Precision Costs Money

I ooze smugness today. I got back to work with the Ruger Precision Rifle, and I got good results. It turns out I’m not the main problem with my groups. It’s the ammo and trigger.

I bought 1000 rounds of Sellier & Bellot FMJ because it was cheap. I also liked it because a Youtube guy shot 1 MOA with it at 656 yards. Until today, I had never put anything else through the gun.

I started out with S&B, and I did not do all that well. I shot 20 rounds at 100 yards. I began by shooting at the center of the bullseye, and then I went clockwise, shooting at several places where yellow lines intersected. I ended on the right side of the target.

After shooting the first group, I checked to see if I had ever adjusted the rifle’s trigger. I had not. I took an Allen wrench and reduced the pull as much as possible. I also tried to perfect the scope’s parallax, I moved the reticle a couple of clicks, and I decided to focus on putting the same part of my finger on the trigger every time.

The first group was not spectactular. Then things got better. Then they got worse.

I opened up a box of Hornady ELD Match 147-grain ammo and lit up another target, starting on the bottom-left bullseye. As you can see, I did a lot better. Part of it may be due to me being warmed up, but most of it is the ammunition. Lesson learned.

The last group opened up a little. That could be fatigue, or it could be the barrel warming up. I’m betting on fatigue. When you don’t practice enough, every shot takes a great deal of concentration, and it wears you out.

Can I complain? When you shoot at 100 yards, and your flyers are 2 MOA, you’re not having a bad day. A bad day would be 5-MOA flyers.

I’m still glad I got the S&B, because it will be perfect for shooting steel, but if I want to be really good, I’ll need to shoot the good stuff. I have some reloading materials for 6.5 Creedmoor, so I should be able to do well eventually. I have to decide what to do about brass. I don’t want to waste my S&B brass, but if it won’t give me good accuracy, I don’t want to use it.

I don’t think S&B will give me consistent 1-MOA groups, even if I put the gun in a clamp. It’s obviously inconsistent.

I am not in love with the rifle’s trigger. I think it’s time to upgrade, unless I can find a hack to reduce the pull a little more. It’s too heavy for target shooting.

The gun has a new Anarchy Outdoors bolt shroud, and that helped a lot. The Ruger shroud kept catching on things. I would like to be able to keep my cheek on the gun between shots, and you can’t do that if you have to wrestle with the bolt. The Anarchy Outdoors bolt is very smooth.

With an improved or replacement trigger, I should get fewer flyers.

This thing is going to work. It’s just a matter of sticking with it.

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FYI, I measured the Hornady target with calipers, and my best group was about 5/8″. The worst group, and the only one over 1 MOA, was about 1.2″. Not bad.