switchbackXT_shooter

speaking for savage rifles here. I have one stevens in 270 win. besides the trigger (absolutely 0 ajustability) its a dream to shoot and hunt with. it will put bullet in bullet hole at 50 yards and only thing throwing it off at 100 is that darned trigger. thats with factory win. $10 box of ammo. Nice huh? now if I can just get a timney trigger in it ill be set!
Now that I have a 30-06 I was thinking it will become a cyote rifle. the .270 is flat shooting and fast (not the flattest or fastest I know but figure in cost and it cant be beat) but the 130 grain bullets im shooting just arent doing any thing but pokeing a hole once it gets to the hart of the deer. thats the reason for the 30-06.

now if I did not have the .270 and have a chance at a good deal, for a cyote rifle id look at .270 WSM or .204 ruger. and a .30 caliber for me deer hunting.

Pawildman

I also agree that lots of good advice has been given here. I also highly recommend sandbags. Learn how to use them properly, and I doubt that you will ever want to shoot without them again, whether you use an adjustable front rest with them or not.
One of the biggest things you can do to improve your shooting is to learn how to organize the sandbags so you are not putting external pressure on the gun to correct your sight picture. When you snuggle into the gun, sight picture adjustments should be made prior to you putting pressure on the trigger. It needs to be sitting there in the rest, you comfortable with it, and all you want to do is get a good trigger squeeze at an immobile X-ring without having to force the gun to that spot.
I see far too many shooters gripping the forearm with the gun on a sandbag rest. If you are right-handed, The forearm of your gun should rest on the sandbags at it's midpoint. Your left hand should be adjusting the sandbag at the bottom of the stock near the buttplate, and your right hand should have a loose but comfortable grip around the pistol grip of the stock with the trigger between the tip of your finger and the first knuckle, or somewhere thereabouts that feels comfortable to you. Snuggle into the gun, make your final adjustments, use your left hand to fine tune the sight picture with the rear bag. Take a deep breath, let some out, and begin your trigger squeeze. The shot should come as a MILD surprise, but not to scare you. After all, you knew it was gonna go BOOM at some poit, right? Just remember to give steady pressure to the trigger when the sight picture is perfect. I feel sure that your shooting will improve if you follow these basic steps.

ky chris

Pawildman, thanks for the advice on setting up the shot. I was wondering about how and where I should hold my rifle.

Well, I took apart my rifle last night to adjust the Accutrigger down. I noticed that one of the stock screws was barely tight and the other one wasn't much better. Maybe a loose stock could have been my problem. I also checked my scope rings and they weren't totally tight either.

I'm probably going to pick up a new scope, rings, and bases today so I won't be able to find out if it was any of these things anyway. After doing more reading I'm leaning towards the Sightron SII 3-9x40. Now I need to figure out what rings and bases.

Thanks everybody for the help!

chris

Gangly

when i uyse sandbags, i do everything as you just said, but I find that when i dont hold the forearm, my shots are more erratic. When i dont hold the forearm, the rifle "comes up" about 3-4 inches after the shot and my groups arent as good. Is that just all in my head, or is the accuracy affected by not holding the forearm down when using sand bags?

ShatoDavis

some rifle can be shot as Pawildman described which is know as free recoil, others like to be held. Yet others must be held to insure that you don't get a black eye.I personally prefer free recoil if I can stand it because it eliminates one more possible point where I could mess up. As I stated earlier it isn't always an option though.

If you must hold the forearm then there is a proper way to do it. Try to pull straight down into the bag. don't pull to one side or the other. Take a firm grip, but don't squeeze so tightly that you shake. Never, never, never, never lay your fingers over the barrel. I see this way too often. You should be touching the stock only. Touching the barrelin any way will change the harmonics and unlessyou apply the exact same pressure to the exact same spot everytime your groups will spread. Lastly don't grab the forearm until the very last moments. You don't want to be squeezing that forearm any longer than you must, to minimize the shakes.