- Joined
- May 18, 2005
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Derned if I didn't waste about $40+ worth of powder and bullets before I realized there might be a problem with my mounts. :d'oh!:
Had been trying to sight in with some TC Shockwave 200 grainers (.50/.40) in my White UltraMag - ok, so I shot some plastic - quite a bit of plastic (and I am asking forgiveness). I had used BM3 powder (some old stuff that I finally decided to burn) and gave it up for Swiss as the BM3 just seemed too erratic. Not terrible but not good either. The two groups from yesterday shown in the below image were fired with BM3. It seemed every group involved a walking pattern but not always in the same direction.
So I switched to Swiss FFFg and fired a couple of groups with it - not horrible and a slightly different behavior but still about a 1.75" spread. I was scratching my head and thinking something just wasn't right.
This morning I got the wild idea that it might be my mounts. I checked the front base - rock solid... checked the rear base - uh oh. Loose! Started to take that rear base off and barely touched those screws when they fell out. Seems I had forgotten to Loc-Tite those screws (for that base only) way back when. I cleaned everything up and went so far as to put a different rear base on - with new screws and blue Loc-Tite.
Waited a little while then went shooting this afternoon...
<-- click to see larger image
DOH!! Over the past week and a half I've shot probably $40 to $50 worth of powder and bullet through that rifle and kept wondering what was wrong. This might go on record as one of my longest sustained cases of brain flatulence.
So check those screws and shoot your rifles before heading out - there just might be a major heartache avoided by doing so.
Had been trying to sight in with some TC Shockwave 200 grainers (.50/.40) in my White UltraMag - ok, so I shot some plastic - quite a bit of plastic (and I am asking forgiveness). I had used BM3 powder (some old stuff that I finally decided to burn) and gave it up for Swiss as the BM3 just seemed too erratic. Not terrible but not good either. The two groups from yesterday shown in the below image were fired with BM3. It seemed every group involved a walking pattern but not always in the same direction.
So I switched to Swiss FFFg and fired a couple of groups with it - not horrible and a slightly different behavior but still about a 1.75" spread. I was scratching my head and thinking something just wasn't right.
This morning I got the wild idea that it might be my mounts. I checked the front base - rock solid... checked the rear base - uh oh. Loose! Started to take that rear base off and barely touched those screws when they fell out. Seems I had forgotten to Loc-Tite those screws (for that base only) way back when. I cleaned everything up and went so far as to put a different rear base on - with new screws and blue Loc-Tite.
Waited a little while then went shooting this afternoon...
<-- click to see larger imageDOH!! Over the past week and a half I've shot probably $40 to $50 worth of powder and bullet through that rifle and kept wondering what was wrong. This might go on record as one of my longest sustained cases of brain flatulence.
So check those screws and shoot your rifles before heading out - there just might be a major heartache avoided by doing so.
