Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Odd range session?

After looking over my 338 I noticed the scope was twisted off center, so I pulled it apart and remounted it with loctite on all the screws. (New scope this year).
And back to the range. Shot a 1.25" 5 shot group at 100, adjusted sight a tad and moved to 525. Shot a group of three, went and checked. 8.5". Not awesome, but dead animals. Tweaked scope a tad, back to bench. Barrel was pretty damn hot, another 3 [bleep] group, went and checked.. 13". What the crap?
Decided to let barrel cool down in the ac in the truck. Gave that a bit and set up at 200, perfect 3 shot 2" clover in the bullseye.
A side note, between the first 5 shots and the second 6 shots, mv jumped 100 fps and one crazy shot was 200 fps over the high average!!!!! Ammo was kept in the shade. Barrel was hot. Chrono is a caldwell in the sun.
Powder was rl 22
Ideas???

13" group? Troy is that you??? Sounds like you are flinching. What was the wind doing when you pulled the trigger?

Alot crazy stuff can be going on at 500yds.. Was the barrel hot before you shot this group?

i had good trigger squeezes. Wind was gusty but mostly from behind me at my back. Only drifting about 6 or 8 inches right. The barrel was hot. It heats up quickly with what I am shooting.

That powder is going to get very hot sitting in a hot chamber. May account for wild velocities.

I've got one of the Caldwell Chrono's and mine reads slower in the bright sun, not faster. They might not all react the same, but I'd be surprised if they act in an opposite manner.

Just because I have, say five loads that produce one inch groups at a hundred yards, it doesn't mean that all will produce the theoretical five inch groups at five hundred. One will be better than the rest and may shoot better than five inches, and one worse than the rest, the others in the middle.

Bullet quality can definitely be a factor but the nut behind the wheel must be on top of his game not just to do the shooting but also to be able to recognize the many and varied issues involved.

If this is something that was able to be accomplished in the past at 500 then it is somewhat different than if it has never been done to date. That said, I agree that the wild velocity changes are not helping consistent barrel harmonics.

frustrating.
I am to the point, if its going to be a long shot, it will be from a cold barrel only and ammo that has been kept shaded. I have done quite well in the past with the same loads. So not sure what to do differently. Thanks for all the insight.

Put it in perspective. If at 525 it is 13", not great; but, not as bad as it sounds and probably only minor issues. Based on your stated mv deviation, it sounds more like ammo than your weapon setup. Now, if that group was at 100, stop with the Redbull.