I was shooting my 416 Rem standing off a Stoney Point tripod yesterday in preparation for my trip to Tanzania this fall. The target was a 8 1/2" paper plate with an orange dot in the center at 64 yards and the group of 8 shots ended up 1 1/4" high X 2 1/4" wide. This follows a pattern of similar results from 100 yds on in. Has anyone else had this problem and is there a quick fix? As an afternote this horizontal stringing is decreaseing in size with practice but I'd like to hasten the departure of this phenom.

W/out observing you shoot, it could be any number of things. Some very simple things that would cause horizontal stringing in your situation could be:

- you have a bad position w/out a natural point of aim and are not taking the recoil straight back. This combined w/ tripod flex strings your shots horizontal. If you are right-handed, stringing to the right is a strong side weakness and visa-versa stringing to the left is a weak side weakness. Work on establishing a natural point of aim using the tripod so that you are behind the rifle taking the recoil straight back.

- This could be in addition to improper grip on the stock and dragging wood, improper trigger control and jerking the trigger, not breaking the shot during respiratory pause, torquing the rifle and your position into the tripod out of anticipation of the recoil, etc., etc., etc.

Have someone trained in highpower marksmanship observe your position and shooting technique. Many times a very minor correction can make a major improvement.

Gary VA covered a lot of great suggestions really well, the only other thing that immediately comes to mind is "canting" some people have a better eye for this than others but be very aware of the "level" of your crosshairs. If your gun is shooting somewhat high at the distance and you "cant" left and right you will get a crescent shaped group strung horizontally.
Keep practicing and have someone watch you shoot.

Perhaps you are not centered on the stock consistantely and what you are seeing is some paralax error. I know that when I shoot off sticks that aren't high enough - which is almost all setups for me - that I have to watch this.

JPK

If you are repeating this, then adjust the scope accordingly. Here's an experiment to try
sight in ANY medium to bigbore on sand bags, with a perfect zero off the bags.

pick the gun up and shoot it.. almost always will result in high groups... due to recoil function /dwell time on the barrel being held vs on bags

jeffe

If you have a video camera I would suggest you set it up on a tripod and film yourself shooting from a few different angle. A tripod eliminates the "jump" some people have at the report of the shot.
Study the film and you may see for yourself what you are doing that causes this stringing.
Frank

My guess it that you are jerking the trigger. I had the same problem shooting off sticks. Shoot fine on a bench but when I sat on the ground and fired off sticks my group moved slightly. I adjusted my trigger finger position and concentrated on pulling the the trigger slowly and the problem went away. I think a lot of people have similar problems but since they never practice off a bench, the never know they have it. Good luck

Hello Lewis50,
Couple points that may be of use to you and as others mentioned, trigger control very common reason for less than desired performance with precision/match shooters using sling in prone position. Critical that you place your finger on the trigger the same for each shot and do not "drag wood..."as old time instructors use to say. Trigger finger sliding across the stock area while pulling the trigger is a no no. Cure may be as simple as always placing the trigger finger first joint line on the outside edge of the trigger itself. You are looking for repeatability w/ good results. If the trigger was of ultra light pull, some 1.5 to .5 lbs., one would normally use the forward pad of the trigger finger, but would guess a sporting rifle more in the line of 2.5- 4lbs let off.

Second area to make a quick check if you are finding your natural point of aim versus muscle point of aim, check after firing a shot if the sight picture is as it was when you broke the shot???? Did it return to battery?? If not, you are either "squeezing" the firearm or "coming off" the gun quicker than you should. Shooter needs to follow through with his shot. Take aim at your target and shut your eyes and hold shut for a count of 5 and upon opening is the target/sight alignment the same?? If not, natural point of aim is not correct. Hope some of this aids in correcting the problem. Off hand National Match shooters practice this method for hours and hours and find that the natural point of aim and follow through are critical.

Thanks for the suggestions, there's more than enough to keep me busy analyzing my shooting. I'm sure one or more of these will clear this problem up.
Lewis

My 9,3x74R shot about 3 to 4 inches higher off of sticks at 100 yards, vs shooting setting or kneeling.

Are you resting the forend on the sticks? If so, try holding the rifle like shooting offhand and rest the back of your hand in the sticks.

Dave

I´ll go with Dave on this one.
If I´m resting the rifle on the sticks I will get another point of impact then if I´m holding the rifle in my hand and resting my hand in the cross of the sticks.
Not much, but the difference is there.......

I get this even when shooting off of bags and a front rest. I've figured out that it is my hold on the gun. After a few rounds of big kicking recoil I find myself holding tighter and tighter onto the gun to fight the recoil. I've found that spacing out the shots helps. When you hold your gun differently from shot to shot you get different bullet placement on the target.

If you dont hold the fore-end on a hard kicking rifle it will rapidly rotate upwards due to recoil, changing the POA. I have always made a point of resting the back of my hand on the shooting stick and holding the fore-end firmly but not overtight. Works fine from a 375 to 505 Gibbs

Your gonna shoot buff at 30 yds max anyway. Don't sweat it! Thats good enough! make sure the foreend doesn't touch the sticks hold it in your hand and make sure your positioned so the recoil comes straight back. I never shot as well off the sticks as I did offhand and generally avoided using them. Once the Ph saw alot of dead stuff on the ground he quit carrying them. Practice shooting FAST offhand rather than depending on the sticks. Don't worry too much about absolute accuracy just get the shot into the 6 to 12 inch kill zone FAST! Pretend your a gunfighter not a marksman! Practice and Time yourself. Speed with adequate accuracy is your friend. This aint target shooting! I know it goes against your experiences hunting but trust me on this.Practice speed shooting and reloading FAST with just adequate accuracy! If you take more than 3 seconds your gonna miss! and thats a long time!-Rob