Rounds pulling low and left?

[PORTSIDE_GUNNER]

New to long range shooting. Breaking in a new AXSA in 6.5.CM and have 300 rounds through the gun.

ISSUE: Put 100 round in sub MOA at 200 yards today, last 10 rounds pulled 2" left and 2" down. Still in a 1" group but with a major shift. This after a quick 20 round string.

The first thing I can think of is the barrel is heating up the same way a cold bore shot is different. But from marginal drift to 2" was pretty fast.

Thoughts?

 

[ken4570tc in WY]

New barrel with low round count could need cleaning and another go at break-in. Should go further each subsequent time before it asks to be cleaned. If the cartridges were warming in the sun, it could change velocity enough to cause that shift.

 

[Backcountryguy]

Are you purposely trying to prematurely burn out your barrel?

“10 shot string 2” left and 2” down after a quick 20 round string”.

Cause getting your barrel burning hot like that and continuing to shoot is a good way to burn it out prematurely

 

[wade2big]

Are you purposely trying to prematurely burn out your barrel?

“10 shot string 2” left and 2” down after a quick 20 round string”.

Cause getting your barrel burning hot like that and continuing to shoot is a good way to burn it out prematurely

The man is their to shoot.

 

[PORTSIDE_GUNNER]

Like I said new to Long Range Shooting, especially on bolt guns, used to semi-autos. Sounds like I need to slow down. I heard AXSA are just setted in around 300 round. What's the barrel life on a AXSA? 6000 rounds?

 

[wade2big]

I haven’t shot out any of my creed moors yet because I have too damn many. You will be lucky to get 3,000rds out of it. If you keep shooting as fast as you are you would be lucky to hit 2,000 rounds. Nice rifle and scope for sure man.

 

[Backcountryguy]

Like I said new to Long Range Shooting, especially on bolt guns, used to semi-autos. Sounds like I need to slow down. I heard AXSA are just setted in around 300 round. What's the barrel life on a AXSA? 6000 rounds?

6.5 creedmoor burns barrels. Just how fast it’ll burn depends on a number of things, and continuing shoot while the barrel is hot is one of them that leads to premature death. I usually try not to shoot more than 10 shots at a time before allowing the barrel to cool.

I lost my first 6.5 creedmoor barrel at 1,800 rounds. Never let it get too hot, but it also was not what one would consider a “high quality” barrel either.

As noted above, if you still have subMOA accuracy by 3,000 rounds you should probably start gently caressing the barrel after every shot and tell her she’s a good girl. From what I’ve seen most barrels go somewhere in the 2,000-2,500 round range, plus or minus some rounds depending on how the barrel is treated and if it sees “mild” loads or “hot” loads

If you want 6,000 rounds from a barrel
you might want to consider switching calibers to 308 or 223

 

[Backcountryguy]

The man is their to shoot.

I understand that. I just don’t know anyone who willingly wants to prematurely burn out their barrel, so what I said made a clear point that that rate of fire is not good for the barrel. I could have worded it more kindly, but sometimes that can fail to get the point across

 

[wade2big]

I understand that. I just don’t know anyone who willingly wants to prematurely burn out their barrel, so what I said made a clear point that that rate of fire is not good for the barrel. I could have worded it more kindly, but sometimes that can fail to get the point across

I was just picking. You gave good advice.

 

[PORTSIDE_GUNNER]

So sounds like first point is, my accuracy issues was from too many rounds too fast. Second slow down or I'll be buying a new barrel soon.

QUESTION: Do guys that shoot PRS or NRL replace barrels all the time or is the course of fire short enough to stay cool.

 

[PORTSIDE_GUNNER]

Thanks guys! Appreciate the help.

 

[Backcountryguy]

So sounds like first point is, my accuracy issues was from too many rounds too fast. Second slow down or I'll be buying a new barrel soon.

QUESTION: Do guys that shoot PRS or NRL replace barrels all the time or is the course of fire short enough to stay cool.

Guys that shoot PRS replace barrels fairly frequently. Not necessarily because of their rate of fire or how many rounds they shoot during their “turn”, but because of how many rounds they shoot in general. I think a good amount of guys shoot 6mm variations of rifles, which can be even harder on barrels than 6.5 creedmoor.

 

[0317SNIPER]

Are you leaving rounds in the sun or in the shade? Also could be trigger control a lot of things go into play when shooting as you probably understand. If you have kestrel you can collect data on everything to make sure when something goes wrong in the future you can refer back to you data to make sure everything is spot on. Consistency builds accuracy. Remember the fundamentals.

 

[PORTSIDE_GUNNER]

Are you leaving rounds in the sun or in the shade? Also could be trigger control a lot of things go into play when shooting as you probably understand. If you have kestrel you can collect data on everything to make sure when something goes wrong in the future you can refer back to you data to make sure everything is spot on. Consistency builds accuracy. Remember the fundamentals.

No wind, not jerking. I did approx 2 strings of 10 rounds as fast as I could get sights on target after 80 rounds over 40 minutes. Sounds like I just heated it up. The 2" low and left pull was a little shocking. At 200 yards I would think maybe an 1".

 

[0317SNIPER]

No wind, not jerking. I did approx 2 strings of 10 rounds as fast as I could get sights on target after 80 rounds over 40 minutes. Sounds like I just heated it up. The 2" low and left pull was a little shocking. At 200 yards I would think maybe an 1".

sounds like one of those things you just have to be there to understand.. that's pretty odd though usually barrels like that would be used to having rapid strings sent through them.

 

[Backcountryguy]

I know this point has been made, I’m just making a statement as a rough timeline as to how long a shooting session may take if you want to keep your barrel cooler.

I went shooting yesterday morning, it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and I only had a 3-5mph wind. It took around 3.5 hours to shoot 150 rounds, in 10 shot strings, while letting the barrel cool down between strings. Normally it’s pretty windy where I live, with 10-15mph winds or greater...on those days shooting doesn’t take as long because the wind really helps cool the barrel down by leaving the bolt open.

A barrel fan like the Riflekuhl by Magnetospeed or a homemade contraption with an air-mattress pump and some tubing or something similar would also be handy for cooling things down quicker if you wanted

I usually bring 2-3 rifles to shoot so that while one is cooling, I can shoot another...or I just sit and enjoy nature...or play on my phone, etc etc

 

[gunsnjeeps]

Barrels are an expendable item. 3-5000 rounds and replace. Some shooters replace them based on the calendar not the round count so it doesn't fail mid shooting season. Figure a dime a round when you shoot, ballpark. Just looked at White Oak, 15 cents a round.

 

[Rocketmandb]

There are a whole host of things that could have caused you to start grouping like that - one thing not mentioned is parallax on your scope. If not set properly, it can cause issues like this. I zoomed in on the pic you posted and it's at 180 yards per the markings on the dial. Not that you should trust those markings, but if the scope runs on the high side, and you're on the low side...

 

[PORTSIDE_GUNNER]

There are a whole host of things that could have caused you to start grouping like that - one thing not mentioned is parallax on your scope. If not set properly, it can cause issues like this. I zoomed in on the pic you posted and it's at 180 yards per the markings on the dial. Not that you should trust those markings, but if the scope runs on the high side, and you're on the low side...

Ignore the photo that was on a 1000+ yard range I was shooting steel on in Silver Springs Nevada. I think the paralax was fine because I had been shooting for 30 mins at a 200 yard target. That being said I seem to use Parallax as a focus and as close to the distance as possible. At what point does parallax made a difference? 20 yards? 100 yards?

 

[CuTm]

http://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/objective-research-on-barrel-break-in-procedures.27321/

 

[Rocketmandb]

Ignore the photo that was on a 1000+ yard range I was shooting steel on in Silver Springs Nevada. I think the paralax was fine because I had been shooting for 30 mins at a 200 yard target. That being said I seem to use Parallax as a focus and as close to the distance as possible. At what point does parallax made a difference? 20 yards? 100 yards?

The issue with parallax being off is that you can shoot perfectly fine for one string (because your head isn't moving), get up and move, then come back and shoot off just like you were doing - off by a bit, but still grouping. To play with this, purposefully set your parallax off, then move your head and see how much the reticle moves with respect to the target. It doesn't take much to be off by quite a bit. I always get it set, then move my head side to side and up and down to see if the reticle moves.

 

[Racer88]

6.5 creedmoor burns barrels.

As noted above, if you still have subMOA accuracy by 3,000 rounds you should probably start gently caressing the barrel after every shot and tell her she’s a good girl. From what I’ve seen most barrels go somewhere in the 2,000-2,500 round range, plus or minus some rounds depending on how the barrel is treated and if it sees “mild” loads or “hot” loads

2900 rounds through my original RPR barrel and shot this at 300 yards a little over a week ago.

First target of the day. The two shots on the right were sighters.

Third target of the day. 5-shot groups.

Guess I'll keep the barrel for a bit longer.

 

[Dthomas3523]

It’s likely your breathing and trigger control.

Barrel would have to be a pretty bad sample for it to change that much from heating up.

 

[C4N4DIAN]

Have you considered mirage effect ?