Can a load shots and affect accuracy?

[brewer12345]

I was out looking for elk this morning and took a spill on a hillside. I checked that the load was still in place with the ramrod, but at the end of the day when I shot the load out it appeared to hit way left of my target. I might have bopped the sights when I fell, flinched, or nicked the edge of the dead tree we were shooting at and had the bullet deflect. I will hit the range to make sure I am still good before deer season, but it occurred to me to wonder if the fall could have affected point of impact. This was a 54 cal real with a load proven accurate at the range.

[BigBore45]

I would put the fall on the bottom of the list. Lots of more probable reasons. Imo ymmv

[brewer12345]

Yeah. I suppose it does not really matter at this point. I will hit the range on Friday and since elk is no longer the focus I will probably get set up for round ball for deer. My recollection is that this rifle shoots 80 grains with a round ball pretty well and I doubt a white tail doe will go far after catching a .530 round ball.

[charlie b]

I had the same kind of thing happen to me years ago. A CVA Kentucky .45. Sighted in, went to the field for mule deer. Dropped it on some rocks from waist high. Everything looked ok (except for the dings in the stock ). Shot at a deer and missed. Back at camp took a shot and it hit to the left a lot. Did not get another shot with it.

Back home it still shot to the left and never figured out why.

[LAGS]

I had the exact same issue with my Mowrey .50
It got knocked over at the range while leaning against the bench.
It slightly cracked the forend , but everything else looked fine.
But after three shots off Target at 50 yards I was able to see that the rear leaf sight got tweaked just a hair to the right.
It hadn't moved the sight in the Dovetail.
But had bent the leaf slightly to the side.
It was enough to make the rifle miss to the right by 12"

[bigted]

Gotta remember here ... very slight ... even imperceptible movement ... will and can make a huge difference in impact.

Another thing is warping the barrel from a drop onto rocks n such ... to say nothing of hanging onto the gun and accidentally putting your weight on it from reflex in a fall. Slight bend will make another HUGE movement from your zero.

Take a longer barreled smoothie or rifle and the torqe taken to bend, tweek or somehow disturb the bedded barrel ... and very strange things can and do happen.

It is not unheard of that simple weather change during a hunt can warp wood enough to change sighted impact ... even with or maybe especially with a modern wood stocked and scoped rifle.

So if simple weather can do harm ... what can be expected of a drop or fall?

[brewer12345]

Yeah. This is a tc grey hawk, so heavy stainless barrel and plastic furniture.

[Mac118]

Dovetails are an effective way of mounting sights but not infallible. I had a front sight move through normal use when it wasn't properly peened into place.

[brewer12345]

Hit the range this morning to see what was what. Whatever happened, it doesn't seem to have been the sights. Shifting to round ball I was on paper with the first shot. I ended up dialling in with PRB and 110 grains of Black MZ with an over powder wad. Shoots inch or so groups at 50 yards and groups well enough to kill a doe at 100, not that the area I will be hunting will have room for a shot that long. I figure a 230 grain ball should do the deal just fine in the 75 or so yards that would be my most likely max distance.