shoot 5 inch to right at 400 mtrs

[roscoe69]

I have a 300 wsm in 11 lrh, 20 moa base, vortex scope and three weaver rings. rifle shoots just fine except as tested at 400 mtrs it groups 5 inch to the right. less then a moa, but to the right. what is the cure for this ?:confused:

[Stickler]

Spin drift......

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=bullet+spin+drift&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-004

[LoneWolf]

5" to the right is a lot of drift at 400M. I'd guess there is a bit more wind out there than you're accounting for, your zero may be slightly off center, or your rifle is canted and you're not aware of it. Last thing is you could be jerking or pushing the trigger depending if your left or right handed.

[Robinhood]

If you have spin drift it will show up at a different location at different yardage. It is a savage with its inherent barrel alignment issues.

[roscoe69]

I believe there are a lot of rifles with bad alignments..
i bet it is cant. I spent a lot of time setting up the scope but I probably cant the rifle when shooting.. never thought of this and will be watching for this next time out to range.. thanks for the reply guys

[wbm]

I'd guess there is a bit more wind out there than you're accounting for

That's my guess also. Ran a standard 300WSM load on JBM Ballistics consisting of 165gr bullet with .490BC at 3100fps, sea level, Temp. 70F with 35 humidity. A 5mph cross wind, 90 degrees from your left, will move your bullet 5" right at 400 meters.

[roscoe69]

thanks wbm, will run it through jbm tonight and get the read out. my loads are a lot milder and could be influenced by wind.

[roscoe69]

just ran the 178, bc .495, 2850 fps 3081 altitude, temp 65 f, 50% humidy 26.81 hg. drift 1.2 moa that equals 4.8 inches.. didn't think there was any wind out there but it is something I should be watching

[homefrontsniper]

Your scope is canted in rings

[LoneWolf]

Your scope is canted in rings
Doesn't matter as long as it's level when shooting.

[eddiesindian]

Doesn't matter as long as it's level when shooting.

bingo...............

[eddiesindian]

to me......5"s @ 400ish due to wind is what I always have to deal with here in the southwestern part of Texas.
been lucky this year though. wind was calm almost all summer long.

its very common for me to adjust even up to 2moa at 400 to get me smacking 6"x8" steel swingers.
for me?...........its something as easy as a scope adj to make up for wind drift.

[roscoe69]

at the shooting bench I was watching the wind flag late in the afternoon and was surprised to see a 4 mph wind (checked it with kestrel meter) was moving it . I could hardly feel it on my face.

[yobuck]

Maybe 2 Kestrels is the answer, 1 near the gun and 1 near the target.
Can they comunicate? lol

[eddiesindian]

being able to Read wind via flags,Kestrels,mirage,bushes etc.. and making good educated decisions on windage adjustments to me equates to a better shooter. Practice makes you better.
Ive gone out in the most terrible conditions just to see what my adjustment calls ended up at.
I tell ya...some of those cross winds I came upon while sending them to 1K pack,d my lunch. olololo

[roscoe69]

perhaps a small weather station

[Stonewall_Jackson]

The difference in how the wind affects a .223 between 300 yards and 400 yards is pretty big. I don't know about a 300 WSM. It would seem like a lot considering the speed and weight of the bullet. The bullet will be right at 3X as heavy as a .223 bullet which makes it a lot less vulnerable to the wind. I think I'd look elsewhere for the problem unless you're shooting in a 30 mph wind.

[LoneWolf]

Stonewall_Jackson. How often do you shoot at distance? Even my 6mm with a 105AMAX going 3025fps at 400yds will drift approx. 5" in a 5mph wind. Fast 6mm's and 300WM or WSM have very similar ballistics.

[LongRange]

i know in a 300wm with a 190g bullet and a 260rem with a 140g bullet the ballistics are almost identical with a slight edge going to the 300 in the wind but once you go into 200+g bullets in the 300 there not even close in the wind.

[Stonewall_Jackson]

Stonewall_Jackson. How often do you shoot at distance?

Often enough to know that any round will drift but heavier rounds will not drift as much as light rounds. The lightest 300 WSM bullets are 150 gr. AFAIK. Bullets of that much weight generally don't drift a whole lot at 400 yards. Not compared to a .223 anyway. It depends on how much wind we're talking here. But I've shot 400 yards plenty often and I've shot heavy bullets and light bullets and there is a big difference. That was my point. One of the biggest reasons I said to look elsewhere was that apparently all his rounds were hitting 5" off. That isn't something caused by the wind unless he's shooting in a 400 yard wind tunnel with a constant breeze from a single direction. Wind will move your bullets around all over the place. They don't all hit in the same spot or even close to the same spot. You can certainly learn to read the wind and make your bullets count. I've put 5 rounds into 4" at 400 yards before. My average groups aren't all that big and the one thing I know is that heavier rounds fly more true in the wind than light rounds. The difference between a 55 gr. round and a 75 gr. round can be pretty drastic with a .223. That's especially true after 300 yards with a .223. They lose a lot of speed by that distance and that means lots of wind movement. But even those light rounds rarely drift more than a foot at 400 yards at least where I shoot. I live in hill country which means a lot less wind than in the flat places. I stand by what I said that at that distance a 150 gr. bullet travelling at 300 WSM speeds is not going to consistently be off that much due to wind. That's about the amount my .223 is off usually which is why I brought it up. And again we wouldn't expect to see a consistent drift of 5 inches if wind was the issue. There's a huge difference between a 10 mph wind blowing from behind you to even a 10 mph wind blowing at you. Neither is going to make your rounds strike the same distance off target every time.

So the answer to your question is I've shot quite a bit at 400 yards. I'm temporarily away from my home range right now but I can shoot 100 yards from my yard. Here's a target I shot yesterday. It might give you an idea of how much shooting I've done. And I'm currently a little out of practice because of health issues.

http://www.a-framevideo.com/Sep%2018%202015%20100%20yard%20LRPV%20target%20mea sured.jpg