Why does my POI rise?

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Only bedded ML i have is a s91 that i havent shot in a long time. I will swap the Knight stock back to its original from the laminate TH its in now. I will then try a rear bag after a few shots in the old stock and a few more in the current stock. Letting it cool more between shots. See what dif each change makes. Im going to pic up a scope level kit from sportsmans warehouse to check for cant. One change at a time. I will also focus more on my hold.
1. Focus on hold/follow thru/breathing.
2. Let barrel cool more
3. Change stock from TH to original
4. Try rear rest
5. Check for cant'd scopes
Maybe i can get back there this Sunday.
 
After reading the title I thought maybe you were just shooting for a loftier position in life but many of the hints given here make more sense.
 
Interesting groups!
Using a led sled will help for sure. I always do because it eliminates lots of otherwise unknowns.
I suggest it's nothing more than canting. To minimize this I use a customized target with vertical and horizontal lines to reference when aligning scope's cross hairs to target. I make sure my target is set level.
Also I use bubble levels attached to scope for reference. This is particularly useful in long range crossbow shooting.

Also it could be parallax issue.
One can shoot at the range distance where scope parallax is set to zero or use an adjustable parallax scope. I do both. Rifle scope is typically 100 yards. Crossbow is 50 yards.

Also I recently zeroed a new 6.5 Creedmoor rifle that was a challenge. The stock was warpped and touched the barrel on one side when floating was designed into. New stock for that. Then it turns out the rear stock action screw wouldn't stay tight on that stock. So I stripped the plastic threads. Plastic was too soft. New stock then finally was ok.
 
When I shoot a heavier recoil muzzleloader I try to really absorb the recoil from the waist up instead of just in the shoulder area and I really try to follow through,, I think you have noticed something important,, I think our brains and body tell us naturally to want to bail out ,I think often the recoil signature might have a little bit of torque left or right off of axis too and I think that adds to the problem again thanks for the thread topic
 
I'm mentioning the below because you say you see this with other rifles too.

The Vertical could be heat related but but could be pulling back into your shoulder at the shot. The Left/right in the group looks like you might be Leaning into the stock in anticipation of the shot, sort of like a flinch. If you lean into the stock (Right handed shooter) it will push the butt right causing the shot to go left. Pay a lot of attention to follow through and watch where your crosshair is on target "After" the shot. If the crosshair is to the left it may show that at the shot your leaning into the butt some. At the same time if you add just a tad more down pressure (Such as pulling back into your shoulder) at the shot then the combination could cause you to get diagonal groups.

Unfortunately if I don't shoot a lot for a while I develop a habit of picking up my head a little, or basically sitting up, at the shot like I'm trying to See where my shot hit. This causes me to drop a shot lower and my crosshair always ends up lower on target. The more I shoot the more I can break that habit when I am paying attention.

Also pay attention to your Bench itself. Line up the rifle (Unloaded) on target and then without pulling a trigger just lean a tad with your body into the bench and see if it moved the crosshair.
We have a few all wood benches at our club that are not the most firm and if you lean into the bench, just like leaning into the butt stock you'll push shots to the left, stop leaning into the bench and shots go right.

Last thing that comes to mind is Parallax. Put the rifle in the rest, and best if you use a good rear rest too for this, line up on target and without moving the rifle just move your head a little left right and up and down. If the crosshair moves around then your scope has a little parallax in it. If it stays put when you move it don't.
 
I think you may be on to something ShawnT. Our benches sit kind of low for me and i find myself having to lean way fwd to get down to my scope and usually cant keep my rifle pulled into my shoulder like i did when i shot at the public range. I dont recall having this problem back then, 3 years ago. The public range has higher cement topped benches, the club has slightly lower wood benches. They're pretty stabil but i may bring a shorter chair or buy a taller rest.
 
Shorter benches can be a problem. Our club has one concrete bench. The others have to be movable due to all the prone/offhand smallbore and highpower matches. A few years ago they had new blacktop put down and it was thick enough that the concrete bench lost some of the original height. That bench has small foundations poured so it could not be moved. I use an old Hart Front machine rest from my old Benchrest competition days as well as a tall Bald Eagle rear bag. The bench is low enough that I made up a "Spacer" (a pine board about 1 1/2" thick) to raise my rear bag up. I also use my old stool that is adjustable for height. I use that bench the most due to its rigidity but it was an issue for me when I had to hunch over it. Sometimes its occupied so I have to use one of the older wood benches and they can be a tad rickety. When I lose shots left and right not due to Mirage (our range has lots of sand and tall sides so it gets some weird mirage runs that will burn you if you don't know how to spot it) I know I leaned into the bench a little at the shot. I tried several times over the years to get new benches to no avail. Some of the smallbore and Highpower guys would rather all benches just be removed altogether as they don't use them. Now that some are getting older I see more of them using them now though. :rolleyes:

I don't know if anyone makes the type of stool I have but it was very popular when I started Competing. They all seem to have moved to a swivel type adjustable for height. Mine is folding and made from Oak and plywood but is padded on the seat. I have thought about making a couple but just never got around to it. I'll take a pic and post it. It is great for varying bench heights and if your handy they are not all that hard to make.
 
Here is my stool and in one pick is the "Spacer" for the rear bag. The adjustable frame is all made from Oak and the seat is plywood. They originally came with about 1/2" (If that) padding. I recovered mine a long time ago adding about 2" of foam. Some other guys I competed with had me do theirs too after they sat on mine. ;) Believe it or not this stool is a little over 20 years old and has traveled a lot. I like this better than the other style as it folds down more compact.
 

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Something like this is more what you see the shooters using now. I like mine better. they way mine folds make it easier for transport.
 

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Mich,

Have you considered your trigger finger action or position? Squeeze action should be straight back with contact at first pad of trigger finger.
Some expert's tips on proper technique I ran across a while ago.

Also notice first photo. The gun pushing right suggest the butt of the gun reaction due to recoil could be causing your POI issue. The led sled should take that out.

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I put just the pad of my finger on the trigger, have seen people and some that shoot often use the 2nd pad of the finger. Most that do shoot often and do this can't understand why they are having problems and if you mention this to them they come back and say this was how I was taught or I've always shot this way. Yup and that's why you always have a problem.
 
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