how long do you wait between shots when shooting groups?

[rotts4u]

When shooting with a larger centerfire cartridge above about a 243 the barrel starts to heat up pretty fast. In calibers like 270, 30-06 and all magnums the barrels really heat up a LOT. If I am shooting 3 shot groups with a 270, or 300 wby the barrel is really scorching by the third shot even if I shoot slowly.

How long do you wait between shots?

What about after you shoot a group of three or five shots do you start the next group with the barrel still hot?

I usually take 2-3 rifles and cycle through them as the heat up.

[scope eye]

Me personally if I can't touch it with they under side of my wrist then I wait, that's what I do I bring two or three and keep cycling them, don't forget to keep the bolt open it cools a lot faster.

Dean

[J.Baker]

When doing reviews or just plinking with my own guns I shoot 3-shot groups as fast as I can rack them through the gun and reacquire my target. Yes the sporter barrels will get pretty warm to the touch, but it's still not anything that's going to hurt them any. I do allow the barrel to cool back down between groups to ensure consistency in conditions from group to group.

[eddiesindian]

I do almost the same as furious. I sometimes get about 5-10 before I let it cool off. I prefer using a warm barrel when sending them to the 1000yd mark

[stangfish]

I follow eddie on long range and MrF with the hunting stuff light barrels. However when its for score and 20 rds for record..? When the wind drops its on like donkey kong untill the flags lift. Heavy barrel in that scenario.. **did anyone pick up the "four Score and Twenty"***

[Nandy]

I currently fire a group and use one of those infrared small thermometers to make sure the temp goes down to about 95 in one spot and 90 in the other. It takes from 10 to 15 min depending on the day.
I am currently shooting at my deer lease and we have a bench set up in the porch facing a 100 yds long target shooting lane so I have the advantage that in a very hot day I am shaded and if I needed be I can just walk the rifle in the clubhouse and let it sit in front of a fan. I have not have the need for that yet. I just watch tv in between volleys and let the rifle cool down in the rifle rack....

[brtelec]

I take a temp reading on my barrel with an infrared temp gauge after the rifle is acclimated to get an ambient. Then I shoot a three shot group with my first rifle. I then shoot a three shot group with a second rifle. Then while I am waiting for the barrels to cool I shoot one of my .22lr's at a reactive target until they cool.

If I am shooting steel at unknown distances, I use the same method with three rifles at three targets. Range it, dial it in crank one off. Next rifle, next target, repeat. Third rifle, third target same drill. Drive out, move all three targets, play with my .22, return my scopes to zero, start again.

[Joe L]

I shot a 1-3/8" four round group at 300 yards this morning in less than a minute. And this was after 16 rounds over a 15 minute period considering I was moving from one target to the next and was shooting at 100 first then at 300 yards. I've never worried about the heavy fluted .308 barrel in my FCP-K. I also don't see any shift at the relatively short distances I shoot, longest being 500 meters.

I haven't shot more than 30 rounds on a range trip through one rifle, however. Maybe folks that shoot a lot more rounds in one session than I have found they need to let the gun cool some between groups after getting the gun really hot.


Joe

[David13]

After my barrel got scorchingly hot at Angeles, I have taken to slow shots, spaced apart in time.
My new motto is 'make every shot count'.
I think last time at Burro Canyon I shot about 25 rounds over 3 hours.
dc

[Tack]

^ That's one shot every seven minutes. You could take one case and reloading gear and reload each time between shots. Would be a good way of seeing how many times you could fire the same case.