First impressions are all the shots are problematic on the vertical axis. Vertical issues are (usually, but not always) a shooter issue (shooter being the rifle or the person). Horizontal issues are wind related.

So there are four things to look at to improve this vertical stringing:

1. The equipment - Bipod, rests, back bag, stock, rings, suppressor.
2. Scope - Parallax and testing (box and linear)
3. The shooter - Technique, breathing, trigger pull.
4. Ammo - Different types, speeds, etc..

Now this may get long, the post, but please bear with me.

The equipment

We won't go into changing the trigger, scope, rings, etc. We'll just concentrate on working with what you have.

First thing is dump the bipod. They are good and steady, but they produce a "bouncing" effect and depending on the load you put on the bipod the reaction when pulling the trigger, recoil, and cycling can effect each shot.

Get a solid and heavy rest. Borrow one if you have to. Also a solid rear sand bag. You want the rifle in as steady and secure position as possible so there is no "human" factor in the shooting.

Make sure your scope is tightened and the rings are too.

DO NOT use a suppressor in any of the testing, checking, zeroing, etc. The rifle should be fired without a suppressor to eliminate it as a cause, but also it's easy to adjust later for the suppressor when everything is done.

Scope

Parallax

99% of people maybe don't realise their parallax is not set right. Parallax is the consistency of the sight picture in relation to the crosshair/scope when you look through the scope.

In simpler terms it's like looking at the eyes of a painting and they seem to follow you. You know full well the painted eyes cannot move but it's looks as if they are.

If you have your rifle clamped so it does not move and you make no contact with it (not vital, but i prefer to eliminate any movement of the scope by touching the rifle), look down the scope to the target. Now slowly move your head, not eye, but your head while looking at the target. If the crosshair "moves" with the movement of your head, or to be exact so there is no confusion, gives the appearance of moving then your parallax is not set.

If the parallax on a scope is correctly set then when you move you head your crosshairs will remain on the same POA you set it at when clamping the rifle. If the crosshairs can "move" with your head movement due to improperly set parallax then the crosshair will give a, suppose you'd call it, false POA.

The picture below shows what happens when you move your head and the crosshairs "move" with you. IOW improperly set parallax. Originally the crosshairs were on the target. As the shooter moves their head up and slightly to the right, the crosshairs move down, and slightly left. This is a parallax issue.



Parallax can be adjusted or eliminated by adjusting the eye relief and focus as necessary to the point where you have clear sight picture, target picture and no movement of the crosshairs. It can be easy or it can take a little time to get exactly right, but the difference will be immediately noticeable with more consistent groupings, no loss/shift of zero, and if the rifle and ammo are good a reduction (won't say elimination) of flyers.

Testing

Linear Test.

This is a simple test. Place a target (blank sheet of paper at least 48 inches tall and 24" wide) at a set distance with a single aim point/dot. With your scope mounted you take up a solid and stable shooting position. Have the gun as "clamped" as possible to avoid errors. Have the scope elevation set at 0 or bottomed out. Now dial up in increments of 5 or 10 MOA (or any amount you want) and fire a single shot after each adjustment.

You MUST keep the same point of aim throughout this test. Also use the same amount of adjustment each time until you run out of adjustment. ?When you have no adjustment left take the target down, and measure the distances between each bullet hole in the target. They should be equidistant. They should also be perfectly vertical. Any continuous left/right adjustment can be down to either poorly mounted scope (not perfectly aligned when mounted) or inability of the scope to track straight up and down. Do this once or twice to verify.



Return to Zero test

Simple test. With your scope mounted and rifle zeroed at 100 yards set yourself up much as above at a target. Fire 3 to 5 shots to create a zero group. Record the setting on the scope for your zero as you'll have to return to this. Now start to adjust the scope as much as you can (through it's entire range of adjustment) up, down, left, right and combinations of all. Now return the scope to the recorded zero. Fire a shot. It should be in or clipping the group you just fired. If not then it could be a scope tracking issue. As with all tests it's best to try it a few times to prevent corruption of the results from shooter error, wind, shooting position, etc.

Box Test

Put up a sheet of paper (blank) at 100 yards. About 48" square would be fine but as big as you have is grand. Find the dead centre of the sheet of paper. Place a half inch black dot in the centre. This is your aim point. You want no other markings on the paper to distract you. You need to be very careful that its 100 yard and no more or less than 100 by a yard. Most scopes click values are designed to work at 100 yards so you really need to be sure of the distance. Fire a couple of shots, and make sure you are in the bull with each one, and your zero is perfectly on for 100. That means not an inch high, or low.

Once you have the "perfect" zero put up a fresh target or if they are all in the black dot you can use the same sheet. Again making sure its still as bang on for 100 yards as possible. Now dial up 10 MOA (40clicks) on the scope. If the scope is worked in 1 click = 1cm @ 100 yads dial on 25clicks. That'll give you 25cm or roughly 10 inches. Aim at the bullseye and fire.

Now dial right 10 MOA (for 0.25 click valus scope) or 25 clicks (for 1cm per click). Again aim at the bullseye, and fire.

Now dial down 20 MOA (80 clicks in a 0.25 clcik value scope) or 50 clicks (if the scope is 1cm per click ). Aim at the bullseye and fire.

Now dial left 20 MOA (80 clicks in a 0.25 clcik value scope) or 50 clicks (if the scope is 1cm per click ). Aim at the bullseye and fire.

Now dial up 20 MOA (80 clicks in a 0.25 clcik value scope) or 50 clicks (if the scope is 1cm per click ). Aim at the bullseye and fire.

It's important you only fire 1 shot per adjustment. Measure the distances from holes to holes. The holes of the bullets should "draw" a perfect (within a half an inch for human error) square. You should have something like this:





The shooter.

Technique.

Each person will develop their own technique and once it works it doesn't matter however for this exercise i'll ask you follow my advice and try this method instead of whatever way you are used to shooting.

With your rifle in the rest and back bag make sure you shoulder the rifle firmly up against your shoulder. Last 3 fingers (middle to baby) wrap around the grip. You use a pulling motion, directly back towards your shoulder. Place your thumb along top of grip aiming towards the back of the bolt. No pressure on your thumb. Your Index finger gentle touching the trigger. Only the tip of the finger (half way between the last knuckle and the actual tip) should be on the trigger. Using the three fingers on the grip i pull the rifle into my shoulder, enough to secure and keep steady, but not enough that i "cramp" under the pressure. I exert no "fist" grip which will cause the rifle to lean when i fire. No tension in my shoulder and when i calm and comfortable, i fire.

This picture should help you understand what i'm taking about:



Breathing and Trigger Pull

These two topics go hand in hand as one is dependant on the other. The first thing we need to do is check our trigger. Whether it is the factory fitted trigger or an aftermarket kit you should know what the pull weight on your trigger is. The trigger should be light enough to break with minimum pressure, but not so light as to cause an accidental discharge or slam fire. This is when the action of cycling the bolt causes the sear to release, and the firing pin strikes the primer, firing the round. This occurs when the trigger is too light, and the safety mechanism of the trigger becomes redundant. Only you can determine your ideal weight. Some enjoy half a pound or even ounces, and other like a heavier pull. The issue with a heavy trigger is it can lead to other side effects such as "pulling" the rifle which the recoil will exaggerate, flinching as you do not know when the trigger will fire, etc. This will result in verticals on the target, and your groups will be affected.

Trigger pull should be one clean, crisp movement. Ideally you want the tip of the finger or more specifically the pad of the tip of the finger to pull the trigger (halfway between the tip and joint of the finger). If you use too much of the finger you can cause left/right pull as you fire. You should NEVER snap or jerk the trigger. Slow steady pressure. There should be no creep/slack on your trigger. When the shot is fired, and during follow through there should be no sideways movement through the scope. If there is, reassess your technique, position and hold.....in particular look for a loose trigger hand on the stock, a sprawled right elbow – move it closer in towards the stock, butt not firm in the shoulder, bad alignment of your body to the rifle. With your finger still depressed on the trigger and your head still on the stock/cheek piece, your crosshairs will return to the target and point of aim. This is a good indicator of correct body positioning and shooting technique.

Throughout your trigger pull, and assuming all other aspects are steady, the other thing that is important is your breathing. You should calm, relaxed, and in control of your breathing. Maximum holding period for a fit person is 8 seconds, whereas for an unfit person it is 3 seconds. You must keep yourself fit if you wish to succeed at any level of shooting. Breathing is a very important element of making a good shot. Breathing controls your body metabolism – anxiety levels, heartbeat, concentration, relaxation, muscle control, steadiness, clear sighting. Breathe in normally, breathe out, and hold breath at natural end of exhale. Settle. Fire shot. Follow through. Hold your breath for not longer than 6-8 seconds before firing. Ideally, fire your shot somewhere between 2 and 5 seconds during your hold period. If your concentration decreases or your scope picture blurs or distorts....stop.....look away at something greenish, close your eyes, take 2-3 deep breaths and then begin breathing cycle again.

Ammo

There is only one way to determine the best ammo, or more accurately, which ammo your rifle prefers. Buy at least one box of each type of ammo and do numerous 5 shot groups. Which ammo you buy is up to you, but a small tip is to look for ammo that is below the supersonic range. this means buying ammo with stated speeds of between 1050 to 1120 fps. I've always found these to work best.

Hyper velocity (supersonic rounds) are not ideally suited to standard 22lrs as the twist rate won't suit them.

Continue to do 5 shot groups but here is another tip on how to do the group shots.

Start with a clean rifle. I mean properly cleaned, not just a bore snake. A full run down on how to clean your rifle can be found here.

During this its massively important that you stick to the time rigidly. Any deviation and you need to start over. This eliminates any variance due to cooling or heating of the rifle barrel between shoots/groups.

Fire off about 10 to 15 rounds in about a minute to 90 seconds. Then stop. You're not looking for grouping or anything, just to warm up the barrel. Shoot into the backstop if you want to save a walk down to change the target. Only wait about 2 minutes from when you stop until you begin your group testing.

Fire the 5 shots of each group in a specified time. Let this be 45 seconds to a minute. Then key part is to do this for each group. So if you do the first group in 45 seconds then all the groups have to be 45 seconds. That's 9 seconds a shot.

Between groups wait for 2 minutes again to give the rifle time to cool, but not to a cold barrel, but the same temperature you had when you started the first group and had it warmed with the "blow off shots".

now do the second group in the 45 seconds. Stop, wait for 2 minutes and go onto group 3.

Do this for 5 to 10 GROUPS.

It's also a good idea to record wind conditions, direction, and weather. While vertical groups can be attributed to the shooter wind, in a 22lr, can cause some vertical depending on the terrain you are shooting on.

Lastly make sure you have an exact distance. Don't walk it or pace it out. Measure it precisely. It's why a range is good.

scwazrh wrote: »

- I have been using a middle of the road bipod so good chance this is an issue as you suggest.i will get my hands on a rest and rear bag.

You can go back to the bipod once you have eliminated it as a cause. For testing purposes though you want a "rock" and the bipod is simply an unknown variable.

Once the rifle is shooting as you want go back to the bipod, same with the suppressor as mentioned above, and shoot away.

- there is parallax adjustment on the scope which I hope is accurate but will check in the method you outline

Don't be caught out, as i used to be, by the parallax adjustments. On scopes with them they'll have distance markings. Depending on your vision/eyesight these distances won't be exactly what you need for the distance you're shooting at.

For example my 308 is set on about 120 yards for 100 yard shooting. Combines with the focus i have no parallax issues. The best way to eliminate parallax is by sight. Once the crosshairs stop "moving" your parallax is set and the markings on your scope are irrelevant to the issue.

I had a chap with a similar issue to you about a year back. The first thing i done was check his parallax. The crosshairs moved, but as it's his rifle and his scope he had to do the adjustments as my eyes could be different. Once he set it and i checked and we're happy there was little to no movement he fired a group. It went from 1.5 inches at 50 yards to about 3/4 inch. With no other adjustments to his style, the rifle or equipment he was using this simple check eliminated nearly half his group size.

- On shooter technique , through trial and error since I started shooting I have a very similar technique to what you outline , however breathing and trigger pull are something to work on.

I could have waffled on about recoil management, battery, etc. but it's a 22lr so some things aren't really germane to the discussion.

If it's for testing only then you want to be able to control as much as you can. Like with the bipod above once you get the rifle shooting right you can go back to the "field grip" as it's minute of bunny and not MOA.

-While i have tried many different ammo brands , I haven’t tested in such an accurate method as you noted.Will try out after the other points.

It'll be a bit tedious and very anal retentive, but trust me it's worth. It'll take about an hour, to an hour and a half between all the various types but you'll have a set of data at the end that you can count on.

Two other thing i never mentioned above:

1. Record everything. I know i said about the weather, etc. but keep a record of the bullet brand, speeds, and for each different type place up a new target. This way you have a clean and unfouled reference as to how each performed. Write on the target the time of day, weather, wind condition, and the timing of your shots. DO NOT discount flyers. Even if you think you've done everything right and are sure it was the bullet's "fault" it's part of your 5 shot group and it counts.
2. As you done before maintain the same point of aim regardless of the group position. There is a difference between accuracy and precision. Accuracy is hitting where you want, and precision is doing it repeatedly. If you get a great group, consistently but it's 1 inch low and left so what. You know if the rifle and bullets keep doing this a simply adjustment of the scope will sort out the accuracy issue, but you know the precision is there. As it stands you have neither the accuracy or precision you want. This can and will be fixed. Don't let it get into your head and don't be uptight. Your mood WILL effect your shooting so try to remain calm, even if you get a flyer, and focus on your goal.

Again thank you and I will report back .

Do, i'd be interested to see if anything helped or was i simply talking out my arse (as usual )