diff --git a/pkg/ingester/index/bitprefix.go b/pkg/ingester/index/bitprefix.go
index f8e72a5bee..c65af73467 100644
--- a/pkg/ingester/index/bitprefix.go
+++ b/pkg/ingester/index/bitprefix.go
@@ -107,10 +107,7 @@ func (ii *BitPrefixInvertedIndex) validateShard(shard *astmapper.ShardAnnotation
 		return nil
 	}
 
-	if 1<<(shard.TSDB().RequiredBits()) != shard.Of {
-		return fmt.Errorf("Shard factor must be a power of two, got %d", shard.Of)
-	}
-	return nil
+	return shard.TSDB().Validate()
 }
 
 // Add a fingerprint under the specified labels.
diff --git a/pkg/querier/queryrange/shard_resolver.go b/pkg/querier/queryrange/shard_resolver.go
index f4dae25735..2f2e7db6af 100644
--- a/pkg/querier/queryrange/shard_resolver.go
+++ b/pkg/querier/queryrange/shard_resolver.go
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ func (r *dynamicShardResolver) Shards(e syntax.Expr) (int, error) {
 	}
 
 	combined := stats.MergeStats(results...)
-	factor := guessShardFactor(combined, r.maxParallelism)
+	factor := guessShardFactor(combined)
 	var bytesPerShard = combined.Bytes
 	if factor > 0 {
 		bytesPerShard = combined.Bytes / uint64(factor)
@@ -143,21 +143,18 @@ func (r *dynamicShardResolver) Shards(e syntax.Expr) (int, error) {
 const (
 	// Just some observed values to get us started on better query planning.
 	p90BytesPerSecond = 300 << 20 // 300MB/s/core
-	// At max, schedule a query for 10s of execution before
-	// splitting it into more requests. This is a lot of guesswork.
-	maxSeconds          = 10
-	maxSchedulableBytes = maxSeconds * p90BytesPerSecond
 )
 
-func guessShardFactor(stats stats.Stats, maxParallelism int) int {
-	expectedSeconds := float64(stats.Bytes / p90BytesPerSecond)
-	if expectedSeconds <= float64(maxParallelism) {
-		power := math.Ceil(math.Log2(expectedSeconds)) // round up to nearest power of 2
-		// Ideally, parallelize down to 1s queries
-		return int(math.Pow(2, power))
-	}
+func guessShardFactor(stats stats.Stats) int {
+	expectedSeconds := float64(stats.Bytes) / float64(p90BytesPerSecond)
+	power := math.Ceil(math.Log2(expectedSeconds)) // round up to nearest power of 2
 
-	n := stats.Bytes / maxSchedulableBytes
-	power := math.Ceil(math.Log2(float64(n)))
-	return int(math.Pow(2, power))
+	// Parallelize down to 1s queries
+	// Since x^0 == 1 and we only support factors of 2
+	// reset this edge case manually
+	factor := int(math.Pow(2, power))
+	if factor == 1 {
+		factor = 0
+	}
+	return factor
 }
diff --git a/pkg/querier/queryrange/shard_resolver_test.go b/pkg/querier/queryrange/shard_resolver_test.go
index 7c6166c43a..0fe2c3f661 100644
--- a/pkg/querier/queryrange/shard_resolver_test.go
+++ b/pkg/querier/queryrange/shard_resolver_test.go
@@ -11,50 +11,41 @@ import (
 
 func TestGuessShardFactor(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, tc := range []struct {
-		stats          stats.Stats
-		maxParallelism int
-		exp            int
+		stats stats.Stats
+		exp   int
 	}{
 		{
 			// no data == no sharding
-			exp:            0,
-			maxParallelism: 10,
+			exp: 0,
 		},
 		{
-			exp:            4,
-			maxParallelism: 10,
+			exp: 4,
 			stats: stats.Stats{
-				Bytes: 1200 << 20, // 1200MB
+				Bytes: p90BytesPerSecond * 4,
 			},
 		},
 		{
-			exp:            8,
-			maxParallelism: 10,
-			// 1500MB moves us to the next
-			// power of 2 parallelism factor
+			// round up shard factor
+			exp: 16,
 			stats: stats.Stats{
-				Bytes: 1500 << 20,
+				Bytes: p90BytesPerSecond * 15,
 			},
 		},
 		{
-			// Two fully packed parallelism cycles
-			exp:            16,
-			maxParallelism: 8,
+			exp: 2,
 			stats: stats.Stats{
-				Bytes: maxSchedulableBytes * 16,
+				Bytes: p90BytesPerSecond + 1,
 			},
 		},
 		{
-			// increase to next factor of two
-			exp:            32,
-			maxParallelism: 8,
+			exp: 0,
 			stats: stats.Stats{
-				Bytes: maxSchedulableBytes * 17,
+				Bytes: p90BytesPerSecond,
 			},
 		},
 	} {
 		t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("%+v", tc.stats), func(t *testing.T) {
-			require.Equal(t, tc.exp, guessShardFactor(tc.stats, tc.maxParallelism))
+			require.Equal(t, tc.exp, guessShardFactor(tc.stats))
 		})
 	}
 }
diff --git a/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval.go b/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval.go
index f15af478e2..1695952f92 100644
--- a/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval.go
+++ b/pkg/querier/queryrange/split_by_interval.go
@@ -151,13 +151,12 @@ func (h *splitByInterval) loop(ctx context.Context, ch <-chan *lokiResult, next
 		data.req.LogToSpan(sp)
 
 		resp, err := next.Do(ctx, data.req)
+		sp.Finish()
 
 		select {
 		case <-ctx.Done():
-			sp.Finish()
 			return
 		case data.ch <- &packedResp{resp, err}:
-			sp.Finish()
 		}
 	}
 }
diff --git a/pkg/storage/stores/composite_store_entry.go b/pkg/storage/stores/composite_store_entry.go
index 4d0a97fb06..69ca3a4a3f 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/stores/composite_store_entry.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/stores/composite_store_entry.go
@@ -52,6 +52,12 @@ func (c *storeEntry) GetChunkRefs(ctx context.Context, userID string, from, thro
 	defer log.Span.Finish()
 
 	shortcut, err := c.validateQueryTimeRange(ctx, userID, &from, &through)
+	log.Log(
+		"shortcut", shortcut,
+		"from", from.Time(),
+		"through", through.Time(),
+		"err", err,
+	)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, nil, err
 	} else if shortcut {
diff --git a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/fingerprint.go b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/fingerprint.go
index c29f735754..646e587f70 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/fingerprint.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/fingerprint.go
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@ type FingerprintOffsets [][2]uint64
 
 func (xs FingerprintOffsets) Range(shard ShardAnnotation) (minOffset, maxOffset uint64) {
 	from, through := shard.Bounds()
-
 	lower := sort.Search(len(xs), func(i int) bool {
 		return xs[i][1] >= uint64(from)
 	})
diff --git a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/index.go b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/index.go
index d2d9f7b2f7..5c77aae823 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/index.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/index.go
@@ -535,16 +535,19 @@ func (w *Writer) AddSeries(ref storage.SeriesRef, lset labels.Labels, fp model.F
 
 	w.buf2.PutHash(w.crc32)
 
-	if err := w.write(w.buf1.Get(), w.buf2.Get()); err != nil {
-		return errors.Wrap(err, "write series data")
-	}
-
 	w.lastSeries = append(w.lastSeries[:0], lset...)
 	w.lastSeriesHash = labelHash
 	w.lastRef = ref
 
 	if ref%fingerprintInterval == 0 {
-		w.fingerprintOffsets = append(w.fingerprintOffsets, [2]uint64{uint64(ref), labelHash})
+		// series references are the 16-byte aligned offsets
+		// Do NOT ask me how long I debugged this particular bit >:O
+		sRef := w.f.pos / 16
+		w.fingerprintOffsets = append(w.fingerprintOffsets, [2]uint64{sRef, labelHash})
+	}
+
+	if err := w.write(w.buf1.Get(), w.buf2.Get()); err != nil {
+		return errors.Wrap(err, "write series data")
 	}
 
 	return nil
diff --git a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/postings.go b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/postings.go
index c144efa55f..028da1bd06 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/postings.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/postings.go
@@ -864,14 +864,14 @@ func (sp *ShardedPostings) Next() bool {
 		if ok := sp.p.Next(); !ok {
 			return false
 		}
-		return sp.p.Seek(storage.SeriesRef(sp.minOffset))
+		return sp.Seek(0)
 	}
 	ok := sp.p.Next()
 	if !ok {
 		return false
 	}
 
-	if sp.p.At() > storage.SeriesRef(sp.maxOffset) {
+	if sp.p.At() >= storage.SeriesRef(sp.maxOffset) {
 		return false
 	}
 
@@ -881,7 +881,7 @@ func (sp *ShardedPostings) Next() bool {
 // Seek advances the iterator to value v or greater and returns
 // true if a value was found.
 func (sp *ShardedPostings) Seek(v storage.SeriesRef) (res bool) {
-	if v > storage.SeriesRef(sp.maxOffset) {
+	if v >= storage.SeriesRef(sp.maxOffset) {
 		return false
 	}
 	if v < storage.SeriesRef(sp.minOffset) {
diff --git a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/postings_test.go b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/postings_test.go
index 8cb76b0ad1..3b38e5bf06 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/postings_test.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/postings_test.go
@@ -929,3 +929,25 @@ func TestMemPostings_Delete(t *testing.T) {
 	require.NoError(t, err)
 	require.Equal(t, 0, len(expanded), "expected empty postings, got %v", expanded)
 }
+
+func TestShardedPostings(t *testing.T) {
+	offsets := FingerprintOffsets{
+		{0, 0},
+		{5, 0b1 << 62},
+		{10, 0b1 << 63},
+		{15, 0b11 << 62},
+	}
+	shard := NewShard(0, 2)
+	var refs []storage.SeriesRef
+	for i := 0; i < 20; i++ {
+		refs = append(refs, storage.SeriesRef(i))
+	}
+	ps := newListPostings(refs...)
+	shardedPostings := NewShardedPostings(ps, shard, offsets)
+
+	for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {
+		require.Equal(t, true, shardedPostings.Next())
+		require.Equal(t, storage.SeriesRef(i), shardedPostings.At())
+	}
+	require.Equal(t, false, shardedPostings.Next())
+}
diff --git a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/shard.go b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/shard.go
index 8f59047b48..8cb7c8201c 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/shard.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/shard.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package index
 
 import (
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"math"
 
@@ -14,6 +15,8 @@ const (
 	ShardLabelFmt = "%d_of_%d"
 )
 
+var errDisallowedIdentityShard = errors.New("shard with factor of 1 is explicitly disallowed. It's equivalent to no sharding")
+
 // ShardAnnotation is a convenience struct which holds data from a parsed shard label
 // Of MUST be a power of 2 to ensure sharding logic works correctly.
 type ShardAnnotation struct {
@@ -33,10 +36,14 @@ func NewShard(x, of uint32) ShardAnnotation {
 // Inclusion in a shard is calculated by determining the arbitrary bit prefix
 // for a shard, then ensuring the fingerprint has the same prefix
 func (shard ShardAnnotation) Match(fp model.Fingerprint) bool {
+	if shard.Of < 2 {
+		return true
+	}
 	requiredBits := shard.RequiredBits()
 
 	// A shard only matches a fingerprint when they both start with the same prefix
 	prefix := uint64(shard.Shard) << (64 - requiredBits)
+
 	return prefix^uint64(fp) < 1<<(64-requiredBits)
 }
 
@@ -51,8 +58,19 @@ func (shard ShardAnnotation) RequiredBits() uint64 {
 
 }
 
+func (shard ShardAnnotation) Validate() error {
+	if shard.Of == 1 {
+		return errDisallowedIdentityShard
+	}
+
+	if 1<<shard.RequiredBits() != shard.Of {
+		return fmt.Errorf("Shard factor must be a power of two, got %d", shard.Of)
+	}
+	return nil
+}
+
 // Bounds shows the [minimum, maximum) fingerprints. If there is no maximum
-// fingerprint (for example )
+// fingerprint (for example the last shard), math.MaxUint64 is used as the maximum.
 func (shard ShardAnnotation) Bounds() (model.Fingerprint, model.Fingerprint) {
 	requiredBits := model.Fingerprint(shard.RequiredBits())
 	from := model.Fingerprint(shard.Shard) << (64 - requiredBits)
diff --git a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/shard_test.go b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/shard_test.go
index 3a6a16b0d6..167e9f4bae 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/shard_test.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index/shard_test.go
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ func TestShardMatch(t *testing.T) {
 			fp:    0,
 			exp:   true,
 		},
+		{
+			shard: NewShard(0, 2),
+			fp:    5287603155525329,
+			exp:   true,
+		},
 		{
 			shard: NewShard(0, 2),
 			fp:    1 << 63,
@@ -50,6 +55,11 @@ func TestShardMatch(t *testing.T) {
 			fp:    3 << 62,
 			exp:   false,
 		},
+		{
+			shard: NewShard(0, 1),
+			fp:    5287603155525329,
+			exp:   true,
+		},
 	} {
 		t.Run(fmt.Sprint(tc.shard, tc.fp), func(t *testing.T) {
 			require.Equal(t, tc.exp, tc.shard.Match(model.Fingerprint(tc.fp)))
@@ -62,6 +72,11 @@ func TestShardBounds(t *testing.T) {
 		shard         ShardAnnotation
 		from, through uint64
 	}{
+		{
+			shard:   NewShard(0, 1),
+			from:    0,
+			through: math.MaxUint64,
+		},
 		{
 			shard:   NewShard(0, 2),
 			from:    0,
@@ -95,3 +110,33 @@ func TestShardBounds(t *testing.T) {
 		})
 	}
 }
+
+func TestShardValidate(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		desc   string
+		factor uint32
+		err    bool
+	}{
+		{
+			factor: 0,
+			err:    false,
+		},
+		{
+			factor: 1,
+			err:    true,
+		},
+		{
+			factor: 2,
+			err:    false,
+		},
+	} {
+		t.Run(fmt.Sprint(tc.factor), func(t *testing.T) {
+			err := NewShard(0, tc.factor).Validate()
+			if tc.err {
+				require.NotNil(t, err)
+			} else {
+				require.Nil(t, err)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}
diff --git a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index_client.go b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index_client.go
index a17f7cbb6f..ea0e746835 100644
--- a/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index_client.go
+++ b/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index_client.go
@@ -7,10 +7,12 @@ import (
 	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/model/labels"
 
 	"github.com/grafana/loki/pkg/logproto"
+	"github.com/grafana/loki/pkg/logql/syntax"
 	"github.com/grafana/loki/pkg/querier/astmapper"
 	"github.com/grafana/loki/pkg/storage/chunk"
 	"github.com/grafana/loki/pkg/storage/stores/index/stats"
 	"github.com/grafana/loki/pkg/storage/stores/tsdb/index"
+	"github.com/grafana/loki/pkg/util/spanlogger"
 )
 
 // implements stores.Index
@@ -45,6 +47,10 @@ func cleanMatchers(matchers ...*labels.Matcher) ([]*labels.Matcher, *index.Shard
 			Shard: uint32(s.Shard),
 			Of:    uint32(s.Of),
 		}
+
+		if err := shard.Validate(); err != nil {
+			return nil, nil, err
+		}
 	}
 
 	if len(matchers) == 0 {
@@ -60,13 +66,32 @@ func cleanMatchers(matchers ...*labels.Matcher) ([]*labels.Matcher, *index.Shard
 // They share almost the same fields, so we can add the missing `KB` field to the proto and then
 // use that within the tsdb package.
 func (c *IndexClient) GetChunkRefs(ctx context.Context, userID string, from, through model.Time, matchers ...*labels.Matcher) ([]logproto.ChunkRef, error) {
+	log, ctx := spanlogger.New(ctx, "IndexClient.GetChunkRefs")
+	defer log.Span.Finish()
+
+	var kvps []interface{}
+	defer func() {
+		log.Log(kvps...)
+	}()
+
 	matchers, shard, err := cleanMatchers(matchers...)
+	kvps = append(kvps,
+		"from", from.Time(),
+		"through", through.Time(),
+		"matchers", syntax.MatchersString(matchers),
+		"shard", shard,
+		"cleanMatcherErr", err,
+	)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
 	// TODO(owen-d): use a pool to reduce allocs here
 	chks, err := c.idx.GetChunkRefs(ctx, userID, from, through, nil, shard, matchers...)
+	kvps = append(kvps,
+		"chunks", len(chks),
+		"indexErr", err,
+	)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}