My rifle was fired from a fixture yesterday and there was one that stood out to me.

Is there anything that can be wrong with a gun or ammo that might cause this? Or was this group just luck of the draw? The other groups did not look like this. The ammo is Hornady 140gr ELD 6.5 creed.... which also shot the worst out of all the ammo on hand.

Wind?

Wind

Just 5 shots or it did it with all of this load?

It could be you, the load, the rifle position in the rest, something with the rifle, parallax.........

How you shot would shed more light.

Were these the first 5 from the day? Were they shot close together l (in time)with the other loads? I doubt wind is the issue unless it changed for this load only.

If it was only 5 shots then forget it, it isn't worth wasting time thinking about it. You need more shots fired.

Anytime I have experienced it it only happens to a single group, I chalked it up to my influence on the stock. I reposition and won't see it again.

It was a steady 3mph.

Is the 294 m the distance you shot?

1.Wind
2. cheek pressure
3. Natural point of aim.

There were other loads that shot better. American Eagle shot .63 Nosler shot .71

Yes

Was fixed in position.

Shoot a 10-20 shot group.

If there is a bug hole with a few stringers I would attribute it to missed wind changes or shoulder/trigger-hand pressure inconsistencies.

If it is a scattered group that size with no identifiable center, then I would just use ammo you shot better.

Edit:  I took a second look at that target and numbers.  1.2 moa width and .3 moa vertical isn't horrible, but I don't know what the other ammo did.  A wind fluctuation from 3 mpg to 0 mph could account for a couple inches of horizontal at that distance.

The rests will still influence it, and determine how it tracks.
Did you free recoil it?

Good to know. Thank everyone for the input.

I have delt with this with rifles with light barrels mostly. The barrels get warm and pull to one side. Let the barrel cool between shots and see if it changes.
Good luck!

Best group of the day goes to American Eagle 140gr.




Some more info on gun for the curious.

Savage 12 LRP, trued and bedded receiver, threaded stock barrel with griffin taper comp, PTG barrel nut, recoil lug and bolt face.

Tune can be an issue resulting in vertical or horizontal stringing.

Those groups in MOA?

I had a gunsmith tell me one time that while load developing, vertical string is wrong charge and horizontal is wrong coal. Either that or just the opposite, can't remember which. Never really tried other or took it too seriously though.

That's the way that it was explained to me by a good F class shooter. He's posting clean scores with 75%+ X counts with several state titles, so whatever he's doing obviously works.

I experienced the horizontal stringing phenomenon during my last time testing a load in search of more velocity. I'll be testing the same load tomorrow with 3 different seating depths to see if anything changes and report back with my findings.

How would that be achieved? Elevation the same due to same velocity, but horizontal.

So less COAL and less powder and more COAL, more powder... ever so slightly. And of course I assume some rounds would be more prone that others..

Back in from the range trip for the day. The load that I tested in late April didn't disappoint. It was horizontal then and it was horizontal today. For anyone who thinks that it's solely the wind causing this effect, I'd have to disagree. Just getting that out there. It's far too consistent to be the wind, and adjusting the load resulted in a pronounced change. Since the load had a visible effect immediately, I don't think that the horizontal was shooter induced.

75F
Partly cloudy
Anti cant levels on both rifles
Parallax adjusted prior to shooting
Minimal wind <2mph

Rifle #1
So, here's the group from back in April. The 4 that are touching in the middle is a specific seating depth. The 3, on the ends (2 left, 1 right) are with a shorter seating depth and a longer seating depth. Thought about pulling the bullets but decided firing them would be faster and keep my brass on the same fired/reloaded cycle.


Here's the target from today. Same charge, but with different seating depths. I was using holds with my reticle, so the effects of a POI shift between groups, if any would have been present, can't be determined by the pictures.

Top middle- 3 thou shorter (3 were the same load, 1 was a different charge)

Top right- 3 thou longer. I was hoping this would have really tightened it up, but I think it will require a slightly longer COAL. The round on the right kept this 5 shot group from being smaller than the 3 shot group that was 6 thou shorter.

Middle- Control group...same BTO as the load from April. Rushed it trying to get 5 off before the line went cold. Barrel mirage was present, but I continued firing and essentially ruined the control sample...SMH

Lower- The 3 thou shorter BTO, and charge dropped by .2gr (41.5). High round could have been due to barrel mirage or the loose nut pulling the trigger.

Left- Normal load, but fired by a friend who took me as a guest to the range.


The same 41.5gr charge, but 2 thou longer


So, based on what I'm seeing and using my potentially flawed logic, I can continue with the 41.7 and increase the BTO by another 3-6 thou and it may form a nice one hole group. Reducing the charge by .1gr could help too. The 41.5 load only required minor tweaking, but it wasn't completely horizontal, which I interpret as being the upper end of the node.


Rifle #2
Shot about 1.5 years ago. Haven't used this rifle much as of late. It did this with 41.4, 41.5 and 41.7 before opening up wide at 41.9gr.


Adjusted the seating depth out 2 and 4 thou for today


5x, 4 thou bump. I'd blame the shooter for the 1 right. Took some getting used to the Timney 510 after running the Calvin elite in my other rifles.


4x, 2 thou bump

With this load, it seemed very apparent that the horizontal was minimized by adjusting the depth out a bit longer. Note: I'm still >10 thou off the lands. Seating the bullets out longer changes the pressure of the case, but if you start getting into the lands you'll begin to build pressure....FAST, so be careful.

I realize this isn't in any way conclusive, but I hope it helps or encourages others to post their results and findings.

Awesome post!

Is there already a term for this occurrence?

Was this present with same load in different rifles or all same rifle?

Different rifles, but chambered with the same reamer spec. They shoot close to the same load, but there are some minor differences when trying to get sub half moa.