What the EFFING wrong with Rifle ?

[444shooter]

Clean the barrel, then shoot 3 shots. Let barrel cool. Repeat, and then post results.

 

[brybenn]

Perfectly normal for a light barrel. All of mine walk up though.

 

[Gordon M]

Go to a good gunsmith and have him look at your rifle if you don't have the skills to fix it your self

 

[trevj]

Maybe just for 3...

Shooters kid dropped the rifle while climbing up into the stand, or on the way in. Didn't say anything. Now dad is famous! It was much discussed when the vid first came out.

I'll speak up to side with the guys that suggest allowing the barrel to cool between shots.

You can pound a pile of money into every magic trick out there to increase the accuracy, and what it will get you is a lighter wallet.

If you want to group tight groups, with rapid shots, put a heavy, stiff barrel on the gun. Not much fun to pack in the woods.

Now, a couple things you can try, if you don't mind getting yer hands in. If the barrel is floated, try folding up a strip of paper and seeing if you can put it between the barrel and stock at various points to form a pressure pad. By moving it around, sometimes you can tune the vibrations a bit.

If the barrel is not free floated, back out the screws holding the action in place and put a spacer under the front of the action, enough to cause the barrel to be free of the stock channel. More layers of folded paper. If that works, see to free floating the barrel, as well as bedding in the action.

Paying someone else to do this... I suppose. But you can do this stuff yourself. Especially as an experiment.

Oh yeah. Go read your own post. Shoots good when the barrel is allowed to cool. Different ammo, same results. Read those lines over again a few times, and see if there is a pattern formed!

Cheers
Trev

 

[Claven2]

Shooters kid dropped the rifle while climbing up into the stand, or on the way in. Didn't say anything. Now dad is famous! It was much discussed when the vid first came out.

If I picked that hard, it's what I would say too.

What kind of POS setup does he have that it's that off from being dropped? Note to idiot hunter: buy a rifle with irons and transition if your optic sucks on shot 1. Also, don;t buy crappy aluminum rings and cheap scopes that lose zero when nudged.

 

[Joe549]

Shooters kid dropped the rifle while climbing up into the stand, or on the way in. Didn't say anything. Now dad is famous! It was much discussed when the vid first came out.....

Cheers
Trev

Seems to be a go to excuse when you miss repeatedly on a stationary target...

To make a long story short, my son dropped my rifle one week before this hunt and did not tell me it was dropped, after making two repetitive shots with custom loads, I knew it was not me. 15 minutes later, buck came back out and I had a chance to get my other gun from my truck and harvest him, however I did not film the fatal shot, but I have pictures. Please notice innocent bystander (rabbit) on the first shot. I was shooting a 7mm Magnum.

 

[DonnieM]

That is very normal for a light contour barrel, especially if your hand loads are a little on the hot side. There is a reason why target / tactical rifles have such heavy profile barrels; they act as a heat sink and the barrel thickness helps to keep the rigidity as the barrel warms.

Here's your answer.^

 

[RojamB21]

So here is saving account from last year.

 

[Horse96]

This would manifest as an overall spread in shot dispersion over the target whereas the OP is seeing only vertical stringing. Any contact the barrel has with the stock is suspect here (barrel channel bedding, poor inletting) as the barrel will swell with heat and the upward pressure on the barrel will increase. The shots should climb in this scenario though, perhaps the barrel "droops" with heat pointing it lower. I just quickly browsed the Steyr line and didn't see any full length stocks so the influence of an end cap seems to be out.

In any case this isn't a target rifle meant to shoot a long string of shots. Bring a .22 to the range, shoot a 3-shot group and play with the .22 for a half hour between groups while the barrel cools right down. Report back the results of groups shot this way.

Steel's weakness is heat. There could be any combination variables that make it string in any way. The main problem is shooting a light barrel hot. All barrels flex, but a varmint barrel flexes less due to more steel being present. Bedding has to do more so with the action.

I personally would suspect the barrel is too hot and is not free-floating.

 

[stubblejumper]

Vertical stringing of shots is a sure indication of inconsistent velocity in your loads. Poor bedding will generally give results that tend to appear more like a shotgun pattern. Work on getting the loads down pat before spending effort on the bedding.

Poor bedding often causes vertical stringing as shown in the pictures. Inconsistent velocity can cause vertical stringing, but nothing to that extent at 100 yards, and not likely 200 yards.

 

[AP]

OP...as its a 'Luxus' and has several removable/changeable components...I would read the instructions carefully and make sure that the bolt head (I believe it is removable - NO - sorry, not applicable to the Luxus = it is the Sauer 404 and Mauser 03 that has the removable bolt head) is properly secured and also that the barrel is engaged in the action fully as it is supposed to tilt into position...then make sure there is no material interfering with the face of the action and the forestock from being drawn up firmly when you install the forestock and secure it with the forward action screw. I would be confident that if any of these parts were not installed/secured correctly the zero might well wander. Also dont know what scope mounts you have but I presume that the scope is not touching the barrel at the front or action at the rear. And of course make sure that the areas that need to be secured dont have wear. Apparently from the factory the forestock is designed to provide for a full floating barrel as the forestock is connected to the receiver by 'bar's' designed to assure adequate clearance...make sure this is so...but I suspect you may just have a 'screw loose'! Good luck.

 

[Dogleg]

Looks reasonably normal for a light barrelled hunting rifle. Normal doesn't make it right, or less of a pain in the butt, or a joy to be around, or to keep around. Some barrels walk when they warm up, and when they are free floated there is no real pattern to which direction they are going to stroll off in.

I don't have a lot of patience for barrels that have to be sweet-talked and baby sat to get them to group and hold zero because there are so many that don't. Oh, sure it may not matter much on a hunting rifle that gets shot once per season, but how do you work up loads and practice with it? I'd be getting a little choked about now.

 

[Ltbull01]

Barrel is warming and is probably in contact with the fore stock. Don't fire long strings. Shoot 3, then let it cool completely, then shoot again.

 

[guido]

Your rear action bolt is loose.

 

[H4831]

I'm with Dogleg, on this quote. "I don't have a lot of patience for barrels that have to be sweet-talked and baby sat to get them to group and hold zero because there are so many that don't. Oh, sure it may not matter much on a hunting rifle that gets shot once per season, but how do you work up loads and practice with it? I'd be getting a little choked about now."

I have never, ever, put up with a rifle that will not hold point of impact as the barrel warms up.
I have come across many that would walk, or open the group, as they warmed up and in nearly every case I could correct them with proper bedding.
The rifle the OP describes is just crying out that it needs attention to adjust bedding, or barrel clearance.
Also, let us not forget that the cause of larger groups than we like are caused by three main reasons, listed in the order of importance.
1) The shooter.
2) The rifle, including sights or scope and mounts.
3) The ammunition.

 

[NL-Hunter]

Maybe the 6 lbs trick that apply to rem 7 would work? Recent thread about it.

 

[Superbrad]

I am with dogleg and h4831, with two exceptions......

1- every barrel will have a tendency to disperse pattern in a certain direction when it heats up..... the thinnest or weakest part of the barrel will always curve first.......

2- dogleg does culls..... so I get his adversity to wandering barrels...... but, to me, I am perfectly satisfied with a hunting rifle that will do around MOA for 3 shots..... it's all in what you need the rifle to do....

 

[mcminn]

My main hunting rifle will share holes at 100 meters for two shots and the third shot will drop a little over a quarter of an inch. If I keep going, the shots will drop a half inch or so. If I can't drop an animal in the first two shots at 100, I probably shouldn't be hunting.

 

[RojamB21]

The rifle the OP describes is just crying out that it needs attention to adjust bedding, or barrel clearance.
Also, let us not forget that the cause of larger groups than we like are caused by three main reasons, listed in the order of importance.
1) The shooter.
2) The rifle, including sights or scope and mounts.
3) The ammunition.

If I can't drop an animal in the first two shots at 100, I probably shouldn't be hunting.

Thank you all the responses, even some are standard gun nutz . And Thank you Dogleg and H4831 for insight .

My hunting experience is in double digit decades, shooting in broken double digit and reloading is single digit decade. Still your opinion of any kind are welcome. This rifle was dropped at my house by a friend client, who is going moose hunting and is quite rich.
But he never tweeked or touched the rifle, the way we treat and shoot it. So as the times were running out for moose hunting, I posted on gun nuts to find a quick solution

I reloaded other batch and going to range again this weekend and I tightened few nuts and bolts, see if I can find any improvement.

Reason for my head butting was the single line drop down shooting. If there are no grouping, that might be other problem.

Thank you again..... All of you. May be in future, I will bed the rifle but not today !!!

 

[Andy]

I'd ensure that the barrel is completely absent of copper deposits as a first step.