Thread: New Tikka .308 zeroing issues

@JimmyJames have you shot center fire rifles before?
It’s just that I see in your first post that you said you where new to the hunting game.
It might just be your shooting technique.
The guys above have touched on it.

Have a read of this. https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Kno...at+Forend.html

(I’ve brought his books and learnt a lot, there good to have and saved me a lot of frustration).

Question: Did you take the rifle apart at any stage before you started with the sight-in?

If so then it could be that recoil lug.

The rest might just be you. Also what was the weather doing? ie how windy was it? Was it across a gully? Cross wind etc, you would be surprised how often it’s the wind that beats you.
My opinion though is the bouncing bipod and to many shots = hot barrel plus shooting technique not being consistent.

To prove its not you get someone else who you know has and can shoot at 200 try your rifle.
This takes you out of the equation, which will take some of the pressure off.
If you find it still doesn’t shoot then you know it’s something with the rifle.
If it dose shoot then you need more practice, which is a good thing!
Good luck

@JimmyJames did you get to the bottom of this? The 4 pages of people who tried to assist would probably like an update and Im curious know how it turned out too?

And keep you hand off the foreend when you're shooting from a rest. That Ballistic studies guy doesnt know what hes talking about.

Originally Posted by JohnDuxbury

And keep you hand off the foreend when you're shooting from a rest. That Ballistic studies guy doesnt know what hes talking about. He has plagiarized every website on the world wide web and presents it all as his own ideas. Even the bad ones.

Nathan is all about hunting and the fore end grip is used on the range because it is also used in every field position and he is after repeatable results in the field. Just the same as a target shooter using the same technique every time.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Nathan is all about hunting and the fore end grip is used on the range because it is also used in every field position and he is after repeatable results in the field. Just the same as a target shooter using the same technique every time.

allowing the rifle to free recoil without holding the forend just seems so wrong to me . . it can work but a natural hold and follow thru i see as good repeatable techneque.

what i find interesting in this problem is the results are fine at 100 but go to hell at 200, so we know the rifle and shooter are both working fine at short range.
as to 200 being a long way and being difficult i find that a non issue, its not hard, there is something else at play here.

awhile ago i took a guy out to sight in his new tikka .308 with the intention of going out to 500nyards . . now this guy is a crap field shooter, absolutely hopeless, but he wanted to try LR.
we used the legs of jeans cut off and filled with sand and shot off the bonnet off the ute. The forend was supported by the left hand on a sandbag and a sandbag under the trigger hand . . i got him lined up with good body position and we had at it.
at 100, 200, 300, 400 he was grouping roughly 1.5 MOA . . then he had a great idea, he would change the way he held the rifle and body position . . the groups more than doubled in size and went hard left.
the obvious was techneque but also i beleive he was tired by the end . . the .308 is not a kicker but to someone new to the game, the concentration and recoil add up. Also he had to be home at a certain time so pushed things along, all n all a bad combination.

so my 2c is go with sandbags, good body position, good follow thru and take your time . . leave the bipod at home, do some warmup shooting with a .22 first . . do not rush, enjoy every part of the what your doing, if your not enjoying it your doing something wrong and you need to look at the why.

then again it could be the scope . . a saying from a BenchRest shooter " there are more barrells replaced because of faulty scopes "

good luck

I never hold the forhand at the range,the cushion the rifle rests on takes all the recoil bounce on firing.Theres litte recoil from my suppressed 308.Only my right hand holding rifle against my sholder.Have no problem watching bullets making holes in target thru my scope after trigger pull.Even shot a 2 shot one inch group on bull at 400yds thru the 300wm the same way as above,Mind you that was very exceptional day.

allowing the the rifle to free recoil works . . but is it good practice for a novice, i dont think so.
call me old fashioned ( my partner does ) but i like old school riflemen techneques, they have been proven over time to work in war and in the field, free recoil seems is a recent arrival.
But if free recoil works for you thats great . . give every option a try and see what works for you

Originally Posted by Trout

I never hold the forhand at the range,the cushion the rifle rests on takes all the recoil bounce on firing.Theres litte recoil from my suppressed 308.Only my right hand holding rifle against my sholder.Have no problem watching bullets making holes in target thru my scope after trigger pull.Even shot a 2 shot one inch group on bull at 400yds thru the 300wm the same way as above,Mind you that was very exceptional day.

Stock shape and weight make a big difference. Some rifles can be shot really well with a single hand hold, but ALL rifle shapes and weights can be shot well with a solid fore end grip

out casting bullets and a few thoughts occured to me . . 1st i better come inside and have a coffee and a biscuit.

2nd does the POI change @Trout from your range sessions style with no forend pressure to a hunting in the field practice ?

3rd do you practice to simulate field shooting ?

4th this is the way i see it, others will have different ideas
i have a bunch of rifles i all shoot differently.
Varmint rifles . . all but one is off the bipod, with the No.1 Ruger i only shoot off my pack.
all other rifles i fire leaning over sandbags . . thats for everything, working up a load, zeroing, varifying.
its as close to how i might get to shoot at animals accurately if am lucky . . if am not so lucky i am leaning over a bush shooting over my pack or other strange positions.
my point being i look at range time as preparing for the field . . small groups shot off the bench that i cant duplicate in the field are of little value, using a techneque i won't use in the field is of no value to me, in fact it might give me a false idea of my skills.

which has nothing to do with the young mans problem in this thread . . forget i mentioned it, its probably the fumes coming off the casting pot

Originally Posted by rossi.45

out casting bullets and a few thoughts occured to me . . 1st i better come inside and have a coffee and a biscuit.

2nd does the POI change @Trout from your range sessions style with no forend pressure to a hunting in the field practice ?

3rd do you practice to simulate field shooting ?

4th this is the way i see it, others will have different ideas
i have a bunch of rifles i all shoot differently.
Varmint rifles . . all but one is off the bipod, with the No.1 Ruger i only shoot off my pack.
all other rifles i fire leaning over sandbags . . thats for everything, working up a load, zeroing, varifying.
its as close to how i might get to shoot at animals accurately if am lucky . . if am not so lucky i am leaning over a bush shooting over my pack or other strange positions.
my point being i look at range time as preparing for the field . . small groups shot off the bench that i cant duplicate in the field are of little value, using a techneque i won't use in the field is of no value to me, in fact it might give me a false idea of my skills.

which has nothing to do with the young mans problem in this thread . . forget i mentioned it, its probably the fumes coming off the casting pot

I just shoot off the bonnet of my truck at the range,nothing special.Same way every time for years.Most of the deer i shoot are under 300yds,so thats easy.Some on the run at 200yds or less.Deer are a big target but do shoot rabbits or roos now and then at good distance just for practice.Field shooting to me is just a few thousand roos and some deer yrs ago,308 of coarse.Good practice.Nothing special in my shooting bench bonnet.

does the Mrs know you stole the cushion off the couch ? and the towels from laundry ?

JJ I see you live on the island below me some where,i guess within 3hrs drive.if you want to try something different, PM me.Come up my way and we will go try yr tikka at the range,pretty much the same as mine.Try some different target designs iv got here.You bring some sand bags and some ammo to waste and some quality ammo not to waste,try my quality ammo too,see what answer we can find.Im no crack shot sniper,but iv fired a few 1000s rds out of a 308.Its you we gota help shoot a rabbit at 200yds.

Originally Posted by chainsaw

does the Mrs know you stole the cushion off the couch ? and the towels from laundry ?

Theyv been in the truck for many yrs.

i did not see which bullet being used ,the twist of the rifling . i can understand what happens when weight is added to the barrel ,screws up the harmonics

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

Stock shape and weight make a big difference. Some rifles can be shot really well with a single hand hold, but ALL rifle shapes and weights can be shot well with a solid fore end grip

So much this. I could shoot my Howa 243 with a single hand hold, but it was a heavy rifle with a Hogue stock. When I switched to a Ruger Ranch 300BLK I found out very quickly due to it being so light that you just could not do that.