07-19-2012, 01:31 AM
ChellieWiles hit most of the important points.
1. Put something like a sleeping pad between your bi-pod and the bench
2. Concentration only on shooting will help avoid lapses that make you pull shots
3. Rather than shooting groups, put up little dots, and shoot only one round at a time at the little dots. That way, each shot
is a separate effort to get as close to center as possible, and you get out of the group mindset.
4. Black and white targets seem to help as some scopes (notably Leupold) have difficulty resolving edges of red/orange
targets, and so the edges appear sort of fuzzy, or ill defined. This is with the factory lenses on a Mk4 scope, so I
imagine there are some filters that can solve this issue. When I stopped using orange dots, my group size shrank.
5. Admit it when you are having a bad day, and save the ammo, and frustration. We all have an occasional bad day, and if
you continue shooting, it will frustrate you, and waste good ammo. Most men HATE to admit having a bad day.
6. Don't forget about wind. Even at 100 yards a gust of wind can turn a great group into a group with flyers. Usually you
can see this when you get mysterious stringing. Everyone knows about wind from 3 or 9 o'clock...but wind from 12 or
6 o'clock can change point of impact too.
7. Remember about rifle barrels heating up. My M40A1 McMillan built 300 Win mag is incredibly accurate, but after 12-14
rounds, my shots at 600 yards begin to rise. This is because the lower part of the barrel is insulated by the stock and
doesn't bleed off heat as fast as the exposed top part. This causes unequal expansion of the barrel...the bottom has
more heat, so it expands more, and that bends the barrel upwards just enough to require one or two clicks down.
The big one though is ChellieWiles thought about self fulfilling prophecy. It is very real. If you believe it will happen, you make it happen. If you worry about it, you make it happen. If you think about it, you aren't concentrating enough on the shot you are about to make, and therefore blow the shot.
1. Put something like a sleeping pad between your bi-pod and the bench
2. Concentration only on shooting will help avoid lapses that make you pull shots
3. Rather than shooting groups, put up little dots, and shoot only one round at a time at the little dots. That way, each shot
is a separate effort to get as close to center as possible, and you get out of the group mindset.
4. Black and white targets seem to help as some scopes (notably Leupold) have difficulty resolving edges of red/orange
targets, and so the edges appear sort of fuzzy, or ill defined. This is with the factory lenses on a Mk4 scope, so I
imagine there are some filters that can solve this issue. When I stopped using orange dots, my group size shrank.
5. Admit it when you are having a bad day, and save the ammo, and frustration. We all have an occasional bad day, and if
you continue shooting, it will frustrate you, and waste good ammo. Most men HATE to admit having a bad day.
6. Don't forget about wind. Even at 100 yards a gust of wind can turn a great group into a group with flyers. Usually you
can see this when you get mysterious stringing. Everyone knows about wind from 3 or 9 o'clock...but wind from 12 or
6 o'clock can change point of impact too.
7. Remember about rifle barrels heating up. My M40A1 McMillan built 300 Win mag is incredibly accurate, but after 12-14
rounds, my shots at 600 yards begin to rise. This is because the lower part of the barrel is insulated by the stock and
doesn't bleed off heat as fast as the exposed top part. This causes unequal expansion of the barrel...the bottom has
more heat, so it expands more, and that bends the barrel upwards just enough to require one or two clicks down.
The big one though is ChellieWiles thought about self fulfilling prophecy. It is very real. If you believe it will happen, you make it happen. If you worry about it, you make it happen. If you think about it, you aren't concentrating enough on the shot you are about to make, and therefore blow the shot.