Not too shabby - part ii

[CFJunkie]

Taidog1,

From one old curmudgeon to another, I am past the 80 year mark and have learned in the last 10 years that 6 of my Savage rifles - a 12 FV .223, three Savage 6.5mm CMs, and two Savage .308s - can all consistently average under 0.5 inches for hundreds of groups. Savage makes pretty accurate rifles that probably can perform even better than most of us normally do.

My 12 FV has averaged 0.282 for 1151 groups, and the Top 100 loads (407 groups) average 0.244.
My three 6.5CMs - a 12 LRP, a 12 FV and a 10T-SR - average .363, .339 and .383 for 547, 645 and 175 groups respectively, and the top 100 loads average 0.317, 0.309 and 0.383 respectively.
My two .308s - a 10 FP and a 10 FCP-K - average 0.419 and 0.411 for 301 and 477 groups respectively, and the top 100 loads average 0.401 and 0.366 respectively. Both have many loads that were shot before I found a solution to my "shooter induced variation".

I found that my better loads were a product of finding bullets and bullet weights that each barrel preferred and powders that performed best.
Sometimes the best performers don't follow any logic, but lots of bullets down range confirmed that the results were statistically correct.
Notice that my accuracy seems to degrade somewhat as the caliber and recoil increases. I only weigh 147 pounds so recoil moves me around a lot and increases the importance of getting back into the same firing position if I want to achieve the best accuracy with rifles with heavier recoil.

I had an epiphany about 10 years ago when I began experimenting with exit time. I found that my 'shooter induced variation' kept me from even seeing any change when adjusting for exit time.
I started to find ways to remove some of that variation that was impacting my accuracy and within little over a year, I had reduced my group size averages from the high 0.6s to well under 0.5 even into the 0.3s, at least for the lighter recoiling calibers.
I found that consistent set-up position was a key to consistent accuracy and that being sure that I was in the optical center of the scope resulted in the bullet hitting where I was aiming.
I found out the hard way that the reticle isn't always aiming where you think it is. Being slightly off the optical plane or creeping up on the eyepiece causes the reticle to be off the intended point of impact.

I am sure that your years of shooting has gotten you to shoot pretty accurately and your .243 results show that.
But, after I was pretty confident with my shooting ability, I still found a big improvement in accuracy, just by working on improving my set-up consistency after I realized I was a big part of my "shooter induced variation".

I bet you also can find some improvement in performance by concentrating by what I and most of us don't realize is robbing us of more accurate performance.
Do that and you will probably find that your .243 will consistently produce under 0.5 inches at 100 yards with 5-round groups.

[Taidog1]

Taidog1,

From one old curmudgeon to another, I am past the 80 year mark and have learned in the last 10 years that 6 of my Savage rifles - a 12 FV .223, three Savage 6.5mm CMs, and two Savage .308s - can all consistently average under 0.5 inches for hundreds of groups. Savage makes pretty accurate rifles that probably can perform even better than most of us normally do.

My 12 FV has averaged 0.282 for 1151 groups, and the Top 100 loads (407 groups) average 0.244.
My three 6.5CMs - a 12 LRP, a 12 FV and a 10T-SR - average .363, .339 and .383 for 547, 645 and 175 groups respectively, and the top 100 loads average 0.317, 0.309 and 0.383 respectively.
My two .308s - a 10 FP and a 10 FCP-K - average 0.419 and 0.411 for 301 and 477 groups respectively, and the top 100 loads average 0.401 and 0.366 respectively. Both have many loads that were shot before I found a solution to my "shooter induced variation".

I found that my better loads were a product of finding bullets and bullet weights that each barrel preferred and powders that performed best.
Sometimes the best performers don't follow any logic, but lots of bullets down range confirmed that the results were statistically correct.
Notice that my accuracy seems to degrade somewhat as the caliber and recoil increases. I only weigh 147 pounds so recoil moves me around a lot and increases the importance of getting back into the same firing position if I want to achieve the best accuracy with rifles with heavier recoil.

I had an epiphany about 10 years ago when I began experimenting with exit time. I found that my 'shooter induced variation' kept me from even seeing any change when adjusting for exit time.
I started to find ways to remove some of that variation that was impacting my accuracy and within little over a year, I had reduced my group size averages from the high 0.6s to well under 0.5 even into the 0.3s, at least for the lighter recoiling calibers.
I found that consistent set-up position was a key to consistent accuracy and that being sure that I was in the optical center of the scope resulted in the bullet hitting where I was aiming.
I found out the hard way that the reticle isn't always aiming where you think it is. Being slightly off the optical plane or creeping up on the eyepiece causes the reticle to be off the intended point of impact.

I am sure that your years of shooting has gotten you to shoot pretty accurately and your .243 results show that.
But, after I was pretty confident with my shooting ability, I still found a big improvement in accuracy, just by working on improving my set-up consistency after I realized I was a big part of my "shooter induced variation".

I bet you also can find some improvement in performance by concentrating by what I and most of us don't realize is robbing us of more accurate performance.
Do that and you will probably find that your .243 will consistently produce under 0.5 inches at 100 yards with 5-round groups.

Thanks CF, will do. Sorry for the late reply - been out of town.