The rifle I ordered arrived and I picked it up on the way home from work yesterday. I bought an Optima Elite .50cal/.270 combo in camo/blue. Good looking gun! I mounted my scopes on the barrels, but the one on my .270 barrel sat too high. I picked up some new bases and rings today and put the scope back on. Perfect!

I decided to use my Bushnell Banner on the centerfire until I get an upgrade. I bore sighted both barrels in the front yard, and then off to the range (lease road across the woods) I went. I didn't end up having time to shoot the ML, but here's the rundown of my first .270 shoot.

I picked up a box of 130 gr Remington Core Lokt shells from Wally World to try out. A couple of shots at 25 yards put me where I wanted to be. I was a bit surprised how little the gun kicks. I haven't shot many centerfires and I expected more. I'm used to shooting deer slugs and 3 1/2" turkey loads, so this was very pleasant to shoot.

I put the wrench back on the scope ring screws to make sure they were tight. Several shots later and I was hitting 1 1/2" high at 100 stepped-off yards. My last 3-shot group was about 1", and my last two shots were touching. I was super stoked with those results.

It was about 100 degrees here today. Instead of using a spotting scope, I just walked down to my target after each shot to check it out and to let my barrel cool down. Then I did a 5 minute sit to let my body relax and to pick ticks off my pantlegs.

I went back to 200 to see what it would do. This is where it got a little strange. My first shot put me about 2 1/4" high and just about perfect left/right. I let 10 minutes go by, and then shot a second time. 5 1/2" high, dead center. Hmmm. But then, my last shot was a couple inches higher than that! What's up???

I was surprising myself with every shot. The gun has a heavy trigger, but it doesn't have any creep. I thought I was holding dead on, and on the bags the gun wasn't shaking a bit. Could my barrel have just warmed up too much? Or could the shells that put bullets on top of each other at 100 yards just spread out after that? I'm anxious to get out again tomorrow and do some more shooting at 100 to see if it still groups them at that range. Maybe I need to tighten my scope down some more.

What should my cleaning plan be for my .270? I'm used to muzzleloaders which get cleaned after every use and .22's that get cleaned... well... whenever they quit shooting good groups. Sometimes once at the end of squirrel season. Should I run some Hoppes down the barrel at the end of the day?

Any tips along those lines or thoughts on my goofy 200y pattern would be appreciated.

rw

I had a Rossi 3 barrel and it had a barrel nut in the forarm that caused the 270 barrel to drift after 2 or 3 shots.The 17 hmr got bet the more I shot. The 50 reseaver would fowl after 4 or 5 shots and would not fire.

I only clean my rifles once a year after hunting season and I do not swab the barrel in between. IME ,clean, unfouled barrels actually give poor accuracy. My duck gun gets cleaned almost every hunt though.