the slowest being 2971 and the fastest being 2979. ballistic coefficient input was 0.507 Impacts were all around the rock, a couple high, a couple to either side and a couple low. all between 6 inched to 1 ft off the rock.

Click to expand...

I agree with CVCobra1. Recheck your equipment. No reason to open up like that in 250 yds. Something is lose. Go back to 400 and see what you get.