Glad I wasn't imagining things. Like I said in an earlier post, My buddy who shoots ftr swears the rifle settles down.
Has anyone else noticed this.
- Thread starter DJ Fergus
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I have had the same feeling before.
Most recently working up a load on a light weight 30 now with a marginal brake. The pop to the shoulder was never bad but the bounce was barely manageable and popped me in the nose once or twice.
Shooting a good node and it seems milder with little bounce.
Most recently working up a load on a light weight 30 now with a marginal brake. The pop to the shoulder was never bad but the bounce was barely manageable and popped me in the nose once or twice.
Shooting a good node and it seems milder with little bounce.
I find that when load harmonics are in tune with the rifle harmonics the recoil will be softer (more of a push rather than a kick) and the rifle will not jump it settles back on target smoothly. Maybe thats just me being one with my gun. IMO.
This is my gut feeling also. After shooting a particular rifle for a bit, I can almost tell by how the gun reacts in I'm in the sweet spot or not with my load.
crazyhorse
Well-Known Member
There's a reason the serious bench rest guys spend almost as much on their rest as they do their rifle. Proper alignment and recoil management is absolutely critical for repeatable accuracy.
I've been fortunate to spend a good portion of my career getting paid to shoot a rifle as a designated marksman for a large LE agency with a full time SWAT Team.
I've been to many schools and training events, but the most profound moment, for me, was while attending a military sniper training school with a REALLY good instructor.
The shortest version I can come up with is to spend more time building your "platform" before shooting than anything else. Once you've established your platform, get down on the rifle and address it will all of the inputs and pressure as if you were about to pull the trigger. Once your at the point of pulling the trigger relax your rear grip slightly and see if the cross hairs move off target. If they do, your position is in a "bind" so to speak and this will be magnified through the rifle during recoil. Re-adjust until the cross hairs don't or barely move during this process. Once you've got it in proper position, then dry fire and you should see the crosshairs dance or bounce from the rebound of the firing pin but never leave your aiming point. After all of this you are ready to carefully run the bolt without changing position and start shooting.
Once this was made clear to me, recoil became much more manageable and always tracks straight to the rear rather than the bouncing you mentioned. Over time you will develop a method to for sitting, prone, etc, that will be very close to right under hasty conditions.
In short (but not really
) I think position has much more influence on wild recoil than being in a node.
I've been fortunate to spend a good portion of my career getting paid to shoot a rifle as a designated marksman for a large LE agency with a full time SWAT Team.
I've been to many schools and training events, but the most profound moment, for me, was while attending a military sniper training school with a REALLY good instructor.
The shortest version I can come up with is to spend more time building your "platform" before shooting than anything else. Once you've established your platform, get down on the rifle and address it will all of the inputs and pressure as if you were about to pull the trigger. Once your at the point of pulling the trigger relax your rear grip slightly and see if the cross hairs move off target. If they do, your position is in a "bind" so to speak and this will be magnified through the rifle during recoil. Re-adjust until the cross hairs don't or barely move during this process. Once you've got it in proper position, then dry fire and you should see the crosshairs dance or bounce from the rebound of the firing pin but never leave your aiming point. After all of this you are ready to carefully run the bolt without changing position and start shooting.
Once this was made clear to me, recoil became much more manageable and always tracks straight to the rear rather than the bouncing you mentioned. Over time you will develop a method to for sitting, prone, etc, that will be very close to right under hasty conditions.
In short (but not really
) I think position has much more influence on wild recoil than being in a node.All good information and and appreciated. But my original post was assuming that shooting position / technique was sound. Assume that technique is ideal, does the rifle settle down when the load is right, cause there's no technique good enough for the rifle to shoot great if the load is not right.
Clem Bronkoski
Well-Known Member
I could possibly be a real occurance. A result of barrel harmonics and when the bullet leaves the barrel. I wouldn't count it out that the physics of the recoil direction are affected.
I've noticed it with several rifles.
crazyhorse
Well-Known Member
Its true that no amount of proper technique will cure a load your rifle doesn't like. However, I've sent quite a few rounds downrange over the years during load workup and never noticed any difference in recoil transitioning from bad to good loads. Any increases noted came from the obvious powder and/or bullet weight increases.
A good node consists of lots of things but primarily its a point of departure in a particular spot your rife likes. This can be influenced by bedding, action torque, etc. Certainly not discounting your theory but I just cant make the physics work to explain erratic recoil from the same load, even if its one the rifle doesn't shoot well.
I guess my point in the long explanation in the previous post was to say that MY particular method of shooting for consistency at long distances requires consistent, straight to the rear recoil pulses. If I'm getting lots of erratic muzzle flip or "up and right/left" during recoil, I've never not been able to overcome it by ensuring my fundamentals are correct no matter the load or its accuracy results.
