It's all mental

[charlie brown]

Well, today I went shooting my .30-06. The wind had finally cooperated and stopped blowing for one nice afternoon. I have had 25 rounds loaded with the 165 gr. Nosler Partitions and IMR 4350 since the beginning of March. I started at 54 and worked up to 56 grains in .5 grain incriments. At 54 grains, I had like a 5" group. 54.5 showed even worse and only 4 hit the paper. 55, I shot three times, and found one near bullseye, and one up about 2" and right about 1". I told myself I was not concentrating, went back to the bench, CONCENTRATED, and put the last two shells I had near the high right shot to complete that string of shots. The group of 3 measures right at 1.2". I do not know where the other shot went, but I think a large part of my bad shooting today was because of the mental thing. Either that, or this is just that "one load" that my peticular gun likes. Either way, I think this is where I am going to base the rest of my load development at for this rifle. I will probably go up and down a little bit with charge weight and OAL, but, if I can't get it to shoot any better, 1.2" should be just fine for the hunting I do. Here is a pic of the group with 55 grains.

[stubblejumper]

The group of 3 measures right at 1.2". I do not know where the other shot went

Shooting does have a large mental aspect.As to the 1.2" group,I personally would not put a lot of faith in that group of three shots considering that these were a part of a five shot group with another shot over 2" away and the fifth you could not locate.

[charlie brown]

ORIGINAL: stubblejumper

Shooting does have a large mental aspect.As to the 1.2" group,I personally would not put a lot of faith in that group of three shots considering that these were a part of a five shot group with another shot over 2" away and the fifth you could not locate.

Yeah, I know what you mean, thats why I am going to load a few more up of the same load and see what happens. We will see. Who knows what it could have been, so I will have to do some more shooting to find out.

[James B]

For hunting rifles, I shoot three of four 3 shot groups. Since I always have a bit of wobble off the bench If all the groups are 1.5 inches or less then I am pretty happy with the load and rifle. I am not a real good shooter of targets. I can hit rocks or cans or game but put up a paper target and my shooting goes to hell. I can't help it. It happens every time.

[charlie brown]

ORIGINAL: James B

For hunting rifles, I shoot three of four 3 shot groups. Since I always have a bit of wobble off the bench If all the groups are 1.5 inches or less then I am pretty happy with the load and rifle. I am not a real good shooter of targets. I can hit rocks or cans or game but put up a paper target and my shooting goes to hell. I can't help it. It happens every time.

I have heard a lot of people that just can't seem to shoot to well of the bench either. I think one thing may be that hunting rifle stocks aren't desigened specifically for bench rest shooting and vice-versa. Does this make any sense or have any merit to it you think? I know that I can easily put the cross hairs right back on target when shooting from a sitting position, but the rifle can move all over the place when shooting from the bench with a bi-pod. I don't know, but its weird.