shooting a group help...

[Bigeclipse]

If you have a factory barrel it will have stress. In that case let it cool. If you have a good barrel then it will have been stress relieved and you should be able to shoot your groups without letting it cool.

It is a factory remington thin mountain barrel. What do you mean by stress? I have yet to get it too hot to the touch. I have shot 2 rounds back to back...like 5 seconds apart and it gets pretty warm but not too hot to the touch. I have down 3 shots in under a minute and that started feeling "hot-ish"...again still not so hot you cant hold the barrel. I have never shot more than that faster than that.

 

[zfastmalibu]

It is a factory remington thin mountain barrel. What do you mean by stress? I have yet to get it too hot to the touch. I have shot 2 rounds back to back...like 5 seconds apart and it gets pretty warm but not too hot to the touch. I have down 3 shots in under a minute and that started feeling "hot-ish"...again still not so hot you cant hold the barrel. I have never shot more than that faster than that.

Internal stress in the barrel steel. You don't have to get it hot, any temp change can make them move. A common theme would be the first 2 shots are good and the 3rd is out of the group.

 

[WildRose]

I know this may be better off in the reloading section but it also has to do with shooting in general. My question is...when you all are working up loads and checking for best group what is your technique. Lets pretend it is a medium to lighter weight barrel so it will heat up. Do you shoot your group 3-5 shots pretty quick in a string or do you shoot one shot, then wait a certain time for barrel to cool a bit then shoot...etc until all shots fired. I am not too concerned about being able to shoot 5+ shots in quick succession on a game animal...mostly concerned about being able to shoot 2-3 times as accurate as possible out to 400 yards. So what are your thoughts for me finding the best hand load for my gun? Shoot 3-5 shot string relatively quick or shoot one shot at a time then let barrel cool each time?

I never shoot 5 shot groups, I just see no point in it.

Hunting about 99% of the time you'll never get more than three shots fired in quick succession at the same animal unless you are always hunting the wide open prairies from a high point with unlimited range.