Just wanted to again say thank you to everyone who posted a message. This has been a huge help for my understanding the capabilities of my rifle and the expectations I should have of myself. Part of my problem was not knowing what expectations I should have; You guys helped a lot.

Sgtsandman, no apology necessary. I just wanted to explain that I had a bit of (dated) shooting experience, which I should have mentioned in my first post. I’m grateful for the beginners advice. I’m never so good at anything that keeping fundamentals in mind isn’t important.

I’ve been rereading messages here and I’m excited to get back out and shoot again. I’m going to work on strengthening my fundamentals and try a target I can see better.

The ACOG was probably a poor choice for this rifle. I wanted durability and assumed I could use the M&P10 as a (secondary role) battle rifle but it’s just too darn heavy for me to carry or shoot offhand. Given the cost of the ACOG I’ll have to keep it on this rifle and just make due as best as I can. If I can eventually get groups of several inches within 100 to 400 yard distances I’ll be happy and this rifle can still meet its primary role for me. Headshots at 100 yards and center mass hits at 400 yards would meet my goals. Obviously I’ve got some more practicing to do.

I assumed the bipod would be sturdy but as I think about it maybe it does allow for too much flex / barrel bounce. Many of you have mentioned shooting off of a sandbag. Are you guys using actual sand-filled bags or is there something else I should be looking at?