barrel heat issue?

so today on the range i had my trusty savage 10 chambered in 243 win with a shilen 26 inch stainless (varmint contour) I shot 10 rounds at 200 rang steel with all 10. then moved to the 300 yard target ran 10 with all 10 hits then off to the 400 target now i ran 6 rounds with hits and the next 4 i missed with no call on where they landed. so without hesitation i switch rifles and slam the gong as im upset now. i waited 10 mins or so fired another 5 shots and missed them all with the 243 again

all this took place in about 2 hours and the temperature was about 75 degrees. so is this a case of point of impact shift due to heat? i have never had this issue but i also normally dont use my 243 for long strings either

Could you touch the barrel? They will get hot and open up but shouldn't be that much. Sounds like scope base or rings came loose.

It could be, but there are more variables that need to be considered.

1. Wind and mirage

2. What weight bullets were you using

3. Did you use a rest or off hand

4. Did you have different powders loaded in some of the rounds or did you use different bullets?

5. Did you grab the trigger in a different way possibly.

That is just a few items that I can think of. Their is mechanical issues that can arise also. Dirty barrel form carbon or copper fouling.

I'm sure I may have missed something covered others. Just my insight,

Respectfully
Mike


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1. wind maybe but there was no viable changes in wind and as for mirage i may need a class on that as im new to shooting past 100 yards
2. i was using 105 gr hornady BTHP
3. bipod and rear rest
4 all loads exactly the same powder charge and projectile
5. i always assume a miss is my fault but after several misses i switch to my back up rifle which i had because (2 is 1 and 1 is none) i was ringing steel again

i checked the rings when i got home everything was torqued but the barrel was rather warm i could touch it but not hold it

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Originally Posted by vancev

i checked the rings when i got home everything was torqued but the barrel was rather warm i could touch it but not hold it

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Barrel still hot when you arrived home ?

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Originally Posted by Kingair001

Barrel still hot when you arrived home ?

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no it was not i had a 2 hour drive home

I would say to consider bullet nutation. Given the flat trajectory of the 243, my guess would be that your missed shots may not be very far off. All bullet flight is actually more of a corkscrew style arc. The farther you extend your target, the more you'll see the effects.

Are you shooting hand loads? Are they more towards the minimum or maximum charges for the cartridge?

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Originally Posted by pepper savage 111

I would say to consider bullet nutation. Given the flat trajectory of the 243, my guess would be that your missed shots may not be very far off. All bullet flight is actually more of a corkscrew style arc. The farther you extend your target, the more you'll see the effects.

Are you shooting hand loads? Are they more towards the minimum or maximum charges for the cartridge?

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hand loads and they are middle of the road on load about 2800 fps and i can see your point but the hits from the same location without moving then the long string of misses left me baffled

You haven't mentioned how/when you've cleaned the barrel. Might be as simple as your barrel saying "clean me".

Sounds like we have some great ideas from our great members. You spoke about your strings? What were shooting strings 3, 5, 10 shots? If you made a one click scope change, you could move your bullet strike approximately 4" giving that your scope was 1/4 min clicks. You me question did you use the same spot for all of your shots? If you did what was your group size that you had @400 yards? What was the size of your steal plate.

Respectfully
Mike


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Originally Posted by mike21

You haven't mentioned how/when you've cleaned the barrel. Might be as simple as your barrel saying "clean me".

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this is possible but the barrel has 200 rounds through it so i havent gave it a heavy scrub with solvent yet since the install

i was running 10 shot groups and averaging what looked to be about 4 inches but it was hard to tell shooting steel and i went from solid hits to solid misses with no adjustment of my scope and on the last 2 of the 4 misses i held for a little more wind (roughly 1-1.5 MOA) thinking maybe there was a hidden wind from the west other than the slight breeze but still nothing landed

I would give it a good cleaning, when your patches come out fairly clean, you could go back to the range and give it a shot again.
Idea could be after cleaning, range time a few fouling shots, paint your plate place a stick on target or spot and shoot your 10 rounds, check your group size, just and idea.

Respectfully
Mike


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i cleaned it last night and took it out this morning after about 25 rounds over about a hour it was hot and it was hitting about 4 inches high and 2 inches left from original point of impact with a cool barrel at 400 yards which i dont understand with a a chassis system and a shilen barrel how is this possible?

Hi Vance, I'm no expert but is there any chance that some copper fowling might be involved? I have had that happen on .223 and .308.
Just curious... HalfTrack

Maybe I missed it in the thread but can you tell us what loads you are shooting? 25 rounds in an hour isn't much. Is your barrel and nut free floated? What do you have for action bedding and screw torque? What do you have for a scope mount & rings. Sounds like something is wanting to pucker up with a little bit of heat.

I've shot out 2 243Win Barrels at this point. The current one is coming off after a match next weekend. I can tell you running Hornady BTHP's at 2800 is not the best combo for long range work and does screwy things passed 300 in the wind. The AMAX's are a bit better in my experience, but I was running them over 3000fps. Seriously, I try not to run my barrel to hot as stated in your initial post as I use it for matches, so that's what I save it for. However, I have not seen it walk that far when using better bullets. I would strongly suggest running the Sierra 107's as they are much more consistent at distance. I've settled solely on the 115 DTAC myself. Only difference between your barrel and mine is I have a Heavy Varmint contour assuming yours' is 8 twist as well.

Better bullets is the key in my experience assuming you're doing what you're supposed to on all other fronts.

I personally don't clean my rifles once but every 600-1000 rounds. Never see a change in accuracy but then again I don't shoot BR. Maybe if I'm putting it away at the end of a season I might do it sooner. I shoot all bartlein and hawk hill barrels. Never had a shift like you're saying without something mechanical going on.

What kind of scope are you running? Did you only shoot 400 or did you shoot other yardages and change your scope in between. I haven't had any scope issues since I changed to my current scope but I've had to send 5 back in 2 years from various high end manufacturers.

Did you shoot the same position each time? I know rebuilding your position correctly takes time to learn. I've seen plenty of POI shifts over the years due to that.