Help needed

[Hoppy]

I have been loosing confidence in my rifle at distances over 200m with shots being wide of the mark, i have cleaned it thoroughly fired some fouling shots and tried it at 100m , 200 m then 300m (see pictures) below. 100m bullet clips the bull with a group of 15mm, 200 m shots are 85mm right of bull and grouping of 25mm, 300m its not even on the paper, earlier this year it was shooting left by around 170mm at 300m. these are home loads,
Info:

• Sauer 404 in 6.5x55 (moderated)
• Swarovski Z8i 3-28x50 with ballistic turret (bought last year second hand from SD member, fitted to rifle by gunsmith)
• 129gr hornady SST
• Av velocity 2646fps
• ES 9.3
• shooting from a stable shooting table with bipod and rear sand bag

Thoughts going through my head are:

• is my moderator on the way out
• is my barrel on the way out (unlikely as probably still under 1000 rounds through it)
• is the scope faulty? hopfully not as it belonged to an F-Class shooter before me. who by all acoounts is trustworthy
• human error? cant be that consistent if its me being sh*t

Any help would be greatly appreciated, i am about to start getting time to go out stalking all winter which is the highlight for me and just dont have confidence in this rifle at the moment, used to use my fathers Sauer 202 in .270 and you knew when you put the cross hairs on it it was falling over, never a doubt crossed your mind.

 

[Mountain Bug]

May I suggest that you keep your shots at or under 100 yards haha.


Scott

 

[Hoppy]

May I suggest that you keep your shots at or under 100 yards haha.


Scott

alway try to stalk in to 100m or under but i enjoy shooting targets out to 300m and the rifle and myself are more than capable of doing so.

 

[Hoppy]

Went back down and used a rucksack instead of bipod, grouping is still awful, 200m orange group with moderator, blue group un-moderated

 

[Hoppy]

 

[Hoppy]

am i perhaps not pushing the velocity hard enough?

 

[gundog]

Have a look at your scope not holding zero we have a similar club member experience similar to situation.
Google the type of scope you are using not holding zero lots of supporting evidence on internet
Gun dog

 

[bullet chucker]

I had issues with a barrel that complained after 3 shots, Did not like the heat, cold first shot was spot on?

BC.

 

[TringSaint]

am i perhaps not pushing the velocity hard enough?

My swede pushes 120gn bully’s out at around 2800 fps and that is as accurate as you like.
Maybe give them a bit more umph and see how you go.

 

[jonny.c]

What’s the recipe for the above !

 

[ruger77]

I had problems with a z6i that was 8 month old sent back under warranty they replaced recital and the electronics

 

[Hoppy]

Recipe is 44.5gr of Winchester Stabal with federal magnum primer. It was the most accurate when I developed it. Now finished the Stabal and moving onto N560 as have it left over from my .243. Still have 50 rounds of Stabal to use first though

 

[Donkey Basher]

WIND

Just saying…

 

[Hoppy]

I had issues with a barrel that complained after 3 shots, Did not like the heat, cold first shot was spot on?

BC.

I went back around 45 minutes later to shoot off of a rucksack as I wondered if the bipod on the table was the issue, first shot on centre next 2 off to the right. But too hot after 1 shot?

 

[Hoppy]

WIND

Just saying…

Not in this case

 

[Hoppy]

Going to run it up to Precision Rifles on Tuesday, it’s the only way I will be able to build any confidence back with it.

 

[Donkey Basher]

Not in this case

Really? - how can you be certain? - do you have wind flags? The group sizes you mention - 15mm @ 100m 25mm @ 200m suggests nothing wrong with the ammo, scope or rifle. It doesn’t take much of a breeze to push a bullet far enough for it not to hit an A4 sheet of paper at 300m.

 

[Hoppy]

Yes I have an anemometer and it barely registered any wind.

 

[Jim Hutton]

I had issues with a barrel that complained after 3 shots, Did not like the heat, cold first shot was spot on?

BC.

Very common unless it’s a heavy target barrel.

 

[Liveonce]

we’re all the groups all shot with the magnetospeed chronograph on the rifle?