Sighting in New gun in cold..
 

I just bought a new rifle yesterday. A Savage .17HMR. I was wondering if it would be ok to zero it in now in cold weather?, since I will primarily be shooting it in hot summer weather. Or should I wait until it gets warmer out? The reason I ask is when I shoot my .22 it tends to hit about an inch high on the first shot, cold barrel, then after that it settles in,when the barrel warms on the next shots. I couldn't figure out why I tended to miss the first shot at squirrels and hit them on the second. I then tryed at target shooting 3 shots and then waiting 5 minutes and shooting again and it was a trend. Does anyone else experience this? I'd hate to zero it in now only to be wasting my time and have to do it again. Thanks for any help in advance.

RE: Sighting in New gun in cold..
 

I assume you're going to be using it for hunting, so that makes the 1st shot more important than all the others. For that reason the cold bore sight in is best.

RE: Sighting in New gun in cold..
 

May I also suggest you don't clean it every time after you shoot. A fowling shot or two is usually needed on the hummer. It will throw the next few hundred perfect after that. If your cold bore is off of a clean barrel every time. Your second or third shot will shift POI. which may be enough for a miss out a ways. Have a cold bore fouled barrel and it will duplicate over and over. BTW velosity difference will not be enough from summer to winter to make a noticeable change to impact. So sight it in when ever you are comfortable with the temperature. Don't worry about the barrel.
Blessings

RE: Sighting in New gun in cold..
 

Thanks for the input guys. Then I'll go ahead and sight it in. I am really excited to try it out. I want to wait for a real calm day to do it though so I can get accurate results.

RE: Sighting in New gun in cold..
 

I highly recommend "breaking in" the new barrel before concentrating on sighting in. Savage as most (all) manufacturers have a reommended process for breaking in a new barrel.
http://www.savagearms.com/cs_barrel.htm explains it all.
Then fine tune your sighting in process. Cold is preferable.

RE: Sighting in New gun in cold..
 

+1!

RE: Sighting in New gun in cold..
 

Game4lunch and Bernie P,
Did you guys actually do this whole break-in process? What does this process do for your gun as compared to just shooting it? Just curious.