Lower power for better groups???

[milanuk]

Just curious, what scope, and on what magnification do you shoot your tightest groups?

For various reasons, I don't have the Leupolds that I did last year, so I've been making do w/ a Sightron 6-24x w/ dot reticle, a Weaver V16 w/ duplex reticle, and a Tasco SS10x42.

The weird (and kind of disturbing) thing is that the tightest groups I've shot, especially out of my .308, have been either w/ the SS10x42 (fixed 10x), or the others set on 10x or 12x, max. And I mean some of these have been downright scary little groups (hey, even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while). But when I turn the power up, especially to 24x, my groups grow slightly in size, like perhaps 1/4-1/3" bigger.

It's almost like I can't see the bullet holes clearly enough to get *too* excited about them, or something. I mean, I get irritated trying to control the 'wiggle' of the crosshairs at higher powers, but some of my best groups have had a few shots that I would have sworn there should have been a shot out of the group (and yes, the paper was big enough, I doubt I would have missed by that much), but it was almost like I had the special hole-seeking SMKs or something.

Never thought to try lower power when I had the Leupold 6.5-20x and 8.5-25x scopes. The higher power does seem to help at longer ranges, though, as at 300 and beyond I have a hard time holding as tight w/ the 10X.

Anyone else have similar experiences, where their group sizes got *bigger*, at least at 100yds, w/ more magnification?

TIA,

Monte

 

[biggjake]

Something to consider:Virtually every 100 and 200 yard benchrest shooter shoots a 6ppc with a 36 power scope without exception.And these are the guys who need to shoot 5-shot groups in the 1's and 2's every time,or forget about being competetive.

 

[Brent]

Milanuk,

I have not had that experience, but the opposite. I have shot some great groups when my hold was not exactly pinpoint on the same spot at farther ranges though. An example of power helping out, I shot a group with my brothers 338/378 a while back and it was a 3 shot 1.2 moa group, worst I'd ever seen this gun shoot, and by double **** near. I looked down to see the power set to 5.5x. Turned it up to 22x and shot a .550 moa 5 shot group. I was not using a good rest at all so the 22x helped me really see the movement that was really going on. Ignorance is bliss, I remember being frusterated trying to get a solid rest but just couldn't tame the movement enough, so I just did my best with what I had. The scope at 22x let me time things precicely, where I hadn't even seen the movement before on 5.5x.

I see you're from Wenatchee, reminded me of a time I was hitchhiking back to Alaska through there when I was 16. I about froze my *** off up the road aways near a lake on the left just north of there heading tward Omak. It was 106 degrees that day in late June, that night I thought of surviving the NIGHT!

I had just a wool blanket and summer clothes. I got my Slumberjack mailed to me by mom the next day in Omak.

No idea what the temp was that night but **** what a temp swing!!

 

[Nicholas]

What about too much power for very long range shooting? For example will there be too much mirage to use a 22x scope at 800-2000 yards on hot days?

 

[Boyd Heaton]

I run a 6-20 Nikon on my 16.5 pound gun,And a 8.5-25 Leupold LR on my heavy gun.To me 20 power is about the max for me on hot day's.Also barrel heat from my light gun causes some trouble also...There was a few match's last year when I ran around 16 power on my light gun.They were the two worst group's I had all year.....

 

[Darryl Cassel]

20X to 24X is the average scope setting for 1000 yd match shooting at Williamsport.

Later
DC

 

[Nicholas]

Thanks guys, I haven't used a rifle scope with more than 16x. 22x sounds just right then.