![]() Rifle support can affect accuracy, too, and not just because some forms of support allow more rifle movement than others. As the trigger breaks, tiring muscles can involuntarily give way. ![]() So the rifle can dip as you press the trigger. Offhand without a sling there's no pull but no solid support either. The sling also pulls the fore-end away from the barrel, reducing pressure that would otherwise push the barrel up.Ī sling tugging on a barrel stud can produce more dramatic effect, as it directly influences barrel vibration and can even bow the barrel. That's because the rifle is held down as the firing sequence makes the barrel shudder. Now, a taut sling routinely pulls shots low. The group landed 9 inches to seven o'clock at 200 yards. 1B from sandbags, I attached a sling to the fore-end and went prone. Some years ago, after zeroing a Ruger No. But it can certainly throw bullets to a new place when you move from sandbag to sitting or offhand-or even if you change the contact point of the rest. If you're a hunter, your rifle may not show slight differences in point of impact caused by a slight shift in elbow placement. Whether you're trying to finish a quarter-inch group in a 50-meter prone target or kill a deer at 300 yards, you must know where the bullet will strike from a position-supported rifle. Reducing movement shrinks groups so you can adjust the scope more quickly and precisely.īut there's a hitch only in benchrest competition can you employ such an effective support after zeroing. That's all in keeping with your mission: to engineer a collision of the bullet's arc with your line of sight at some specific distance. ![]() A bench and sandbags or a solid commercial rest help reduce rifle movement, so when zeroing you can all but eliminate human movement from the sight picture. Your job in holding a rifle is not to keep it motionless-that's impossible-but to keep movements small and consistent. Ignition and the bullet's travel do, too. Striker fall and the trigger's contact with the stop induce some rifle movement or vibration. The rifle always moves after the sear release. If you move the rifle while you squeeze, you can still hit consistently, provided the pressures at work remain the same, shot to shot. A perfect sight picture doesn't stay perfect as the trigger breaks. All affect the way the rifle reacts to a shot. If sling tension changes-or the angle or pressure of your shoulder at the butt, or your cheek placement on the comb-you've introduced additional variables. The reason: Muscles impose different levels of tension along different vectors, and bones holding the rifle against gravity bear the weight from different angles. When, firing prone, I moved my forward elbow to reload, the next bullet would follow a new path. "Any change in position means a new landing zone for the bullet." "Keep your position between shots," Earl told me. Of the few attributable to other gremlins, I suspect most culpable are changes in rifle support. The overwhelming majority of bad shots result from bad shooting. ![]() While loose mounts or a hard bump can change zero, and moisture can cause wood stocks to move, affecting the barrel's direction, such problems are less than common. In hunting camp and as a guide, I've often heard riflemen bellyache about "knocking the sight" off zero, or a "shifting zero." Always the whining starts after a bungled shot. Truth is, that intersection can move-and vanish altogether-depending on how you hold the rifle. Zero is supposed to be a permanent bond between your line of sight and the bullet path. In fact, if you take that rifle from the bench to the mountain, you may be setting yourself up to miss. Snug the ring screws, bore-sight, then bench your rifle and fire and adjust until your ministrations plant the bullets where you're looking.
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