Recoils impact on accuracy.

[worthen86ford]

Does the way a rifle recoils affect the POI? I noticed this morning shooting that trying to shoot relaxed off of a rest or bipod that my groups were huge for my rifle 2-3 inch with hornady sst, black, and gunner. I then shoot like i normally do with the stock tucked tight with off hand pulling back on the rifle handguard and made 2 consecutive 3 rd groups that a dime could cover.

Long range shooters dont load up a rifle with their arms right? Is this why preloading a bipod is important? Is this why long range rifles are heavy? Muzzle brake help?

[grayfox]

Recoil (rifle weight, bullet MV and weight, how you hold the gun and etc) definitely affects your POI. An AR has the bang but also has the bolt/buffer cycling, all of which can cause barrel movement before the bullet exits. Bullet travel takes roughly 1 millisecond to exit the barrel, which is a long time when the reflexive recoil actions are considered.
Benchrest shooters don't see the same effect because primarily they are shooting 13-15 lb bolt action rifles, lots of them also use a suppressor.
JBM has a recoil calculator that will show you the differences in the force, momentum etc. Momentum is what causes the recoil.

https://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin/jbmrecoil-5.1.cgi

[grayfox]

One more thing, there is an effect on recoil due to the center of gravity of the rifle relative to your barrel and bullet's exit... since the CoG is not right inline with the barrel it causes a torque or twisting that tends to throw your muzzle tip upwards.

[FLshooter]

I shoot both bench and prone.Most of my rifles are at least 10 pounds .And when you add the scope you’re looking at 12-13lbs. A 24 or 26 inch heavy barrel helps with recoil.I have a 22 inch criterion Hbar Grendel barrel which is fairly light.I put a gamma 6.5 muzzle brake on it. It made quite a difference in recoil.
Like grayfox said,how you hold a gun also makes a difference. I load my bipod by putting some pressure on it with my shoulder.That will keep it from wanting to bounce.

[nuthead]

Recoil affects accuracy for sure - you can't free recoil a lightweight rifle and expect it to shoot well. The groups shrink a fair bit if you hold the forend... there's a well known gunsmith and long range hunter in New Zealand called Nathan Foster who is a big proponent of this.

With a heavy or low recoiling rifle you can cross the non trigger hand under the stock and squeeze the bag no problem though

[worthen86ford]

I guess ive been watching too many PRS shooters. Can’t shoot the 16” AR grendel the same way. Thanks guys. Learning more everyday

[A5BLASTER]

I guess ive been watching too many PRS shooters. Can’t shoot the 16” AR grendel the same way. Thanks guys. Learning more everyday

Yea the grendel has a lil pop to it so you have to man up on the rifle a bit more then 223/556 in the ar frame.

No need to hold the handguard, just bag the rifle front and rear and add a muzzle brake if you still need to cut down on the muzzle flip.

[tdbru]

the PALMA shooters all use a sling. a correctly done sling helps control the rifle and aids immensely with support as opposed to no sling. the F-Class rifles are heavy if i recall 10kg limit and 9kg for T/R class. they're also shooting as light a caliber as they can to get the groups they want at the distance they want. most use bipods, but they also have a sling class. they shoot things like 6mm Dasher etc. so yes, recoil plays a part in how well a shooter can shoot. off a machine rest it may not make a difference. in the hands of a shooter it does.

i am of the limited experience opinion that if the rifle isn't really low recoil (either large rifle mass or light recoiling cartridge or both) you'll likely shoot it better with a correctly setup sling than off of a bipod.

i have found that for some light weight big caliber hunting rifles, i get much better groups by controlling the forend rather than "free recoil". for heavy rifles in low recoil calibers (10 lb 22 LR) i can shoot them "free recoil" off the bench as accurately as i can shoot them with a sling, often more so, depending upon how much coffee i have had that day.

so for modest weight rifles, use a sling if possible and control the forend. for very low recoiling rifles, probably not much of an issue either way.
-tdbru