Has anyone experienced this

[flyfish]

I was at the range trying to find "the load" for my 243. I'm shooting 70 grain BT. I was using IMR 4895 powder. The shot pattern was kind of interesing and I was wondering if anyone else as seen something similar or is the shot pattern a shooter issue.
I'll try to describe it here. 1x means it was the first shot and the "x" is the relative location of the bullet hole on the target.

3x 4x

1x 2 x

There was approximately an inch between the top two holes and the bottom two. There was about 1/2 inch between holes 1,2 & 3,4.
Typically I find shot patterns to be or appear random so when I saw "a pattern" I got a little suspicious.

 

[JD338]

May be bedding, everything tight?

I use to use 39.5 grs IMR4895 w/ 70 gr BT and Seirra 70 gr MK in 243 Win and got excellent accuracy. There were 6-7 other guys using the same load and they aloso had excellent accuracy. We called it the "club" load.

JD338

 

[flyfish]

The other groups that I fired did not do that. The only thing that I know that maybe loose is the wingnut pulling the trigger :shock: :roll:
I will admint I've had better days at the range, but other groups that I shot were more normal looking. The barrel is free floating.

 

[6ppcar]

What about the wind, are you using wind flags?

 

[flyfish]

no wind flags, no wind.

 

[FOTIS]

Double grouping? = optics or bedding.

 

[Colin]

I have a .243 that wouldn't shoot very well. I took it apart and found the barrel channel had not been cut properly. There was a "ridge" of wood down the center. I cleaned it up with my dremmel and that seemed to do the trick. Everybody that looked at the rifle didn't notice the barrel channel problem.

 

[tjen]

For what its worth I have a wood stocked 700 in 270 for say 7 years it was a tite grouping gun then double triple groups. Had the action piller beded and it shooting fine ever since. On a old 788 I think a inexpensive rem gun with a maple stock. That guns forarm warped so bad it realy pushed sideways on the barrel. That gun (6mmrem)would do a dime sized group at 200 yards every year go figure.

 

[Antelope_Sniper]

Are you using a cheap scope? Could be parallax. Put your rifle in the rest, and sight it at the target. Without touching the rifle, move your head up and down, left and right. If your crosshairs move, you have parallax. The solution is to take that scope off, throw it away and replace it with one that has a gold ring around the end of it. If the problem is not Parallax, then it's most likely a barrel that 's not properly free floated, or a bedding problem.