Weird CA Ridgeline Issue - Need Help

[PredatorSlayer]

Could be a different lot of ammo? I had issues with zero shifts on a VX6HD 4-24. I am done with leupy’s now. I own several CA’s and all shoot very well.

 

[whaack]

Could be a different lot of ammo? I had issues with zero shifts on a VX6HD 4-24. I am done with leupy’s now. I own several CA’s and all shoot very well.

Curiosity what did you move to?

The guys at Long Range Only suggested maybe my mag box is bound up. They could be on to something. I did break the gun apart a while back ago to do some deep cleaning, and when I put it back together, maybe didn’t get the magazine Square. Definitely looking at it this evening. It looks like it’s a little tight in there.


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[PredatorSlayer]

Curiosity what did you move to?

The guys at Long Range Only suggested maybe my mag box is bound up. They could be on to something. I did break the gun apart a while back ago to do some deep cleaning, and when I put it back together, maybe didn’t get the magazine Square. Definitely looking at it this evening. It looks like it’s a little tight in there.


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I had the vx6hd and several VX5HD’s. Dumped all of them. The rifle wearing the VX6HD now has the 4-32 NX8. Others are sporting 5.5-22 NXSs and Trijicon Tenmiles.

 

[blacklab1]

Curiosity what did you move to?

The guys at Long Range Only suggested maybe my mag box is bound up. They could be on to something. I did break the gun apart a while back ago to do some deep cleaning, and when I put it back together, maybe didn’t get the magazine Square. Definitely looking at it this evening. It looks like it’s a little tight in there.


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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^This…….i did that once and it does mess with accuracy.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Curiosity what did you move to?

The guys at Long Range Only suggested maybe my mag box is bound up. They could be on to something. I did break the gun apart a while back ago to do some deep cleaning, and when I put it back together, maybe didn’t get the magazine Square. Definitely looking at it this evening. It looks like it’s a little tight in there.


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OK, now we are getting somewhere.

Did the groups start opening up during a shooting session, or were they fine one time and opened up after the “deep clean”?
Do you clean it after every range session?
How many rounds did you fire before the groups started opening up? In most rifles, after 100-200 rounds, you will see a slight increase in muzzle velocity. The commonly held thought is that this happens as the throat and bore are smoothed out. This could have caused enough of a change in barrel harmonics that the groups started to open up.
Also, if you are cleaning every time, you are changing how the barrel wants to shoot.
Additionally, if you are removing the barreled action from the stock and not putting everything back exactly the way it was, including putting the same torque on the action screws, you are adding variables.
Finally, we’re the atmospheric conditions (temp, wind, etc) exactly the same when you were shooting .4” groups and when you were shooting .9” groups?

 

[whaack]

OK, now we are getting somewhere.

Did the groups start opening up during a shooting session, or were they fine one time and opened up after the “deep clean”?
Do you clean it after every range session?
How many rounds did you fire before the groups started opening up? In most rifles, after 100-200 rounds, you will see a slight increase in muzzle velocity. The commonly held thought is that this happens as the throat and bore are smoothed out. This could have caused enough of a change in barrel harmonics that the groups started to open up.
Also, if you are cleaning every time, you are changing how the barrel wants to shoot.
Additionally, if you are removing the barreled action from the stock and not putting everything back exactly the way it was, including putting the same torque on the action screws, you are adding variables.
Finally, we’re the atmospheric conditions (temp, wind, etc) exactly the same when you were shooting .4” groups and when you were shooting .9” groups?

So last night I took the rifle apart again and made sure there wasn't an issue with the mag box. Put it back together and torqued it down correctly and made sure it was seated correctly everywhere, 65lbs torque on both screws.

As I dig into this more I think it might be a dirty barrel issue. The barrel cleaning dogma is hard to know what is true and what is internet junk. I had watched and read a number of things that advocated for either rarely cleaning or even never cleaning. So after the break in period I only cleaned the rifle with copper remover.

Over the past 72 hours I have been soaking the barrel with Wipeout and running patches through it. First few sessions really pushed some junk out. I have a bore scope arriving on Thursday to confirm the barrel condition.

The more i think about it I should have stuck to what I've always done which is clean my rifle after around 20-30 rounds.