How many rounds do you find it takes for your rifles to "settle back in" to high accuracy after a good cleaning?

In preparing for Wyoming Pronghorn this weekend, I cleaned both mine and my wifes .243's along with my 7STW.

The STW with premium factory ammo had its first shot high and right by 4", 2nd was low and left 2" then the next 4 went into .75".

My .243 with 100grn Nosler Partition handloads went first shot 2" high and left, next two 1" left, both shots touching, next 3 into .25" (wow!)

Wifes .243 never settled down after 12 rounds so i will re-clean it and we'll retest it tomorrow (it usually groups sub moa).

How many rounds do you find it takes for your rifles to "get back into the groove" after a good cleaning?


-DallanC

Was at the range today with my Ruger .257 Roberts. Ran a Bore Snae through it and it took 3 shots to settle down.

It sounds like what you are experienceing is "Cold bore" vs. "warm bore" zero shift. Cold bore zero can be as much as 6 inches off from where a warm bore zero traditionally impacts. This is becasue the rifle barrel warms as you shoot it and this changes the harmonics/POI. Snipers have known about this for years and each sniper knows the cold bore zero as well as the warm bore zero of his rifle.

I have a .308 that only shifts impact by about .5 moa (higher) after the 1st 4 rounds. I also have a .223 that has a cold bore shot that is 3.5 MOA high for the 1st shot and it progressively goes lower to zero as I shoot the next 5 rounds. Both of these rifles are capable of under .5 MOA groups when I do my part. You can see how important it is to know your cold bore zero as well as subsequent shot zeros, especially for the long range hunter/marksman. Each barrel has its own personality.

As far as the .243 goes, it soinds like it might be time to remove copper from the bore if you haven't done this recently.

Welcome to the site JO422.


-DallanC

I guess i'm a stickler when it comes to this because i clean it after every 3 to 5 shots. But then it also gets into temperature (and things of that nature) because i'm not in a hurry so i let my barrel cool (to shoot cold again) before another shot.

But if i were shooting a battery of rounds, one after the other, then i would have to switch to a different scope setting because my barrel will heat up, and is going to start shooting progressively higher (but in that event, i have never gone more than 15 rounds before a cleaning and letting things cool down) (except in my AR).

Yeah JO442 welcome (i'm new as well)

Ok, Fess up Dallen
You had a bad case of apple pie shakes!
Try it again and lets see what happens. Get your sugar fix first

Hey New Guys! Welcome to the forums and feel free to jump in with both feet. We are all about fun and the shooting sport we all enjoy. We are well named "HuntingNuts".

I usually fire a fouling shot into the ground somewhere down range before shooting for group. It'll warm up the barrel as well as get rid of any oil that might remain in the barrel. Most days it's cool enough in Canada that the barrel won't heat up until the 4th shot, maybe the 3rd., and even then it'll cool back down fairly quickly. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

My 270 needs only 1 fouling shot before settling down. The first shot is always about 3/4-1" from the main group. Then after about 3 shots (all cold barrel) it will start opening up a little at a time. For example shot 4 might be off by 1/2" and shot 5 will be off by 3/4 - 1". Again, all cold barrel shots.

My 308 Encore only needs 1 fouling shot, and then the next 5 or 6 will go into the same group before starting to open up. I have gotten into the habit now of completely cleaning the barrels of all fouling and then bringing a fouling round to shoot into the ground before I start shooting groups (or hunting).

Blaine

Try shooting 1 shot a day for 10 days on the same target (no Cleaning). The results can be interesting!

Shooter458, that's like saying eat only "1" chip!!!!! How do you do it?
I'm 15 minutes from the range but between work and work at home I just can't get there often enough!