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Have not posted an update, but have been to range both weeks since last post. Let's just say I have hit a plateau.
2 weeks ago I ran 35 rounds through the 223. Not really much to say, other than the Lapua 223 I finally got shoots very well for bulk ammo. Almost as good as the Fed GM Sierra Match. But I am still not getting things right. I would have a few good shots here and there, even a couple of decent groups, but I just can't get any consistency. At the end, I tried shifting my hips to the right, and that seemed to really solve the problem of the stock moving away from me on recoil. It seemed to help square up my shoulders and get a better spine/shoulder alignment. But I did not have anyone to observe me, and no way to take a picture of my position, so I don't know if what I did was actually a good thing. But I left feeling like I had potentially figured something out.
I went back last weekend, and it was more or less a disaster. Right off the bat I could not find anything productive with the 223. Nothing I did from the previous session seemed to be giving the same results. I don't know if I had a single good shot the entire 25 rounds I put through it. I would have a few where the reticle was back on target after the shot, but I could see it moving all around between the shot and the return. The reticle POA would be the same location at start and finish, but a bunch of movement in between. I seemed as if I have been able to eliminate the movement of the stock away from me during recoil, but appears that I have created a new issue with movement at the front.
So then I switched back to the 308 for the first time in several weeks. It was simply horrible. Every shot I took had the bipod bouncing off the ground and landing to the left. There did not seem to be movement at my shoulder, just at the front of the gun.
I was using this chamber flag to mark the starting location of the bipod. This is a pic I took before a shot:
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And this is a picture after a single shot:
As you can see, it jumped and moved to the left about an inch. I am reasonably confident that I was not getting movement at my shoulder. In fact after a few shots with a big bounce, I tried reaching out with my left hand, picking up the gun and setting the bipod back next to the chamber flag, all while trying to not let anything move at my shoulder/bag area. Doing this would put me very close back on target. So it seems that all the movement was at the front of the gun, and little/none at the rear.
I tried everything I know to correct this. I moved up on my shoulder, down on my shoulder, moved the system up, moved it down, more bipod load, less bipod load. Nothing worked at all. I ran 30 rounds and never got one shot that was even remotely good. In all it was truly one of the most frustrating days I have ever spent at the range. 3 hours, 55 shots, and I walked out of there feeling like I accomplished exactly zero. In fact, I left there more confused than when I got there.
This shot should be very telling of what was going on. This is 8 or 9 rounds of 308 at 100yds:
I have seen this before, about 2.5" of vertical stringing as a result of the muzzle rising on recoil. This looks exactly like the issue I was having when I was shooting left-handed. So far switching to right-handed has shown me no tangible dividends, I seem to be right back at the exact same place.
I am going to try and go back this weekend, but we have the remnants of a hurricane moving through. That might prevent me from getting there. We will see.
