ysinger02
Sorry for the long post, but I hope this can help you with your new rifle.
It takes me at least 25 to 50 rounds to get accustomed to a new rifle.
If your rifle is a bit different than what you have been shooting, it could easily take longer.
I shoot almost 6,000 rounds a year with good target rifles and I still have days when I don't feel comfortable in setting up. Those days, I don't shoot as well.
Also, I agree with all the posters who recommend using match ammo.
Since you didn't say you intend to hunt with this rifle, I would consider getting some Hornady ELD-M match ammos in both 140 and 147 grain weights.
It is not as expensive as some ammos and it shoots great in my rifles.
I have one 6.5mm CM Savage that likes 142 Sierra SMK and 147 Hornady match ammo.
The other likes 130 TMK and 140 Hornady match, the best.
Your particular rifle will have its own preferences and you need to experiment to discover what it likes.
I am a great believer in high-powered scopes for accurate rifles that you want to use to make single ragged holes in paper.
An accurate rifle just won't deliver to it's capabilities with a scope that was lying around on your bench before you decided to use it.
A low power scope with a hunting reticle will obscure at least 1/2 inch of the aim point at 100 yards and you can't be sure of a precise aim point if you use a scope like that and expect excellent accuracy.
My good rifles have high quality scopes - most of them are at least 30X.
I have 3 NightForce Benchrest 8-32X and 4 Sightron fixed 36X target scopes on my good rifles. The NightForce scopes are more expensive but the results I get with them were worth buying them.
I prefer scopes with target reticles that allow me to consistently aim at 1/10 inch or less POAs at 100 yards.
Your 6.5mm CM will obliterate your aim point with a hole 0.243 to 0.264 depending upon the thickness of the target paper.
At 100 yards that is the center-to-center size of my best groups so keeping the aim point intact is the key to shooting small groups.
So set my scope so my POI is slightly high when I am shooting groups so the aim point doesn't get messed up.
One last observation is based upon my own experiences. The shooter, the 'nut behind the trigger', is the biggest contributor to shooter induced variations that are the cause of groups that spread out.
I have worked for years on trying to get a consistent set up so I am not influencing the POI.
With a new rifle, you an easily be setting up out of the perfect position because you are used to a different stock, cheek weld or stock length.
One of the posters correctly identified varying your eye position behind the scope as a cause of growing your group size.
I have found that as little as 1/8 inch change in eye position creeping up on the scope can cause a 1/4 inch rise in POI at 100 yards. A shorter stock length can cause that.
In my best groups, 1/4 inch is going to mess up a good overall size group at 100 yards.
Lastly, horizontal stringing can be caused by not getting the stock in the same position on every shot.
If the rifle recoil causes your scope to move off to the right, you have the stock seated to the right of the slot inside your shoulder bone.
The recoil is pushing your shoulder back and the barrel moves to the right.
If the stock is seated in the right place, the recoil will come straight back and your scope will be viewing the aim point after recoil.
All these seemingly little details can cause significant increases in group size.
And each of them are additive.
Both my Savage 6.5mm CMs average .353 and 0.383 respectively for all the 5 round groups that they have shot over the last year.
Not all the groups are at the average, so I have lapses just like anyone else.
Trying to be consistent setting up sometimes doesn't work.
Last weekend I had a bad day with my Savage .308 in 25 degree temperatures, maybe because I was so bundled up to keep warm that I couldn't feel the stock position in my shoulder.
The result was lots of horizontal stringing.
I averaged over just over 0.6 inches for 5 round groups with a rifle that averages well under 0.5.
I wasn't happy with that, but I will be shooting again this week to see if I can correct the problem.
Bookmarks