Well, time to pull a Lazarus here and give an update after the latest range trip. For those just joining us, I wasn't sure whether to free-float the barrel on my Remington 700BDL in .270 Winchester. I wasn't happy with the groups (smallest I could get was 1-3/4", but usually more like 2 or 3 MOA), nor with the difficulty of zeroing a scope given I always shot several MOA lower from field positions than I did off the bench... Before free-floating, I had posted this picture with 6 groups, five shots each, 3 different powder loads:
So I went ahead and free floated the barrel, and repeated six five-shot groups with 3 different powder loads. This time, the targets look like:
However, I think I can dismiss the entire top row (especially target #3... I think I can take credit for the craptastic group on that one rather than blaming the rifle..), on account of, well, uh, girl trouble, whiskey consumption, and not the best night's sleep ever, so it took me a while to relax into shooting
I guess the groups still aren't sub-MOA, but the fact that they are all 5" lower than before bodes well for the *other* problem I was having, which was the difference between bench shooting (when I get a group small enough to actually adjust the scope) and "real" shooting from field positions.
So after adjusting the scope, I put two targets up at 50 yards. The first has 3 shots off sandbags. The second has ten shots from a sitting position snugged up with the sling, but no other support.
The field position average might be an inch lower, still, but close enough to the same point of impact for government work.
I think I will now take that 1.5" group the 53 grain load gave me and consider it decent. Now it's time to work on getting those field-position groups to less than 12 MOA
Thanks for all the suggestions! I may still get a trigger job and glass bedding done, if I have 60 and 70 bucks to give a gunsmith at some point...
