Crosshairs move down with trigger squeeze

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Mar 6, 2013
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I have noticed this with a few titles recently and I don’t remember seeing this before so I’m figuring it’s something with my shot process or rest. Both rifles are proven 0.75-0.5 Moa consistently. Using scopes with parallax adjusted prior to first shot so crosshairs do not move as I move my head around. I have cheek rests with foam adjusting the height so I can rest my head firmly on the stock and keep my eye centered in the scope. Front rest is either an “H” shaped Caldwell bag or a metal triangle with a forearm shaped bag on top of the flat platform. Rear I use sandbags or bunny ear bags. Both triggers are 2-2.5 pounds.

When I am settled and bags adjusted I will start to squeeze the trigger and I can watch my crosshairs go from perfectly centered and start dropping low. It’s not a lot but I don’t want to see any movement and I believe whatever is causing this is adding vertical to my groups.

Looking for ideas or solutions.
 

VernAK

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I suspect you are getting tense on the pistol grip as you fire. You should be moving only the end of that trigger finger and not tightening your grip! Tightening your grip will often cause the butt to ride up the shoulder and make the crosshairs appear lower.

Is this a high recoil rifle?
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

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Tighten your grip etc. prior to moving your trigger finger, your rifle will be planted into your bags at that point and a 2lb pull on the trigger shouldn't move anything. Do you have your offhand on the rear bag keeping it tensioned?
 
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doverpack12
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I try to get the bags pretty solid so I don’t need my hand on the back bag so I rest it on top the scope. I could easily be pulling a little into my shoulder causing the butt to ride up but I also try to apply some pressure with my cheek down.

Low recoil rifles. One is a 260 and the other is a 243. I don’t notice this with my 7mm STW but I haven’t shot it since I noticed this happening either.
 

Mulga

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Check your fundamentals. A few possible things:
- Natural point of aim,
- Thumb placement,
- Trigger 'squeeze' technique.
 
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doverpack12
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Mulga
I typically try to get the rifle positioned pretty much on before I shoot.
I lay my thumb along the right side so I’m not wrapped over the to of the stock.
What is correct trigger technique? I apply slow even pressure straight back and keep the trigger pinned back for follow through
 

pods8 (Rugged Stitching)

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I try to get the bags pretty solid so I don’t need my hand on the back bag so I rest it on top the scope.

Have you tried a hand on the rear bag maintaining pressure?

You know if you're cross hairs are going down I wonder if you're leaning into it a tad right as you're going to pull the trigger?
 
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Dry Fire, Practice Trigger Control and Breathing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^This. Shot execution advice above is good. I learned via snipers hide articles about natural point of aim and follow through. Dry fire and refine grip and trigger pressing technique until the crosshairs are consistently steady.
 

GLB

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Could be the anticipation of recoil. If you settle in behind the rifle with cheek pressure on the stock and do not maintain that pressure it could cause the cross hairs to lower with less pressure. This is a common mistake that shooters make and hard to diagnose. The anticipation of recoil cause some shooters to back off the rifle as they are pressing the trigger. Try to maintain a consistent stock to cheek weld through out the shot sequence and follow through.
 
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doverpack12
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Tried a lot of changes and hasn’t consistently gone away. Main culprit is a Savage model 11 I bedded and stiffened the forearm on. I did notice this past weekend dry firing before shooting loads I would dry fire with just a little downward crosshair movement then trying to figure it out squeezed harder once the firing pin was fired. I could flex enough to watch the crosshairs move up and down just squeezing the trigger. I can’t imagine I’m flexing the tang with my index finger but that certainly seems to be where this is coming from or it’s the stock at the grip for your trigger finger hand.
 

rayporter

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take a video of yourself and watch it.

if the rear bag was settling the shot would go up.

the flinch mentioned above is a possibility. are you sure you are not raising you head early in the follow through? but if you are putting your hand on the scope?

sheesh. some hands could actually bend a scope.
resting your hand on the scope is very bad juju. scopes do bend and the crosshair moves with very little pressure.

seriously. when you are around a high power scope over say 18 x try this. gently [very gently] pinch the oblective between your thumb and fore finger . put your finger on the scope and thumb on the stock and pinch. with a 24 x you can see inches of movement at the target.
a bench rifle locked into the bags will move a couple inches with just laying your finger on the scope.

edit
if you are in the field and shooting from a sitting or position other than prone just how do you duplicate putting your hand on the scope?

you should practice how you are going to shoot. so put your hand on the forestock and gently pull back.
 
Last edited:
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doverpack12
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Think I got somewhere tonight. When I put my right hand on the grip and squeeze the trigger I was laying my right thumb along the top of the stock and you could watch the tang/stock junction move with the squeeze. Then I put my thumb on top of the side of the tang and pinch just a little to my 3 fingers on the grip. No visible movement at the tang/stock junction. Still need to test it out when bagged in and solid on a bench looking at a target. I don’t really like having to essentially hold the tang and stock together. I used to shoot with my thumb over the top of the stock and on the left side which is probably why I never saw this movement before.

Still very open to suggestions or solutions. This might just be a weak point on savage stocks. Don’t really any to replace the stock after the work I’ve done on it up to now
 
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