Focus
Active member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2017
- Messages
- 290
I'll preface this by saying that I'd bet that the phrase "your mileage may vary" occurs more often in this section of the forum than any others. 
So with that in mind.... If I'm dealing with a clean bore, then I'll shoot a couple rounds to foul the bore. I'll wait until the barrel is cool to the touch. That's very subjective and is dependent upon the air temperature and my level of patience. If its 40 degrees out then I like to feel it cold. If its 85 degrees out then the temperature sensors in my hand might "feel" it cold when in fact its probably not.
If I'm dealing with a fouled bore then I'll just start shooting groups. Time between shots isn't something I time but I'd guess about a minute, no more than two. Reloading, repositioning the rifle and breathing take up most of that time, and I follow the guideline of, if the trigger hasn't broken in about 10 seconds then breathe again and start the squeeze process over, so that might take up 20-30 seconds right there.
All that said, there have been a lot of times I've gone out and shot my sporter weight guns so that the barrel remained hot to the touch throughout a lengthy string. We used to shoot any-rifle/any-sight matches at my old gun club in NE and that was at least a 32 round course of fire. And I've shot my 308 LRTR gun continuously enough so that you couldn't touch the barrel without leaving skin behind, and it still shoots 3/4 minute.
I guess what I'm saying is that barrel heat doesn't make that big of a difference to group size as long as there aren't any pressure points on the barrel that change the harmonics as it heats up. I'm guessing your Tikka has pressure at the fore-end tip (most sporter wt. barrels shoot better with fore-end pressure, at least that's the ol' wives tale....and has been my experience). So you let it cool between groups as you practice (or shoot groups) with other rifles.
So with that in mind.... If I'm dealing with a clean bore, then I'll shoot a couple rounds to foul the bore. I'll wait until the barrel is cool to the touch. That's very subjective and is dependent upon the air temperature and my level of patience. If its 40 degrees out then I like to feel it cold. If its 85 degrees out then the temperature sensors in my hand might "feel" it cold when in fact its probably not.
If I'm dealing with a fouled bore then I'll just start shooting groups. Time between shots isn't something I time but I'd guess about a minute, no more than two. Reloading, repositioning the rifle and breathing take up most of that time, and I follow the guideline of, if the trigger hasn't broken in about 10 seconds then breathe again and start the squeeze process over, so that might take up 20-30 seconds right there.
All that said, there have been a lot of times I've gone out and shot my sporter weight guns so that the barrel remained hot to the touch throughout a lengthy string. We used to shoot any-rifle/any-sight matches at my old gun club in NE and that was at least a 32 round course of fire. And I've shot my 308 LRTR gun continuously enough so that you couldn't touch the barrel without leaving skin behind, and it still shoots 3/4 minute.
I guess what I'm saying is that barrel heat doesn't make that big of a difference to group size as long as there aren't any pressure points on the barrel that change the harmonics as it heats up. I'm guessing your Tikka has pressure at the fore-end tip (most sporter wt. barrels shoot better with fore-end pressure, at least that's the ol' wives tale....and has been my experience). So you let it cool between groups as you practice (or shoot groups) with other rifles.
