All honest criticism welcome - shooting

[Djfan]

I hate taking shots over 100 yards at big game. I truly work on my shooting, and have pretty good rifles, and good to real good optics. I just can't seem to get my shot looking like I want.

First target is my 30-05 at 100 yards off of a sled. I just had a gunsmith alter it into a floating barrel.

The second target is my 270 at 100 yards. The best shot is off a sled. The rest are standing against a post, or kneeling with shooting sticks. I think that I might get an upgraded, lesser pound trigger. It feels tough to me.

Advice?

 

[Thebigbaby]

Can I seek more info?

How long have you been shooting?
What were you aiming at?
Factory ammo?
Bullet grain?
Barrel twist?

 

[ccc23454]

You almost got that buckshot dialed in!

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

First question, have you tried multiple brands and styles of rounds?

I've found my rifle to be pretty picky. The best rounds are about 0.75" at 100 yards while the worst are 6"+ at 100 yards.

I had to play around until I found the best which for me is federal premium trophy copper. Their nontypical Whitetail round also shoots well but I like all copper now.

 

[shannerdrake]

Good on yah for ditching the macho crap and being honest.

How are you with recoil? Have a friend load your rifle and but tell him/her not to always load a round. Do your crosshairs stay on target when you pull the trigger on an empty chamber? If your crosshairs jump you are flinching.

I have a friend who had a tikka with a decent scope that he swore was a piece of junk and wouldn’t group better than 3-4 inches.

He sold it to another buddy. I shot my first sub .5in group with that gun and the other buddy who bought it shot an honest to God .18in group (all of us shot the same ammo). By far the best group I’ve ever seen in person. The friend who owned it originally still won’t admit that he has a flinching problem.

 

[elkfanatic]

Hate to say this but it looks like some is shooter induced. ( flinching/yanking the trigger ). Have a friend shoot it off a solid bench with sandbags then you shoot off the bags and compare the groups. That will tell you if it's the gun/ammo or the shooter. If his groups resemble yours I'd start by checking all scope mounts and action screws. Tighten everything to manufacturer specs. If that doesn't help I'd try a different scope. Next inline would be ammo. If his groups are considerably better than yours it's you. Try dry fire practice, make sure you are square behind the gun, and practice your follow through. When you squeeze the trigger don't let it reset till you've seen your bullet impact. Try to watch your impact through the scope. Another thing to watch for is to make sure your sling stud is not making contact with your rest during recoil. It's seldom that a gun shoots that bad without either something on the gun being loose or the nut behind the gun is loose. Hopefully this helps and hope you get it figured out.

 

[HappyCamper]

Couple thoughts come to mind based on my past errors:
1: Make sure your scope isn’t mounted incorrectly or damaged. The inconsistently here makes me suspicious - I finally replaced a scope and lots of problems were solved.
2: Going with a light trigger changed the game for me. It takes all natural anticipation out of the equation.
3: I am overall pretty good with rifles but I have tried some calibers that I CANNOT manage to get any consistent results with. I have no explanation as to why though.

 

[Djfan]

Can I seek more info?

How long have you been shooting?
What were you aiming at?
Factory ammo?
Bullet grain?
Barrel twist?

About 15 years.
Center dot
Both rifles have a twist of 10:1

 

[MTLabrador]

First thing I would check is scope mounting, such as proper torque, alignment, etc.

Second thing I would check is the action screws.

 

[Djfan]

First question, have you tried multiple brands and styles of rounds?

I've found my rifle to be pretty picky. The best rounds are about 0.75" at 100 yards while the worst are 6"+ at 100 yards.

I had to play around until I found the best which for me is federal premium trophy copper. Their nontypical Whitetail round also shoots well but I like all copper now.

I have. The only time it was in love with what I was shooting, it was a buddy's reload of 165 grain for the 30-06. The 270 did well with the same ammo shown above, even out to 300 yards, but only on a sled. Getting me to shoot like I would while hunting, not so much.

 

[Djfan]

First thing I would check is scope mounting, such as proper torque, alignment, etc.

Second thing I would check is the action screws.

I will have this looked at. Thanks

 

[Djfan]

Good on yah for ditching the macho crap and being honest.

How are you with recoil? Have a friend load your rifle and but tell him/her not to always load a round. Do your crosshairs stay on target when you pull the trigger on an empty chamber? If your crosshairs jump you are flinching.

I have a friend who had a tikka with a decent scope that he swore was a piece of junk and wouldn’t group better than 3-4 inches.

He sold it to another buddy. I shot my first sub .5in group with that gun and the other buddy who bought it shot an honest to God .18in group (all of us shot the same ammo). By far the best group I’ve ever seen in person. The friend who owned it originally still won’t admit that he has a flinching problem.

I am super willing to admit that, but not sure it's real. How do I address this? If I do something about it, and it improves, I'm guilty, but thank you for the insight.

 

[brockel]

Dump the sled. They are scope wreckers. What scope is on the rifles now? Very good possibility the sled already wrecked the scope. The sled stops the recoil energy to the shooters should but that energy still has to go somewhere and the usual place is the scope

 

[Dsnow9]

I’m guessing you are focusing on your target and not your cross hairs. Focus on the cross hairs with both eyes open. The target will slowly move around but the key is to smoothly pull the trigger when the cross hairs are on the target. The trigger pull should be like drawing a line in the sand.

And ditch the lead sled and just get some sand bags. If your target still looks like patterning a shotgun after that you might have an issue with the rifle.

Has anyone else shot your rifles for you?

 

[Djfan]

I’m guessing you are focusing on your target and not your cross hairs. Focus on the cross hairs with both eyes open. The target will slowly move around but the key is to smoothly pull the trigger when the cross hairs are on the target. The trigger pull should be like drawing a line in the sand.

And ditch the lead sled and just get some sand bags. If your target still looks like patterning a shotgun after that you might have an issue with the rifle.

Has anyone else shot your rifles for you?

Thanks for the issue of the sled (and Brokel, too!). I have never heard this. The scope on the 270 is pretty new, a Leupold, and only shot off the sled about 5 times. Hoping it's OK still. The one on the 30-06 is a Simmons, and older. It has been shot off the sled quite a few times. It might be toast. I will get them both to a gunsmith soon.

No one else has shot it. I will reach out to my gun club and see if I can get that to happen.

 

[Thebigbaby]

About 15 years.
Center dot
Both rifles have a twist of 10:1View attachment 288124

Thank you. Seems to be typical bullet weight/barrel twist.

Like others have said, I’d see if you can have someone else shoot the rifles and compare results. Also check tightness on scope mounts and action bolts.

I don’t think that Simmons is super high quality anyway and pairing that with the lead sled may have worn it out.

 

[Jbotto]

Man, if you were a bit closer I’d suggest you come out and we could have a second look at this. I will admit that I used to flinch with a .30-06 but I think I’m mostly cured from it. I could shoot great groups from the bench but would flinch bad at game.

The .270 target is hard to tell since it wasn’t really shot as a group. You shot some from the bench and some from field positions. Realistically most of those shots will be lethal at short range but that would bother me if my rifles were printing targets that way.

 

[Bowmannate2000]

If the 30-06 shot better with 165gr bullets, maybe go back to those. Since you have the same issue with both rifles, it seems more likely something in your mechanics is off rather than both guns, though that could be possible. Do you have a lighter shooting rifle you can use to practice more with?

 

[Jbotto]

I’d think a good start would be to have someone else shoot a couple 3 or 5 shot groups with each rifle, from sandbags on a bench, and post the results.

 

[Djfan]

If the 30-06 shot better with 165gr bullets, maybe go back to those. Since you have the same issue with both rifles, it seems more likely something in your mechanics is off rather than both guns, though that could be possible. Do you have a lighter shooting rifle you can use to practice more with?

I have a Savage .243, and I love it. We get along great.