Cold barrel accuracy????? How do you get it??

[setter77]

Finally got my scope dialed in and shooting good. Thanks all that helped with that one. Noticed that during my sessions that my first and 2nd shot accuracy is not good. Today here is my shot sequence.

1st6" right, 3"high
2nd 5" right 0"high
3rd bullseye
4th bullseye
ran wet patch and dry patch
5th bullseye
6th bullseye
7th missfire
ran wet patch and dry patch
8th right on
9th right on

Any tips or suggestions on 1st and 2nd shot accuracy? I cannot be the only one this happens to Looking Back has been doing that since i started sighting in the scope.

Did notice that I have some powder flakes in the barrel when swabbing it out, guessing I need a hotter primer. Any suggestions there? I am using 150 gr of Shockeys gold pellets

[kevin1]

Try a fouling shot first .

[frontier gander]

Or change powder.

[cayugad]

Kevin I believe has it right, before you shoot next time take 30 grains of the loose powder... if your shooting pellets then one pellet you might need to waste, and put that down the barrel. You can then push a sabot on top of the powder or some wads and take the rifle and shoot it off. Be careful, that wad or sabot is still dangerous.

Then I DO NOT swab the barrel but leave it dirty. I pop one more 209 primer through it to blow the breech plug clear and any loose powder hanging on the barrel out the muzzle and load. This should make your shots more alike.

Now I do not recommend this but I have a friend that after he loads his rifle sabotfor the first shot, will actually take a patch with a small amount of bore butter, and swab the barrel. He claims that helps the first shot be like all the others. He also says this way he does not fowl the barrel and can hunt all season if he gets no shot without unloading the rifle... take this for what you like, try it if you like. My friend claims this makes the first shot hit almost the same spot at 100 yards as the second and third shot.

[Roskoe]

This is pretty much the same experience I had with loose 2F Jim Shockey Gold (see post from a couple of weeks back). It shoots off (usually high) on the first shot. After a couple of fouling shots it settles in and remains very consistent. You do not want to swab with this powder - groups are better and more consistent without any swabbing whatsoever. I also got misfires, stuck primers,and wild chronograph readings when swabbing.

And the good news is that, at least as I understand it, the powder is not very corrosive and you don't need to clean with any level of urgency. I left mine fouled and shot it over a period of about a week. Every shot from a fouled cold barrel was right on the money. Pretty low maintenance stuff.

[cayugad]

What is it with American Pioneer Powder and the swabbing thing? I still have not figured out how to get the 3f to shoot accurate. It will lay a couple in there real nice and then all of a sudden throw them all over the place.

[setter77]

Roskoe having the same things happen to me, 2 weak fires, stuck primers, never happened before. Only reason I swabbed was it got extremly hard to load the bullet.But shots after sawbbing are as good as the ones before. Thinking with the powder residue, a hotter primer might get more powder burnt up and making it easier to load after the 4 or 5th shots.

Any recommendations on a better primer??

[Roskoe]

I was just using the regular Remington Kleenbore's. What bullet are you using? Do they seat hard with other powders?

[setter77]

I am using the remington primers too. They seem to seat without any problem but sometimes it feels like the pellets are breaking up as I seat the bullet but I cannot say it has changed anything with the shot accuracy.

[Roskoe]

I have never used the APP pellets, but the loose stuff is working pretty well. Somewhere I read that these pellets are kinda crumbly - and may have significant variations in weight. I'm also seating my bullets pretty firmly against the charge.