Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots CVA Scout 44 Mag

I was at the range yesterday with my relatively new Traditions Outfitter G3 in 44mag. Up until yesterday I'd been sighting it with a red dot, only shooting at 50 yards and was fairly consistently getting 1.25-1.5" groups. Because my vision isn't great in my shooting eye, I never see the red dot as a crystal clear dot; more like a star flare. However I managed. But I wanted to try it out at 100yds and would never be able to see the target clearly enough with the red dot for that to work, so I mounted a Leupold VX-3i 1.5-5 on it.

Once I got it sighted in at 50 yards, I moved out to 100 and first chronographed my load; 1925fps avg with 265gr Hornady FP with an ES of only 30fps over 5 shots fired less than a minute apart; a stout load but apparently consistent. OAL is extended out .140" so that the bullet is just off the lands.

I had 40 rounds loaded, all the same. The plan was to confirm the load performed well and was sighted in for 150yd zero, then put them away for hunting season. Suffice to say, I fired almost all of them trying to figure out why they were stringing vertically so dramatically. We're talking going from zero'd to as much as 8 inches high over 3 shots at 100 yards. Horizontal zero was spectacularly consistent and dead on with first two shots of one group touching, but I've never seen such extreme vertical stinging!

I think I've concluded that the stringing is likely due to the barrel heating up quite quickly and affecting pressure on the barrel from the forearm, which is bolted to it with a single bolt. I think it's unlikely that it's the scope because every time I would make an up/down adjustment chasing the stringing, the impact of the first shot of a new group would move accordingly. I also have a lot of confidence in the consistency of Leupold scopes based on many year's experience.

Because this rifle is intended to be an all-weather bush gun for hunting, it's really only the first shot being absolutely reliable that I actually care about, but I'd like to be able to prove to myself that my theory is correct.

Any wisdom to share? (And I ask this being aware that I'm sort of hi-jacking the OP's thread, however thinking that this might also enlighten the original post as well)