More accurate at longer ranges??

Granite91C

Private
Minuteman
Jul 23, 2022
11
11
Melbourne, Australia
Hi all,

I'm hoping someone on here may be able to shed some light on a new phenomenon im currently experiencing. I have a Tikka Viel Wideland in .300 winmag in an MDT LSS chassis that I'm currently getting to know, trying different factory ammo to find what it likes, so far to no avail. The most recent box I tested were Hornadys famed ELD X rounds (200gr) which I've read and been told are the ducks nuts. At 100m I was less than impressed, with wide open groups from prone, chasing around the paper with very little consistency, super disappointing. I thought I would then give them a go at further out, just out of curiosity as I had them, and at 350m and then 400m I hit a small steel plate measuring 6 inches by 3 inches with my first 2 rounds at each distance, with the 2 rounds 1 inch apart. Subsequently I shot 5 or 6 more rounds at similar distances with similar excellent accuracy. So now from a position of not thinking the ELDs were for me I'm confused AF.

Has anyone else ever experienced this kind of thing?
 
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No no I'm more than happy to hear all constructive feedback, always. The thought had crossed my mind.

To give you some more background I was a sniper in the British Army for multiple years and multiple operational tours until 2014 and I'm therefore reasonably confident that my fundamentals are solid. Having said that the vast majority of my experience is using 7.62 and .338LM and having not shot consistently for the past 2 or 3 years there could be some skill fade. Also this is a brand new rifle so I'm more than willing to accept that I should be dry firing to get myself accustomed to the shape and feel of the new rig.
 
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Is your parallax setup correctly? Is your rifle setup correctly for you? LOP etc
Thats the next task on my list of things to try, to get behind it tomorrow and essentially re-fit the rifle to me. Start from scratch. It does feel comfortable now however something isn't right...

After that it's build up the dry fire hours to re-establish my fundamentals and get fully comfortable behind this specific rifle.

Then I'll get back out and re-zero at 100m and see how we go
 
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Thats the next task on my list of things to try, to get behind it tomorrow and essentially re-fit the rifle to me. Start from scratch. It does feel comfortable now however something isn't right...

After that it's build up the dry fire hours to re-establish my fundamentals and get fully comfortable behind this specific rifle.

Then I'll get back out and re-zero at 100m and see how we go
I was a US Army sniper for a handful of years, and last month I bought a new Christensen arms ridgeline FFT in 300wsm. I would have been willing to bet large sums of money that I could accurately shoot any rifle placed in front of me, but I was proven wrong. I was shooting this rifle really poorly, like 3moa. I tried a couple different types of ammo and had similar results. Before filing a warranty claim I took it out of its 1.1lb carbon fiber stock and put it into a mini chasis and it shoots .75moa with factory ammo. I had to begrudgingly admit that I was the problem. Decades of shooting 10lb-15lb rifles with vertical grips had ruined me on shooting a sporter type stock well. So, I sold that stock, bought a used xlr envy, and now it's a 10lb rifle with a vertical grip that shoots very well. My buddy 338dude witnessed this series of events. I guess that's why I jumped straight to that idea, because it is so fresh on my mind.
 
I was a US Army sniper for a handful of years, and last month I bought a new Christensen arms ridgeline FFT in 300wsm. I would have been willing to bet large sums of money that I could accurately shoot any rifle placed in front of me, but I was proven wrong. I was shooting this rifle really poorly, like 3moa. I tried a couple different types of ammo and had similar results. Before filing a warranty claim I took it out of its 1.1lb carbon fiber stock and put it into a mini chasis and it shoots .75moa with factory ammo. I had to begrudgingly admit that I was the problem. Decades of shooting 10lb-15lb rifles with vertical grips had ruined me on shooting a sporter type stock well. So, I sold that stock, bought a used xlr envy, and now it's a 10lb rifle with a vertical grip that shoots very well. My buddy 338dude witnessed this series of events. I guess that's why I jumped straight to that idea, because it is so fresh on my mind.
That's a really good lesson for every competent shooter, or former sniper, me included. Thanks for sharing, it can be a hit to the ego for some but It's been a humbling experience and one I'll become a better shot because of.

The learning never ends hey!
 
Parallax is the no.1 reason for improved groups at longer ranges IF the shooter is consistent...... I would be giving that a good check on your next outing
Thanks Pete. When I decided to go with the optic I have (Maven Rs4) I read multiple times about the small eye box at higher magnification, as there is with most variable zoom optics and I think I've put some of my parralax challenges down to that subconsciously however the more I think about it the more I think its more likely incorrectly fitted to me. I was struggling at times with eye relief and parralax yesterday and I think wrongly assumed it was purely down to the eye box and the fact i was lying prone facing slightly downhill but the scope actually has a super comfortable eye box on anything under X20.

Seems so obvious now but sometimes it takes someone to point it out. That's definitely my first port of call, I'm tipping ill have to move the scope forward on the rail by a notch or two.
 
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I was a US Army sniper for a handful of years, and last month I bought a new Christensen arms ridgeline FFT in 300wsm. I would have been willing to bet large sums of money that I could accurately shoot any rifle placed in front of me, but I was proven wrong. I was shooting this rifle really poorly, like 3moa. I tried a couple different types of ammo and had similar results. Before filing a warranty claim I took it out of its 1.1lb carbon fiber stock and put it into a mini chasis and it shoots .75moa with factory ammo. I had to begrudgingly admit that I was the problem. Decades of shooting 10lb-15lb rifles with vertical grips had ruined me on shooting a sporter type stock well. So, I sold that stock, bought a used xlr envy, and now it's a 10lb rifle with a vertical grip that shoots very well. My buddy 338dude witnessed this series of events. I guess that's why I jumped straight to that idea, because it is so fresh on my mind.
Not to argue, I fully admit I struggle with light magnums, and I think most of us would be better served in the hunting world of shooting for that 10lb rifle for big magnums not a 5.5lb rifle, but it also could be the stock/action interface, I think the FFT is pilar bedded so probably less likely in this case. I've seen tons of light factory hunting stocks where the action was moving in the stock, even with bedding blocks, especially with big calibers, others where the stock had rub spots on it from contact with the barrel. The point is well taken though, it's hard to get these ultralight magnums to shoot well and more often than not the shooter is part of the issue.

This is one reason I really dislike the practice of manufacturers accuracy testing barreled actions outside of the stock in a machine instead of shooting the barreled action in the stock. It removes something we know to be a significant component in rifle accuracy. The stock/action interface. From a manufacturers standpoint I get it, it's faster and more consistent than having a human shoot the proof groups, but if the stock/action interface is an issue, you just end up sending a bad gun back to an already frustrated customer.

One thing I think that you hear talked about a lot in other shooting sports, but not in rifle shooting is the mental side of things. I used to shoot on a national level in Trap, and dove quite far into archery, and lot of the same mental aspects of those sports apply to all shooting disciplines but you read almost nothing about the mental side of a shot routine and practice for rifle. Some of the small bore guys have written a lot.

For example, you can flinch because of recoil, or you can flinch because of "panic". In archery we call this "drive by" shooting, it's where your brain desperately wants the sight to sit still but it won't, and the more movement the more your brain panics and the more you "punch" the trigger when you think the sight picture is right. It's why many archers struggle if they change to shooting a powered scope lens. I'd imagine this could easily happen in rifle positional shooting where you will never get a rock solid position. I also would not be surprised if more than a few shooters have this same issue shooting 30+ power rifle scopes now. The same is true for aiming, it's a mental art form. You will see archers that struggle to shoot well on a large round bullseye target, but shoot very well just shooting 1" orange sticky dots. It's because their brain is not focusing hard on their aiming spot with the larger round target, with the tiny dot it's easier to focus (it's the old "aim small miss small" thing. I've seen the same with guys shooting big steel targets, if you put a little sticky dot on them their groups will tighten up, as they have a small focusing point for aiming. I also believe pressure to shoot tiny groups can be counterproductive to shooting at 100 yds and is why some shooters do better shooting a longer ranges, it's more "fun" and they don't stack as much pressure on themselves. We all expect to shoot 1/2" groups at 100 yds, but if you set out clay pigeons at 500 yards, that's just fun, and most of us don't expect to hit them all, so the brain can relax a bit and just execute.