Answered

[AZShooter]

Re: Horizontal Stringing?

I do not know if your action has a blind hole for either of the action screws. If it does I would check to see that there isn't epoxy in the bottom of hole or that the action screws are too long. Either would cause the screw to become tight yet allow the stock to move. This is more common than you would believe.

 

[barefooter56]

Re: Horizontal Stringing?

I went to sight in a new rifle yesterday, and had a horrible problem with horizontal stringing? It was a really heavy mirage day, so I shot some groups with my other rifles that I knew are rock stars to weed myself out as the cause. I didn't shoot great, but still shot well enough to confirm it's not me. I attached a picture. The bottom left is a 5 shot group I shot to make sure I wasn't going crazy. The bottom right is a 10 shot group I shot with a Magneto Speed V3 on the same rifle, and even with the vibration changes from the chrono, it still shot decent. The main center target is the group of 5 I shot trying to zero this new rifle. Both the rifle and scope are brand new. Does this look like a scope issue, or a rifle issue?

Scope is the new Vortex Razor LH 3-15x42 (I LOVE THIS SCOPE!).

Rifle is a new LAW 7mm Rem Mag (Supposed to be my backpacking rig).

Ammo was HSM 168 Berger Trophy Gold.

Rest was a front and rear bag for all guns fired, laying prone on a logging road.

Distance was 100 yards.

I confirmed there was no scope movement. I checked action torque (65 in/lb), and scope torque (15 in/lb). Everything felt solid. Drew lines in the scope and no visible movement. This was after I bore sighted to get on paper. Gun was cool when I shot this string. I shot 3, let it cool, and shot 2 more. I stopped at that point.

Any tips? I've never run across something like this. Could a rifle have this much left and right, or is something loose inside the scope?

Thanks for any feedback.

6pointfive284,
I would suggest not changing a thing and check again when the mirage is not as intense as you indicated or is non-exsistant. What power did you have the scope turned up to compared to the other scopes on the rifles you shot?

 

[6point5x284]

Re: Horizontal Stringing?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I shot the SHC this last weekend so I was not able to play with this rifle. I think I'll finish this box of ammo, clean well with Boretech carbon and copper, and shoot the rest of the 7Mag ammo I have laying around and see how it does. No blind action holes, and they appear to have no bedding in the action holes. Action screws are trimmed to correct length. Maybe it just had a bur or needs a few rounds to dial in? They have a small index mark on the barrel and action and it appears to be indexed correctly. I will take the brake off as well and shoot to see if I notice a difference. I read of a report with someone shooting poor groups with the brake installed. The plan was to do load development with the brake, and hunt with just the thread protector cap installed. I'm hoping to get out this Friday and shoot if time allows. I won a set of Spuhr ISMS mounts at the cup, and need to put those bad boys on my comp rifle and re-sight that in too!

Thanks again for all the info. More to follow.

 

[barefooter56]

Re: Horizontal Stringing?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I shot the SHC this last weekend so I was not able to play with this rifle. I think I'll finish this box of ammo, clean well with Boretech carbon and copper, and shoot the rest of the 7Mag ammo I have laying around and see how it does. No blind action holes, and they appear to have no bedding in the action holes. Action screws are trimmed to correct length. Maybe it just had a bur or needs a few rounds to dial in? They have a small index mark on the barrel and action and it appears to be indexed correctly. I will take the brake off as well and shoot to see if I notice a difference. I read of a report with someone shooting poor groups with the brake installed. The plan was to do load development with the brake, and hunt with just the thread protector cap installed. I'm hoping to get out this Friday and shoot if time allows. I won a set of Spuhr ISMS mounts at the cup, and need to put those bad boys on my comp rifle and re-sight that in too!

Thanks again for all the info. More to follow.

I would suggest you leave the muzzle brake off when doing your load development since that is the way you plan on taking the rifle into the field. You may want to have a gunsmith check the muzzle end of the barrel where it was machined for the brake to make sure the bore is still the correct size and round. Sometimes the barrel is affected in strange ways when it has any machining done on it after its made. If there is an issue with the end of the barrel you can probably have the barrel cut off and re-crowned to fix it.