thenuge15

I have a model 1300 winchester with a rifled barrle and a bsa deerhunter rifle scope. I sighted it in and shot a deer two days later. That was for the youth hunt, now last friday i shot at a big doe and missed. I went and shot my gun at the range, and sure enough it was low.After i shot the first deer i cleaned my gun and put it in the gun cabinet for a month. It never left the gun cabinet or my hard case until last friday. I don't remember hitting my gun on anything because i am super paranoid about my guns (i would have noticed). I was wondering if when i fully disasembled my gun to clean it, could it of made it shoot low.( i didn't take the scope of or touch the scope.) I would appriciate any info so this won't happen again. thanks for your help-Sam

mauser06

maybe....taking the barrel off can move where it hits i would think...when i take mine off i can put the rib on and its not lined up meaning it can be a little off...i would think it would be smart to leave the barrel on and clean it from the bore to the action...then clean the action..or you also may have left oil in the barrel i heard that can effect where your first shot shoots...

TN_Hunter

If your scope is mounted on the receiver, not the barrel, then YES removing the barrel can affect point of impact because it would be
nearly impossible to get the barrel tightened back to the same ammount of pressure it was before. If it is impacting low, chances are that you have the barrel tighter now than it was when you zeroed the scope. Rezero yuor scope and then do not remove the barrel.