I've had some similar problems with a few of my old stand bys and I figured out what changed. I GOT OLDER!
My eyes are different, I have high blood pressure now, I'm more out of shape. When I walk to the 100yds target and back, it takes me longer to get my breathing and heart rate under control to make a shot.
Just your eyesight can make a big difference. When I was in High School I had no trouble with my sight picture. Fast forward to college and I signed up for a marksmanship class my senior year as an easy elective. I couldn't figure out why the target was fuzzy and why I couldn't put the bullet where I was aiming. It was a few more years before it was bad enough for me to realize I needed to get checked out. I had an astigmatism.
Your rifle cannot get worn out from not using it, although it is entirely possible that things may have changed with it especially if it has a wood stock. Swelling or shrinking wood due to temp or moisture, corrosion causing parts to loosen, the list goes on. Check your scope bases and rings, make sure they don't have any tension breaks or loose/broken screws, check your action screws (that hold the stock to the action. . .) for consistent tightness, test your scope to see if it has a broken erector causing the cross hairs to shake when bumped. (Some scopes have plastic erectors holding the cross hairs in place.) These are just a few factors to check, I'm sure others will be along with more.
BW
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