Vertical <-> horizontal

Good morning,

was testing a new load for my 223 and had something I never had before. Grouping went from vertical (SD 9) straight over to horizontal (SD 4) within 0.5gr. Never had any horizontal stringing ever before in that rifle and I did a fair bit of load testing with it and so can eliminate bedding issues, shooter and most other things that come up when you have a look in google - and no, no wind either that day.

https://i.ibb.co/44mX8B8/IMG-1113.jpg


Plan is to load a batch with 23.7gr now to see if there is a sweet spot in between and do some 24.0gr with different seating depth to see if that will bring the grouping in.

Anyone ever had that problem before?
Usually get a random blob in a grouping and when I hit the sweet spot with a load, the blob gets around 0.4MOA in that rifle. Just never had stringing before like that...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JaSa

Good morning,

was testing a new load for my 223 and had something I never had before. Grouping went from vertical (SD 9) straight over to horizontal (SD 4) within 0.5gr. Never had any horizontal stringing ever before in that rifle and I did a fair bit of load testing with it and so can eliminate bedding issues, shooter and most other things that come up when you have a look in google - and no, no wind either that day.

https://i.ibb.co/44mX8B8/IMG-1113.jpg


Plan is to load a batch with 23.7gr now to see if there is a sweet spot in between and do some 24.0gr with different seating depth to see if that will bring the grouping in.

Anyone ever had that problem before?
Usually get a random blob in a grouping and when I hit the sweet spot with a load, the blob gets around 0.4MOA in that rifle. Just never had stringing before like that...

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Hey mate,

I'm not super experienced with shooting or reloading but had an interesting experience last weekend. Was shooting paper with a load my rifle previously shot very well. I was getting three shots ragged hole, then suddenly couple of vertical fliers.

Blamed it on my shooting because self-deprecation is my default. Second group and the same thing happened.

Thought "bugger it - I'll take it all apart and check something hasn't got under the barrel or, similar". First thing I found was that the front action screw was loose, even though I thought I'd checked it.

So I guess my point is, check ya screws etc even if you're confident. Certainly not telling you how to suck eggs, that was just my recent experience.

Cheers,
Elliott

When you get a shift as you have described, quite often you'll find by loading between the 2 powder weights will bring the group into a more uniform pattern. So you're on the right track with your thinking.
In the picture of the vertical spread you have classic double grouping, even a bit of double grouping in the horizontal as well, which is usually a stock issue(bedding or loose king screws),or loose scope mounts. If you're %100 confident there's no issues with the rifle, altering the seating depth of the horizontal spread could shrink that down to an acceptable level as well.
Be interested to see the results.

Hi guys,

thanks for your replies.
Seating depth issue:

https://i.ibb.co/QkR7Rg3/IMG-1114.jpg

Got that excited because it could have been the best group I ever shot, that I lost me nerves and pulled shot number 4, bugger.
Load in between the two original ones (23.7gr) didn't fix the issue. Only after I went with 24gr and changed O.A.L. from 1.909 to 1.861 (0.150 jump now) it pulled it all together. Not bad for 100m grouping over the bipod in a paddock and jumper under the back, ehy?