Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The dreaded 2 and one

We had all bared that cross. Favorite rifle shoots 2 in one hole one away ruining a great group. No, it is NOT barrel heat in this situation!

What causes it and how do you fix it? short of rebarreling that is. Optics tight and top of the line!

Nothing touches the barrel between the lug and forward pressure point.

What say you

Got a Tikka that does exactly that. After all the talk about how accurate they are, it has me about ready to sell it. Ideas?

Correct inch lbs on stock screws?

"he had all bared hat cross." WTF?



IMO ( I could be wrong), if you gotta use a torque wrench on a hunting rifle - get rid of the rifle, or rebed it and get rid of the torque wrench.

Remove the forward pressure point would be my first option, and , equally, making sure the receiver is bedded absolutely flat (re the torque wrench! If the receiver bedding is flat, the torque wrench is un-necessary. If your receiver screws turn more than a quarter turn or so from coming snug to tight, you are warping the receiver into place again- that torque thing!!!) If this is a 3 screw deal, only bring the central screw to snug, not tight. It really doesn't do a thing, but fully tight might.... For example, the floor plate (if so equipped ) may be hard to seat and release if tightened too much.. This can be corrected also / or in addition, by properly bedding in the floor plate or trigger guard (just did this on a Model 70- over the years, wood conpression can screw thing up) )

Make sure the forward receiver screw does not protrude into the receiver too far, or at all...

Second would be rebedding, if necessary. Ain't no guarantee the first job was exactly right, much less effective. Nothing wrong with bedding an inch or two of barrel forward of the recoil lug either.

Third option would be full-length neutral bedding. Just set the whole damned works into epoxy bedding compund without benefit of receiver screw tension. (My M98 with heavy bbl, done so, does 1" groups at 300 yards. What is due to the heavy barrel and the bedding remains unknown, but I DGAS! :))

Fourth would be incrementally re-applying forend pressure point with subsequent strips of paper, then bedding a pressure point to best accuracy, just behind those self-same strips of paper.

Also, be sure the magazine box is fitting correctly. That should be up there at first, I guess

I think the first thing to check is to see if the shooter is pulling the shot in anticipation of recoil...

Seat bullet deeper and it will bring it in... if it’s shooting a triangle group seat further out.... my fellow Alaskan wowzer, that’s one hell of a list. Again seat bullets deeper I usually go in .005 increments. Try that if it doesnt work I will buy you lunch at that little restruant that uses a caboose for its restruant in Cheyenne.

Have you tried different powders? How far off is the flyer?

Shoot multiple 5-shot groups, or maybe a 10-shot, and then see what conclusions you can make. In my opinion, 1 shot out in a 3 shot group, and drawing a conclusion, is a failure of the method.

With no more information than we have this is a sound next step.

What about this rifle makes it your favorite?

That can be caused by a bunch of things. First thing to do is shoot some 4 shot groups and see if you get a group of 2 + 2. If so something in your rig is moving from shot to shot. Either your crosshairs bouncing back and forth or your scope bases or your bedding. Could also be caused by inconsistent placement of your rifle on the bag/rest. Especially so since you have a forend pressure point.

Turn the seating stem in 1/4 turn at a time and shoot until all three come together as per Aussiegunwriter's tip.

Every rifle I’ve ever had that did that was a bedding issue. And it is almost always the second shot that is the flyer.

You shoot and the rifle shifts in the bedding a tiny bit. The next shot is the flyer and the vibrations causes it to shift in the bedding again back to the original POI.

So my last rifle that did that I finally narrowed it down to the magazine box putting tension on the action. Then after thinking that I was going to have to bed the mag box again, I narrowed it down to a pretty tiny metal spur on the box. I filed that away and the flyers disappeared. Then, with the flyers gone I found that I could make it boringly accurate by tightening it all down farmer tight and then backing off the rear screw one full turn. Now, everything I shoot in it practically touches.

Yeah , sell it

Don't ignore the possibility of the crosshair bouncing, it may be low on the list, but it does happen. My first 6mmbr with a proven scope would shoot in the teens when I did may part.....decided I wanted more magnification to extend my range. Went to a larger scope and the groups at 100 opened to around 3/4 inch. Scope swap back to the first scope and groups went back to the teens....
Good Luck,
Rick

Yep. Shoot a ten shot group, slow and easy so heat doesn't become an issue.

I had a Savage 99 that would shoot 2 holes touching and always throw the third shot. I remember reading this fix on the fire some years back and tried it.,,,it worked. Three holes touching after deeper seating.

Fotis,
I have to ask.....If that is a 200 yard group what is the extreme velocity spread of your load. Many times a variation in velocity from shot to shot won't necessarily show up at 100 yards but becomes more apparent at 200. I have zero experience with your load, bullet or powder but just thinking this could have a noticeable effect.
Rick

Exactly. You might as well be changing out shocks because your check engine light came on! A 9-shot group on the same target will tell you a whole lot more than three 3-shot groups on three different targets.

By the time he’s done doing all your guys recommendations he will have a new gun.. Again seat bullet deeper.. in some cases switching primers will bring it in. But I mess with seating depth before mess with different primers..