Spoiler alert-If you rarely shoot farther than 100 yards at a deer, this read will probably be a waste of time.

Just wanted to share something that someone new to deer hunting might not know...
I’ve explained my viewpoint on this many times, and most of the time get a “hmmm” or “well that makes sense”....but rarely do people take the time to actually do it.

Many rifles can “track” after a string of shots.
3 shot groups fired in sequence to sight in a deer rifle, can give you a “settled down” hot barrel zero, but it “sometimes” isn’t the same as a cold barrel zero. To me, a cold barrel 3-shot group takes many hours to do, and is best done on a multi-day schedule. I’ve got a great setup, because I have a 200 yard range nearby, and some folks don’t...so I get that.
Normally we get 1 shot at a deer, and it’s a cold barrel shot. After I started doing my cold barrel sight in, I haven’t had a weird situation (like in the past) where I shoot a longer shot (250-300 yards +), miss the deer, then follow up shot is perfect. Some rifles are worse than others at warm barrel movement on point of impact, but it makes a difference when you get past 250 yards.
Hope this helps!

Nah , I like my way . Sight it in go hunting .

I hear you man. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

If your point of impact shifts more than a “minute of deer” at 300 yards between shots 1 and 2, then you need a new rifle or a new shooter.

Hmmmmm...well that makes sense.

Back when I was in college my roommate and I would shoot a lot. He knew way more than I did about precision and long range shooting. I did see the difference in cold vs. hot accuracy, however I don't remember having a gun that would shoot much more than an 1" different cold vs. hot, but I had several that would shoot somewhat different cold vs. hot.

Of course that was back when I actually shot at 100, 200, and 300 yards several times a month.

Light weight barrelled guns, you betcha this is a problem. However, heavy bull barrels., not so much. They don't heat up as much from one shot and you can let them cool back down rather quickly. Regardless, if you get a hot group on a light barrel just repeat over multiple days to tweak that first shot PI. I have a lightweight set up for sheep hunting that I'm working on and that is exactly how I'm sighting it in. Of course I'm working on distances over twice what the OP mentioned.

I have a MKV that is only accurate from a cold barrel.
As in the first shot, maybe 2nd.

Not if you’re used to head shooting them.

Had a buddy that waited 15 minutes before he would shoot a second shot while sighting in so he decided he would run a couple of patches through it while he was waiting. I'd shoot a 5 shot group almost touching in 5 minutes and he would scratch his head because his groups sucked. I took his rifle and shot 8 shots. That was all the ammo he had left. They were not much wider than a quarter. He shoots much better now that he listens to me.

This brings on another question; is the first shot each day out of a newly cleaned/oiled barrel? If so, how does the barrel does the barrel perform if you need a follow-up shot?

Yep

Mine won't shoot well out of a clean barrel. After 3 it's good. 5 even better. I don't clean barrel till it gets bad. It's still minute of deer then.

Don't go hunting with a clean barrel.

That would explain the first shot miss~

Here is my take. I sometimes flinch on my first shot while targeting. That could be you e cold barrel effect.

Sounds more like operator error