Rifle diagnostics

[Grouse870]

Possibly having an issue with one of my rifles and trying to figure out if it’s the scope or something. For context the rifle is a larue ultimate upper kit in 5.56 16” barrel with a vortex strike eagle 1-8 in larue spr rings. I was shooting at 50 yards with a front and rear sandbag with federal fusion msr 62 grain. I’ve had the rifle since 2017 it’s been through two low round count carbine courses, a few qual courses for work, and hunted with quite a bit

I fired this group over a year ago shooting prone off my range bag with no rear support. 62 grain gold dots same rifle set up.


These were shot today with a front and rear sandbags federal fusion 62 msr. Similar conditions


I’m not the greatest rifle shot but I understand the basics. I shot a javelina with this rifle at 182 yards with it last year as well (that’s what I was doing today verifying zero for the upcoming season) The scope would also get blurry and then would be ok but i have to mess with the focus quite a bit it seems. It did the same thing with some 62 fmj. Im kinda at a loss right now. I shoot a red dot rifle for work and I dry fire a red dot AR. “I don’t” think it’s me but I’m not discounting it either. Thoughts?

[SecondsCount]

All of those groups were shot at 50 yards?

I would put more trust in Larue and the Federal ammo than I would a Chinese made scope. Do you have another scope that you can try?

[okie john]

All of those groups were shot at 50 yards?

I would put more trust in Larue and the Federal ammo than I would a Chinese made scope. Do you have another scope that you can try?

This, plus I'd try to shoot at the same distance for which the scope's parallax is set so you're not fighting that as well.

Three more questions:
1. How many of those cloverleaf groups did you make with 62-grain Gold Dots? Just the one, or was it a regular, reliable thing? This group could easily be a fluke and the groups you got with Federal ammo could be the standard.
2. Did you get equally good groups at greater distances? 50 yards isn't much of a test. 100 is the standard, and a very different truth may emerge at 200 and 300.
3. Did this rifle shoot well with any other loads last year? This rifle might just shoot 62-grain Gold Dots better than anything else.


Okie John

[titsonritz]

Go back to the Gold Dots and see what that does. Agree on the China optic thing.

[Grouse870]

That was pretty standard. Some a little bigger but it’s also shot 50 and 55 vmax the same. It’s zeroed at 50. I didn’t get a chance to shoot farther today. Last week I shot the same rifle and load at 100 and it was over 2” but it was a little windy not horribly windy though. I may mess around with it more but it’s never shot this bad before. I’ll take out some vmax and try those as I can’t find gold dots anywhere.

[okie john]

…it’s never shot this bad before.

Unless it has a history of shooting cloverleaf groups, chances are it has always shot like that.


Okie John

[Grouse870]

This is what it has done with 50 jhp and 50 vmax the two marked above the jhp is when I was adjusting the group. I’m not saying your wrong but it’s done cloverleaf so at 50 yards with other ammo. I still thinks it’s a bit odd to have one right where it’s supposed to go and two about 1”-1.5” to the right.

[Rick R]

FWIW I had an early 1-6x Strike Eagle develop two separate group syndrome last year, 2022. Suspecting that something had gone awry with the spring supporting the internals I sent it back to Vortex and they sent a new 1-6x as a replacement. The rifle is back to shooting nice, consistent groups (for now).

[okie john]

Some scopes need a few rounds to settle down. Also, the 2+1 group may mean that seating depth is too long, which only matters on handloads.


Okie John

[Grouse870]

This scope has been on the rifle since 2018 (I broke the first strike eagle that was on it completely my fault though)