In order to do it right the cross hairs must be on a target or a small stone or whatever you are sighted in at. If your gun is stone still and the cross hairs are on the target, but move off target when you do the parallax head bob thing ...the parallax is out of adjustment at the distance.

In a nut shell it's very hard to shoot MOA groups when the cross hairs move off one way or the other with a little head movement. When the parallax is adjusted properly, you can move your head to the left,right,up, or down and the cross hairs stay exactly on the target. IMHO this is the first step one in shooting small groups, or at least tighter groups.

ML are harder then rifles to shoot tight groups because you have to remove them from the bags to load and swab the barrel or do whatever. So in addition to adjusting the scope parallax.... ML or rifles will shoot to a slightly different POI if the gun is supported differently everytime it is placed back on the bags. I don't use sand bags to support my guns. It's harder to get the gun positioned exactly the same everytime. I bought a saddle bag to support the forearm and a silica sand fill leather V to support the rear stock. I position the forearm in the saddle the same way everytime to a certain mark. Then use the rear V bag to get the right elevation.

Getting the gun positioned on the bags the same way everytime is step two.

You may think I'm getting a little anal here...but hand position and face pressure should also be consistent. Here's what I do to check both. Once my cross hairs are on target rock steady, I release all grip tension in my right hand and ever so slightly remove the pressure of my cheek against the stock. More often then not the cross hairs move off target. I reposition and repeat the process. Release hand tension and cheek pressure. If done right, the cross hairs stays on target. Many times we have a tendency to move the cross hairs around by pushing the cross hairs to the target with our cheek or using our right hand tension to tweak the cross hairs back on target. Does it make a difference? Yup.

Ok...one more step that I do. Once I have the above things taken care of and I'm starting the trigger pull, I pretend I'm slowly pulling the target directly back to the reticule. With this step, if done correctly it just feels right. How many times have you heard someone say...I pulled that one to the right or left. I know immediately if I had a good trigger pull.



Look at the lower left target. Four shots are through that hole on the left. With that lone flyer to the right, I knew where I hit before I even looked back at the target. I know these aren't benchrest groups but they are pretty good for a stock factory rifle.

I know you just asked about scope parallax but it's hard to talk about step one and not include the other range steps. I spent some time on range with Benchrest shooters and if you think I'm anal with my shooting method....spend some time with these guys. Wow

These tips don't mean a hill of bean in the hunting world, only in the rifle range world. Good Luck kl