RaiderRich
Well-known member
Blame it on the differences between the Metric and Imperial systemsWell, it was all for naught. I got a good group a little high at 100 yards two days before I left. First afternoon in Kimberly we went to the range and one shot went the same place so that was good enough. Next morning we went for hartbeest and everything went to hell. After inexplicably missing one nice bull three times, I was finally able to get one, hitting him poorly three times, no shot further than 200 metres. What the hell? PH knew something was wrong. He'd seen me shoot very well the previous trip. That evening we went back to the range and my gun was all over the paper at 100 yards. I stopped wasting ammo and switched to PH's spare (and later he let me use his very sweet personal gun). That night I couldn't sleep fretting over that damn Springfield. Got up and took it out of the case. After going over it, I grabbed it by the barrel to put back in the case. Something didn't feel right. I grasped the fore end and ... the barrel wiggled! It had somehow come loose from bedding. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control I didn't get the action and new barrel rebedded until three days before leaving. I suspect the epoxy wasn't thoroughly cured by the time I arrived in Africa. It's shooting good now. Hornady bullets arrived two days ago. Anxious to get them loaded and up to the range before going to Montana for deer/elk opener. I now have 200 bullets, a keg of powder, and 250 primers so I should have plenty of time to get any bugs worked out. Too bad I don't have a decent range to work with. There's a local rifle range club but I want no part of joining with all the drama going on out there.
Late to the thread but a general rule of thumb is 3" high at 100 yards is a good start to setting maximum point blank range for any caliber. You still have to shoot at extended ranges to verify.
Glad you found the issue. Had something similar happen to me with my deer rifle with scope mount not just coming lose but almost falling off while out in the field.