Custom rifle

[Gene Allen]

Now that I know how to accurately measure my groups here is two from my Rem 700 7 STW that was rebareled recently to a 28" Benchmark Sendro fluted, these were only 100 yds but not happy with IS&D which is around 14.5 I feel like I do most of prep work for the cases, is this about what to expect and how much from others experience will it cause to great of spread at 1k and beyond. These are good groups for me as my eyes are not what they used to be, any input will be appreciated

 

[Recon$$]

Those are great groups, nothing to worry about.

 

[madcalfe]

3 shot groups for me as well, once I get them looking like this I move to plinking gongs 600-1100 yards and call it good.

 

[Gene Allen]

That will be next after I retrain myself on my kestrel since it has been nearly 2 years since I have used it, our gong range goes out to 1400 yds so it will be fun, we also have shoots that go out to a mile which I haven't done for a few years

 

[Joefrazell]

Personally in my experience if a rifle shoots 1/2 moa at 100 it's gunna shoot shoot 1/2 moa at distance as long as the es is within reasonable performance and it's a good quality projectile. For me personally a lot of times things tighten up a bit at distance.

 

[WildRose]

I like to use 10 shots into 1moa at 300y as the benchmark. Depending barrel contour some groups may take a bit longer to shoot, but rarely would I take more than 5 min to shoot a 10 shot group.
If you have a load and a shooter than can hold that standard its pretty likely your accuracy will meet any hunting needs.

The only problem with that is that on the High Plains or in the mountains winds can vary a whole lot over the course of five or ten minutes so the changing conditions are going to have a very measurable impact on your groups.

I like to stick to practical field type conditions, 3 rapid shots to simulate a cold bore, and two follow up's on game. It just seems to be the most practical to me and certainly the most realistic measure of how we and our firearm together are likely to perform on game.

 

[WildRose]

Now that I know how to accurately measure my groups here is two from my Rem 700 7 STW that was rebareled recently to a 28" Benchmark Sendro fluted, these were only 100 yds but not happy with IS&D which is around 14.5 I feel like I do most of prep work for the cases, is this about what to expect and how much from others experience will it cause to great of spread at 1k and beyond. These are good groups for me as my eyes are not what they used to be, any input will be appreciated

If you can consistently keep your SD's under fifty you're beating most people pretty badly. If you can keep them below 25 then it's not going to have any real significant effect on your groups.

14.5 is very good.

 

[WildRose]

Again I am just asking how everyone is checking group size so I know the the correct size of my groups , I am getting up there in age and not a great shot compared to all the great shooters I read about Thanks!

Edge to edge-the diameter of your bullet seems to be how most people do it these days.

 

[Hondo64d]

Alright, everyone talks about how there custom rifle shoots .xxx groups all day long. I'm a realist and I've got a few custom rifles and I'd like some input from the guys on the forum that have more experience then I do. To add, we are talking hunting rifles under 12 lbs
Three questions

1) what's the average 5 shot group of your custom hunting rifle
2) what are the worst 5 shot groups you see (with your tunes load)

I'm just kinda at a point that I realize that all bullets will not be touching all the time regardless of any guarantee you see or what others have said. Im seeing that a realistic expectation is 5 shots around 1/2 moa. Some won't make it and some will be better.

On a side note I've found out that gunwerks guarantees a 7 shot group of .7" at 100 yards. I think that says a lot about what to expect from a lightweight premium hunting rifle and is probably a lot more in line with what most of these lightweight hunting rifles will do in normal conditions.

I'm starting to think the quarter minute hunting rifle is a unicorn. Not saying that they can't cut it from time to time. Ive shot several groups that were in the 1's and 2's but none of those guns I would consider quarter min rifles.

I'm the kind of guy that will chase my tail trying to get my rifle to consistently shoot sub half min and will never settle on a load and work on other shooting fundamentals besides groups. Trying to work through this haha.

Last question. At what point do you guys call it good and start shooting and not trying to develop the perfect load?

For a long time now, I've thought that 3 or 5 shot groups don't offer enough statistical significance to rely on. Recently I've started using 10 shot groups even during load development. Here's 10 shots using the most recent load I've settled on from my hunting rig. It weighs 10.6 pounds.

 

[Joefrazell]

Three shot groups are great and I agree with most hunting cartridges/ rifles 3 is better then 5. But I like to shoot groups more then once at the same target and make sure that my poi is consistent and that my good group wasn't a fluke.

I've personally seen way too many times a group in the .1 and .2's not consistently shoot that 1/2 min that I think we all like to see in our long range hunting rifle. But they're almost always 3 shot groups. A lot of time I'll actually shoot 4 shot groups as i feel that 4th shot sometimes weeds out issues. But i always take my time and make sure my barrel isn't getting warm.

I don't trust a load until it puts either two 5 shot groups under an inch on two separate days or 3 three shot groups but on the same target. So the final target will have either 9 or 10 rounds in it hopefully under an inch. I also will shoot off the ground with sand bags and off a bipod to see if there's any difference in poi. If the load will do this for me then I'll take it out to distance. At this point my load development is complete. Biggest thing is to call your fliers before you see them if you do happen to make a bad press or something.

 

[Hondo64d]

Three shot groups are great and I agree with most hunting cartridges/ rifles 3 is better then 5. But I like to shoot groups more then once at the same target and make sure that my poi is consistent and that my good group wasn't a fluke.

I've personally seen way too many times a group in the .1 and .2's not consistently shoot that 1/2 min that I think we all like to see in our long range hunting rifle. But they're almost always 3 shot groups. A lot of time I'll actually shoot 4 shot groups as i feel that 4th shot sometimes weeds out issues. But i always take my time and make sure my barrel isn't getting warm.

I don't trust a load until it puts either two 5 shot groups under an inch on two separate days or 3 three shot groups but on the same target. So the final target will have either 9 or 10 rounds in it hopefully under an inch. I also will shoot off the ground with sand bags and off a bipod to see if there's any difference in poi. If the load will do this for me then I'll take it out to distance. At this point my load development is complete. Biggest thing is to call your fliers before you see them if you do happen to make a bad press or something.

Your experience matches mine, which is what led me to ten shot groups. Granted, in the interest of extending the throat life, I don't just rattle off ten shots. I shoot three or four, let the barrel cool, and shot three more at the same POA, and repeat until I've shot 10. What I've discovered in doing this is that those "flyers" ain't…. Stacking groups also answered why I would shoot a couple of tiny three shot groups but in slightly different POIs.

John

 

[cjuve]

Personally in my experience if a rifle shoots 1/2 moa at 100 it's gunna shoot shoot 1/2 moa at distance as long as the es is within reasonable performance and it's a good quality projectile. For me personally a lot of times things tighten up a bit at distance.

My experience differs from this but I will admit that it could be a byproduct of the way I do load development. It has not happened on every rIfle but enough for it not to be coincidental.
IME There are bad barrel harmonics that reside just outside of good ones and the bad does not necessarily present itself at 100 yds if you are only looking at pure size. The shape of a group can tell you a lot about how your load is performing.

 

[Gene Allen]

All great information I will try to remember all that I can for future load development ! Thanks

 

[Joefrazell]

My experience differs from this but I will admit that it could be a byproduct of the way I do load development. It has not happened on every rIfle but enough for it not to be coincidental.
IME There are bad barrel harmonics that reside just outside of good ones and the bad does not necessarily present itself at 100 yds if you are only looking at pure size. The shape of a group can tell you a lot about how your load is performing.

That's a great point about looking at group size. Another very important factor for me is seeing a very similar poi up and down half a grain in charge weight with the load I'm liking which leads to not always picking the smallest group.