A Bad Day At The Range . . . .

[Fred McIntire]

Well, in an effort to get out of the house and shake off the blahs, I put my .223 Remington Bull barrel on my Handi frame. Took the 2-7x32 Centerpoint off of my 44 Magnum/445 SuperMag and mounted it on the .223. and off I went to the range, which is only a 5 minute drive from my house. 

I started out at 25 yards and in 4 shots I had the holes touching and in the bullseye square. Great !

I moved the target out to 100 yards. I fired the first shot and checked it. WTH ?!!! It was 5 inches high and left ! Okay. I fired the 2nd shot. WTH ?!!! It was 5 inches lower than the first shot, and left ! So, I adjust based on what I'm seeing. I fire the 3rd shot. WTH ?!!! Its 6 inches to the right and 4 inches high ! So, on an 8.5" x 11" target, I have shots hitting upper left corner, center all the way left, and in the upper right corner ! WTH ?!!!

Now, I'm not the best of shots but I ain't this bad either. I shot my 357 Maximum at 100 yards a few weeks ago with 1" groups.

I think the scope has failed because there was no grouping at all. Just random hits. I checked everything and its tight. Nothing obvious. Factory Remington ammo with 45 grain hollow points. Hummmm.........I've had really good luck with these Centerpoint scopes, too.

I guess I'll change out scopes tonight, load up some more ammo, and try it again tomorrow. 

I can hear the Coyote Nation celebrating !

[gendoc]

fred, you shudda checked it again @ 25 then 50......
i have several of them centerpoints on ruger rimfires and never hadda problem.
even put one on my .460 handi to see if would take it.... its still on there after over 150 hot (on fire) loads 

[Fred McIntire]

Well, you are probably right, and I may do that tomorrow; however, I couldn't understand the lack of a group at 100 yards. I mean we are talking about a 5 to 6 inch spread without any adjustments being made. I was shooting from a bench, too.

If you'll check my other posts, you'll see that I swear by these Centerpoints. 

Hummm . . . .

[bikerbeans]

Fred,
 
I also had an accuracy problem with one of my Handis this morning.  Took it apart when I got home and found that I had a little slop in the lockup, apparently due to me not cleaning the H110 residue off the latch.    All my stringing was vertical unlike your buckshot pattern.  This is why I always take several rifles with me so I can at least have a good day with one or two of them.  Hope your problem is resolved quickly and cheaply and you can get out and pay your respects to the local Yote population.
 
BB

[Bull Nutria]

i had a similar problem with a 44mag handi. first it was the picatinny rail loose from the factory, then it was a bad bushnell scope, then it was an over size bore. Loctite, loctite, loctite!!
good luck,
bull
 

[mtbugle]

... still beats a day at work.

[Monteria]

If you went from four shots touching, to 6"+ groups at only 4x the distance, I would look at the bullets before the scope. Those little 45gr can be pushed pretty fast with a .223. What's the chance that they sheared out of the lands, resulting in an unstable flight past the short distance?

[spikehorn]

Try some winchester white box 45gr hp they seem to be the gold standard for handi 223's

[Fred McIntire]

After the dismal day at the range the other day, I loaded up some .223 ammo with 55 grain Hornady SPSX bullets using 26 grains of Varget. I dialed the scope in at 25 yards, getting less than 1/2" groups ! I'm thinking this is going to be a good day. Then I moved the target out to 100 yards. I took the first shot and it was 5 inches high but centered above the bullseye. Okay, adjustment made for elevation and I fired the 2nd shot. It was 6 inches low ! WTH ! I fired the 3rd shot. It was 3 inches low. So, I'm thinking this is *&^%$.

I then loaded the first round of what I originally thought was going to be 5 rounds of ammo that I loaded just to see what it would do, using the Lee 1.6cc powder dipper without measuring the powder on my digital scale. The 1.6cc Lee dipper consistently throws about 22.2 grains of Varget powder, plus or minus 3/10ths of a grain. It hit 8 inches low, but centered, breaking a clay pigeon I had taped to the bottom of the target board. I then fired another round. It too hit low. I thought to myself, lets aim at the other clay pigeon using the first mil dot below the cross hair, with no change in the windage. Poof ! Another clay pigeon powdered. Light bulb ! I fired another round using the bullseye and holding dead on. Smack ! This shot GROUPED within 1/2" of the first shot. A repeatable group at 100 yards !

I'm excited to go back to the range tomorrow with some more "dipper" loads to see if this is indeed the Rx for the Hornady SPSX bullets, or any bullet for that matter ! 

I'm shooting a bull barrel with a 1 in 12" twist rate. 

Stay tuned !

[Fred McIntire]

I think I have the .223 Handi headed in the right direction ! 

I went back to the range today with 25 "Dipper Loads", using 3 different bullets. I zeroed in at 25 yards with the 55grain Hornady SPSX bullets. All was good with 2 into 1 hole !  I then moved the target out to the 100 yard line. Using a FREE ballistics calculator I found online last night, I had made a cheat sheet for my 55 grain loads. The chart said I needed to go down 11 clicks to be dead on at 100 yards. So, I made the necessary adjustments on the scope and squeezed off the first shot. I ran down to the target and there it was ! Within 1/2 inch of the bullseye !! 

I had similar results with Sierra Game King 55 grain FMJ BT bullets and Barnes 55 grain TSX FB bullets.

I was able to fire several rounds into 1 inch or less groups when I did my part. I feel confident NOW that with some more tinkering, I can continue to duplicate todays results, and even improve on them.

[c1skout]

Sounds good. I've gotten to really like to use the Lee dippers myself. Lot's quicker than setting up the measure and scale, especially for a small batch of ammo!