Guys, what causes vertical stringing in a contender? My 14" .41 is giving me fits. I thought it was the scope so I mounted a new one on it and it still is all over the paper. The first two shot starts out high and very close to oneanother then it literally goes down hill from there ending up a foot lower then when I started. This used to be such a sweet shooting barrel. Now it sucks. Can you give me a hand? Thanks Ed

If this is the "Ed P" that I shot with a few years ago, then I know that you know how to set up a scope so I would rule that out. BTW...I built a .260 Rem Striker after seeing your Encore KILL jugs at 400yds!!

Send it back. I had a Waters barrel that would literally cut a piece of paper in half horizontally. They said it was defective and sent me a new barrel.

Thanks Dan,
I came home and loaded up two different loads to try tomorrow. I'm also going to take another frame to the range to see if that helps. The barrel is from SSK which are usually good barrels, but it could be bad. I got the .260 shooting real good now, 129 SST's going around 2700fps. I took it with me to Utah, elk hunting but the 35-06JDJ did the job on a 5 X 5. I missed bear season this year in PA and I will be back in the hospital Monday morning for three days. It dosen't look good for deer season this year but what the heck I'll hit them hard next year. Thanks Ed

If you say that, I can't imagine how well it must shoot! That day you came up, that thing was amazing....it was the best shooting gun we had that day at 400yds.

Being a SSK barrel would make me think the problem would be something else then. I'd swap hinge pins then frames and see what happens.

Missed a bear and heading into the hospital...ouch. Hopefully missing the bear has nothing to do with the hospital stay!!

You still have property near Clintonville?

I didn't miss a bear, I missed the whole season. I still have the property. I put in a nice food plot this year with an enclosed tower stand over looking it. I can't believe I'm not going to be able to use it this year. O well a minor blip in life. Take care and I hope you have good luck during deer season.

Ed, what kind'a pills are you feeding it? Just wondering if you may have some leading problems?

doesn't anyone else think this is strange?

how about a good cleaning?...lead...copper n all.

change of forends been done....er anything like that?

What he said.

Has it shot a lot of cast?

Good tubes don't go bad for no reason.

I gave the barrel a good scrubing last night. Nothing came out that shouldn't have been there. If it still dosen't shoot after I change the barrel I'll take it back to JD and see what he says.
I was loadiing Sierra 210's ontop of H110. Last night I loaded upa few using AA#9. I never thought about the forend so I'll give that a try also. Thanks guys Ed.

Another thing is that I didn't crimp my loads. Could that be the culprit. The new loads I worked up were given a heavy crimp, but I haven't had a chance to try them yet.

That wouldn't have anything to do with, I wouldn't think. A crimp is just to keep a bullet from backing out during recoil, which has no effect on single shots.

if the loads that showed accuracy before were crimped....and the ones not shooting accurate now were NOT crimped....dang right i would expect that to be a likely possiblity.

i would have a firm crimp....single shot OR revolver. cases should be trimmed evenly every time also to allow a uniform crimp on all rounds.

That could have a lot to do with it. A tighter crimp will allow more pressure to build before the bullet leaves the case than a light or non crimp. This can affect MV, and MV deviations would explain vertical stringing.

I think y'all are misunderstanding what I was saying.

When I made this comment, I was refering to "uncrimped" as not being an accuracy problem. At the time of that statement he said he had not shot the heavy crimped loads, yet.

I have never crimped any of my loads for any of my T/C's and have never had an accuracy problem. It's very true if he's mixing crimped and uncrimped while shooting the the groups will very possibly be all over paper. I was just refering to him shooting uncrimped bullets in general. I was assuming he was shooting the same load as with he said the barrel was shooting great.

We're on the same page there. I think a crimp of some degree can be beneficial, provided it is consistant. If there was crimping going on, it should be noted so it can be repeated or avoided ;-)

Gotcha. :-)