Hit the range yesterday afternoon, (96 degrees), and again this morning (91 degrees). My purpose was to do some simple range work with some new equipment I recently acquired.
After I was through I had enough time to take a few quick shots with my Savage 210 shotgun. This was the first time I remember shooting it at the range in such hot conditions so I was interested in what it would do with a hot barrel.

I was shooting Remington Core Lokts on both days. On Saturday I took four shots in relatively quick succession. I would guess they were all shot in about 4-5 min total. The first three went asexpected, with the fourth beingcalled a poor shot the minute I pulled the trigger. Jcchartgirl then added a 5th shot and we called it a day.

The thing I found interesting when checking the target was the unique orientation of my first three shot group. Even though they produced a 3in group, (the 5 shot group, shot by two different shooter was 3.5in), the group seemed unusually orderly.

Today I repeatedthe processwith another 3 shot group of the Core Lokts before I called it a day.

The moment I pulled the triggered on the third shot my suspicions were confirmed. The barrel was heating, and forming a classic example of "stringing", for the second day in a row.

Not only are the strings virtually identical in length at 3in. The spread between bullets are very similar, and even the angle of dipersion is within a few degrees.

This is something I am clearly going to have to keep an eye on even in more moderate temperatures. One more reason to shoot more in the other three seasons!

I'll post day 1, then 2 below...

Day 2

It's always good to know how things are going downrange. But I won't volunteer to stand in front of that target!

you'll learn a lot more if you do a ten shot group. You need to prove the progression is consistant and ten shots.....or even seven...will help verify that you have stringing.

I understand your point Vapodog. However the barrel was already very hot, wouldn't the barrel quickly reach a relatively maximum temperature and stop stringing?
I could see more shots being useful if I started with a colder barrel,but thebarrel was already almost 100 degrees whenI started shooting. I would think the effects of the heat on the barrel would dimish rather quickly after a certain point.
Any thoughts?

try it again on a 65 degree day then.....if you continue to get stringing, continue the shooting to see if the string continues or if the string just happens to be a part of the group that you'd see after a lot more shots.

BTW....did you say what caliber and bullet this is?

Remington Core Lokt Ultra 385gr Sabot 12 ga shotshells. Shot from a Savage 210 bolt action shotgun.

at what distance is the shooting?

100 yds...

Do you actually expect to shoot better groups than that? Personally it looks pretty good to me for a slug at 100 yards......