warm up shots required to shoot center

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coolcruiser

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My son shoots a heavy barrel CZ452 custom 3P gun in 100 yard prone rimfire matches. We are seeing something new to us. Normally he uses this gun in winter 3P/4P 50' indoor matches with good results and no problems. Last year we started to shoot 100Y outdoor matches. Indoor sighting in was no problem with Wolf MT or Federal 711. Outdoors he must shoot about 6-10 shots to get the barrel to 'settle'. His first shots through a cold barrel are always wide to the right by 3-4 inches. He must shoot 6 or more shots and things settle in and he is good to go. Shooting the best Federal he can clean a 400 point match. Unfortunately that means several expensive shots for sighters with no value. The barrel is a brownells Win 52 heavy barrel profile with about 4000 rounds through it. any thoughts? I know we could blame his position but I am more suspicious of the gun.
 
Not being familiar with that model I may be putting my foot in my mouth but it sounds like a bedding issue.
Normal questions would be is the barrel floated? Because it seems the heating up changes it.
Is it the same on a warm day vs cold day or have you had any warm (warm enough) to compare?
 
Would it be possible to scope it & shoot it off bags?

Maybe that way you could determine whether it's the shooter, the gun or even possibly the different conditions from what works indoor.

As a last resort, how about cheaper ammo for the first 6-10 shots?
 
Is it only after it has been cleaned or does the POI shift back no matter what?

Regardless, you need to isolate out variables and only change one thing at a time.

I don't think shooting 10 sighters in a match with less expensive ammo is going to be a viable solution. Too much time and too much mental distraction.
 
good comments all, thanks.
The barrel is free floated just past the chamber. Clean or dirty, same problem. We'll try shooting cold off of the bags to eliminate operator error. I was thinking of cryogenically treating the barrel to stress relieve if no other obvious problem is discovered. May be $30 well spent.
 
It depends, on cleaning, how it was cleaned, how thoroughly, solvent used, etc.

I've shot several IR 50/50 matches with a couple of CZ452's as my sporter. Sometimes it takes 10-15 shots with black box Eley for them to settle down and really start drilling.

The old Fed Gold Metal, with the dry coating, would usually start shooting sooner but that ammo is now gone.

It also depends on the ammo brand and quality.

Bottom line, it will take several shots before it achieves its maximum accuracy, AND, if you pause for a couple of minutes, take a shot or two off target, AND, always leave the bolt closed when you pause within a target, the muzzle fouling will change the POI some.
 
It mostly has to do with bullet lub. The warn up shots are just that , warm up shot. It warms up the barrel so it handles ALL bullets and lub. the same. You can change ammo brands (with out cleaning ) and it may take 5 To 10 shots for things to settle down. Rimfire gun smith taught me this. Hope this helps
Roscoe
 
Your results are totally to be expected with a rimfire. There's little you can do to change the results you are getting. It's happening indoors as well, it's just at 50 feet you are not noticing the dispersion. You are getting by pretty cheap as it is. Buy him some really good ammo, and you will really squeal.
 
not the cheap stuff for outdoors

glynn angle said:
Your results are totally to be expected with a rimfire. There's little you can do to change the results you are getting. It's happening indoors as well, it's just at 50 feet you are not noticing the dispersion. You are getting by pretty cheap as it is. Buy him some really good ammo, and you will really squeal.
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...$12/box federal Gold! We tried some SK Match...it's OK but seems to drop one or two per box out the bottom.
 
glynn is correct. This is normal for a rimfire. And the sad thing is, not all bullets have the same lube. Now, you can call federal and ask them if they use the same lube or on what cheaper ammo other than the gold it is used on and shoot it to warm up. Eley uses the same lube, I believe, on all their ammo so you can shoot some of their cheaper stuff to warm up. Using cheaper ammo with the same lube isn't common pratice amoungst rimfire BR shooters though. I hope some of them chime in here.

Hovis
 
I shoot RBA and foul/warm up my clean barrels with either Eley standard or Target. I then use Tenex for my record target. Call me cheap but it works.
 
KEITH MYERS said:
I shoot RBA and foul/warm up my clean barrels with either Eley standard or Target. I then use Tenex for my record target. Call me cheap but it works.
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I do this also.

Just shoot 4 or 5 downrange-not even on the sighters-weather I cleaned it since last range session or not.

After lunch or significant break-repeat. I use cheap ammo(to warm up/clean out) and match w/ EPS, till I run out then ???
 
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