Heat and Humidity affect shooting ??? Bad day with Triumph

revpilot · 09-09-2009, 01:53 PM

Was wondering how much that affects shooting BP. I shot the new bone collector today, it was the hottest and most humid day , that ive ever shot a BP, and man, was i shooting bad. I was looking for something to blame it on. I know its nowhere near as hot and humid as you guys shooting down south. I tried shooting a ton of different stuff today and nothing was working. Im really regretting selling Inrecordbuck my Endeavor, that thing would shoot anything you stuffed in it..........

I tried 250g FTX with SBH and HPH12
250g Barnes TEZ with supplied sabot, SBH, and the hph12

I even slowly bumped the bh209,starting with 90g and ending with 120g....

This was my second trip out with it, it was so bad, i couldnt even take pics of the targets,i could throw rocks better....

heinz57 · 09-09-2009, 02:45 PM

i don't go to the range if the temperature is above 45 fahrenheit ..waste of time and powder ...i am lucky we only have 2 weeks of hot weather 80+ ..thank god ..

MountainDevil54 · 09-09-2009, 02:52 PM

I was shooting my traditions evolution last week and it was 90* + / - Once the barrel/stock heated up, you could kiss accuracy goodbye. Better off just waiting for a cooler evening to go shoot than try it out in the hot sun.

lemoyne · 09-09-2009, 06:12 PM

Once you get the barrel heated up it won't shoot good I shoot in hot humid AR on the down wind side of a 44,000 ac. lake, you some times have to cool the barrel between shots when it hot. I also get the impression that its a new gun it often takes 50 to 150 shots befor a new TC gets broke in and shoots good. Lee

spaniel · 09-09-2009, 06:18 PM

5-7min between shooting and loading on a hot day. Sometime I will shoot, jump on the lawnmower and do a couple rounds, get off and shoot again, repeat until the lawn is mowed!

Grouse45 · 09-09-2009, 06:53 PM

If your not shooting BH209 i think you have another problem. The first problem could be MMP sabots. They do not take heat as well as Harvester sabots. Or you might have a bad scope loose base or a bad ML. Spit patching in between shots with moderate loads and 777 you really should not have a problem. I would check over everything and if that doesnt work send it back to T/C.

Mark whiz · 09-09-2009, 08:38 PM

I really don't think the heat/humidity had that much to do with it. I've shot up to 50 rounds in a 2 to 3 hour session back in FLA with the temps in the 90s and humidity 90+ and never saw my accuracy decrease throughout the session.

Good shooting in one session and then bad in the next tells me something has changed and I can't see the weather making THAT big of a difference (outside of a hurricane) so the other options are:
1)Powder going bad (Cleanshot actually did that to me overnight)
2)Something going on inside the bore - make sure it is nice and clean - even hit it with some bore paste, which I recommend for a new barrel anyway.
3)Something going on with the sighting system. Check the mounting screws, etc for tightness.
4)Something loosening up on the gun itself, like the action to stock screws.

If you check all these things and the next trip to the range is just as bad - pull off the scope and shoot some with the open sights.............if it clears up, you'll know it is in the scope and/or mounting system.

spaniel · 09-10-2009, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grouse45

If your not shooting BH209 i think you have another problem. The first problem could be MMP sabots. They do not take heat as well as Harvester sabots. Or you might have a bad scope loose base or a bad ML. Spit patching in between shots with moderate loads and 777 you really should not have a problem. I would check over everything and if that doesnt work send it back to T/C.

Interesting thought on the brand of sabots.

Even with moderate loads (110gr) I have seen substantial affect by temp, I don't think humidity has any reason to do anything. Guns shoot worse when they get hot, period. Why else do people put cooling rods in Savages? BP subs produce less heat but it's not hard to make your barrel uncomfortably warm. Even my 300WM shoots bad when it gets hot and it doesn't have a piece of plastic wrapped around the bullet to get soft.

Grouse45 · 09-10-2009, 08:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spaniel

Interesting thought on the brand of sabots.

Even with moderate loads (110gr) I have seen substantial affect by temp, I don't think humidity has any reason to do anything. Guns shoot worse when they get hot, period. Why else do people put cooling rods in Savages? BP subs produce less heat but it's not hard to make your barrel uncomfortably warm. Even my 300WM shoots bad when it gets hot and it doesn't have a piece of plastic wrapped around the bullet to get soft.

I'll start with moderate loads. When i shoot 777 at 110grns by volume. After shooting the ML i run a pre-saturated patch down the barrel of 91% alchohol. Then i run a dry patch down the barrel and get ready to load and shoot again. I never get my barrel hot at all following those steps. And i'm not hurring at all.

People put cooling rods in Savages because they are not spit patching in between shots. The same with most BH209 guy's. The spit patches are cooling the barrel while cleaning.

As far as your rifle i agree as well. No spit patching between shots to cool the barrel.

I would highly suggest on hot days to weigh your powder by volume after every shot. This is what i do and really helps the ML to cool more before loading.

lemoyne · 09-10-2009, 08:49 AM

It is called heat walking when the barrel gets hot enough to start moving the POI around, all the people who shoot any kind of guns much have experienced it.
Of course if you were cooling your gun long enough between shots then something else could well be wrong. If your barrel feels the same temperature as the air all the way up and down then you are ready for the next shot if it has warmer areas the wait a bit. Lee