Effect of hot barrel on POI

[Son]

I asked the questions yesterday for good reason.... now I have a little time and am at home, I can expand on my thoughts

Using the sling can and will string your groups vertically if you cannot use the exact same tension every time. Even the service shooting pam says not to use the sling

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The foreend is supposed to contact the barrel at the Nock's form, for an inch either side of the inner band and for at least four inches back from the muzzle. Take a look at an undisturbed factory fitted foreend on a No1 MkIII*

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The inner band does nothing if the foreend is fitted properly. It and the barrel centering stud under the muzzle along with the two tiny lugs in the muzzle hole of the nosecap are there to help control the accuracy if the foreend bedding fails (foreend warping) and nothing else. You should be able to shoot a No1 with only the foreend fitted with the trigger guard, no inner band, no barrel centering stud, no nopsecap, no handguards and shoot the same POI as the complete rifle does.

If you can, try the same shooting program off a sandbag without the sling and see what happens. It is not unusual for a little vertical stringing from cold to hot, but I am suggesting any more than three inches from the first shot to the tenth shot means you may have a problem. I have several No1 rifles that don't vary more than about 2" no matter how hot they are. Trouble is, there can be a lot of work t5o achieve this, and even then there is now way of being sure it will ever improve... they can be that fickle!