It has come to my attention that my shooting sucks. I am looking for a few pointers. I have a Savage model 112 in 25-06. I have loaded up some Nosler 100 grain Ballistic tips. I have done everything by the book. At current I am using H 4350 with the bullets seated out to .010 from the lands. I am at the Maximum according to the Nosler book. From suggested starting to where I am now I would play hell covering 3 shots with a silver dollar at 100 yards. My shots will string vertical. There will be 2 in one hold with the third two inches off to one side or another. I leave the gun cool in between shots. I made sure it was clean when I started. I have checked the scope for tightness. I have used sand bags, bipods and scrap lumber for rests. My best almost good group came from just holding it and shooting. Do any of you have any tips? Or maybe better yet a picture of a shooter on a range firing off a bench? I am thinking it has to do with my form. I know things got better when I took the sling off and paid attention to the studs on the sand bags. I am close to saying the hell with it, but then that wouldn’t be fun! Anyway if anyone could offer me some advice you will be saving a fat guy from having a stroke over the deal. Thanks for listening!

WS

might be breathing control

Check your bag position and make sure it is the same for each shot..put a peice of tape on the stock to mark the location,make sure the sling swivel stud isn't catching on a bag,if gun has them, and make sure your hold pressure with your hand-grip is the same and shoulder pressure/contact is the same for each shot....and the scope could be loose INSIDE and nothing will show that but groups like you describe or lab equipment....swap for a known good scope? and see if groups stay consistant.....get a friend to watch you to see if they see you change anything from shot to shot.......ain't it fun!!!!!!! good luck and good shooting!!!

The first thing I would suggest you do is only clean the bore when needed.And then only with a wire brush until accuracy goes.It may surprise you.

Agree with above posters,but try shootin` her dirty.

you might be jerking. have a friend load your rifle and one of the shells be a snap cap. You may suprise yourself. It also might help to lighten the trigger pull if it is very heavy.

Thanks for the comments thus far. It has the accu trigger and it is set on the bottom end. It isn't the 2 oz I have om my specialty pistol but it is pretty dang good. Bag position is certainly something I thought about. It seems to take me forever to get ready for my next shot. When I said I let it cool down between shots I wasn't kidding. Sand bags are a pain as I am finding out. That's why I thought the bipod would be the cats meow. At least I didn't have to re-stack the front end every shot. I am 6'3 and the benches at the range are definitely on the cramped side. That's why I was wondering about a picture of someone with good form and having the bags the right height. I feel like I am very crowded. Anyway if I knew anyone locally that was into bench shooting I would ask them for help. Unfortunately I have to bother you people.

WS

Those bags have to go, to truly wring the smallest groups from that quarterbore rifle. Do yourself a favor and invest in a pedestal front rifle rest with bunny bag or a class F rest like this one from Sinclair International: F-class rest
The object is to nestle the rifle exactly the same, shot after shot. Removing that front sling stud from grabbing onto the top bag was a good first step.

If you've put quite a few rounds through the barrel since you worked up your fave load, perhaps the leade has progressed farther forward and your bullet is now more than .010" from touching the rifling. If you haven't done so in a while, it wouldn't hurt to check again. I've even found that the bullet manufacturer changed the ogive shape of their newest batch yet didn't change the part number.

Small groups just never come by accident for me, I've always got to work for them. Best of luck to you.

in coaching poeple i find that the most common shooting error comes with sight picture. it seems that when many people get into the trigger squeeze they either shut their eyes or allow the crosshairs to move a bit off the bull. concentrate of holding the crosshairs on the center of the bull, sometimes it helps to go to a very small bull to help concentrate (ie a bullet hole works well) Then work of that trigger squeese

I commend your honesty.
Sometimes I have been to the range and I would have been better off mowing the lawn.
Night duty, Fatigue, Rushed reloading, Next bench has a 375 HH Mag, both sides, Argument with "better half" prior to leaving home etc.
What helped me was to step back and " warm up with my .22 rim fire. Recently its been the 223 with some Blue Dot loads. I attempt to go through my technique similar to what butchloc is talking about.
At times I have found that its easy to lose the picture and still be going through the motions without any joy.

Whopper, you got some good form tips above. I would eliminate issues with my rifle first though. If your rig is only capable of 1.5 MOA, you trying to shoot it better than that is an excercise in futility. It sounds like to me you have a stock pressure point/bedding issue. Is your barrel free floated? I will mention here that it often takes more relief between barrel and stock than the proverbial 'dollar bill between the barrel and stock'

If it is genuinely free floated, then you might try inserting some pieces of thin cardboard between the end of the stocks fore-end and the barrel, some barrels shoot better with a pressure point. If your barrel isn't floated, then float it. Is your rifle bedded? If it isn't I would do that.

In your reloading process, do you know how much headspace you are creating between your resized cases and YOUR rifle's chamber? I have seen excessive headspace create vertical stringing, as well as poor accuracy in general. If you don't know, do a search here for Partial Full Length Resizing, and learn what a slight crush fit is, and set up your dies to achieve that in your rig. Have you tried a different bullet? I've found that can make a profound difference, usually not but definitely can. I always start with a bullet I want to shoot in a particular rifle, but if I'm having fits, I'll try another bullet, some rifles just don't like certain bullets--just keep that in mind. I didn't notice, but did you try a different powder? I didn't think I read that you did, that can absolutely be an issue, some powders just 'fit' your rifle better than others!

Another thing I would recommend in your bench technique is to be sure and use a rear bag. You mention that your pretty tall, so I would make sure I wasn't overly 'hunched down' when shooting. Try to be vertical and square from your waist up when at the bench. I shoot some of my best when using a bench rest sized bi-pod and rear bag setup. Try and be square behind your rifle, and have the rifle set up with the rear bag where it is on target if your aren't touchin the rig at all, then settle in and just firm everything up, trying to keep the sight picture as steady as possible, and then try to shoot some with a good solid grip on the rifle, and also with a lighter grip allowing the rifle to be more in a free recoil situation.

Good luck to you!

1) 2 together 1 away is usually heat , if not heat it is bedding. 2) ammo = buy the best bullets . reduce the powder charge .load a 15% reduction in velocity and go from there. why are you off the rifling with your bullets??? 3) read more. THE ACCURATE RIFLE , PAGE has info on bench technique. HANDLOADING FOR COMPETITION ZEDIKER is good. ask the BERGER guy on this forum for help. find someone at your gun club who loads this cartridge.

Vertical stringing at that short range and to that degree is almost always at least 75% the shooterand his gun/setup. Several people have mentioned the flinch which is a major cause and also bag bounce which is another.

I would suggest starting your ladder test over and working up SLOWLY until you have complete confidence in yourself and your gun. Also it has been my experience that the two stage feel of the accuthing is not to my (and many others) liking and also that individual accuwhaters are quite a bit stiffer than Savage claims, which could also be contributing to the problem. If you continue to have trouble that can be attributed to the stiff trigger, you can get it reworked by the best Savage man around, Fred Moreo, by sending it to SharpShooterSupply.com

In anticipation of the howls of protest from some reloading "experts" online, I'll mention a couple of old sayings I learned over 50 years ago when I began doing this. "When your toolkit consists of a hammer-- all your problems look like nails." and: "Shooting is 70% shooter 20% gun and 10% ammunition." Occasionally we lose sight of those idea on reloading forums.

The best indication of good form is seeing the flame from your shot. If you flinch even the slightest bit you won't see it.