0.3" Groups? Pull My Other Finger, It Has Bells On It...

And you are only to happy to sell them what they need to help them along the way. perhaps you should have a forum all to your own! win win.

Sounds like you're the one that needs a new forum. Maybe one dedicated to the Barnard action...it would have 3 posts a year and be extremely dull and boring...just your style. And no I'm not bashing Barnard, the point is people like to tweak and upgrade factory rifles, in the process the share it here and why not. They aren't out to compete they are just enjoying the sport we all love. Once they are hooked (and it will happen) they will likely keep going into custom actions etc. I like doing all of this as well, in fact I just bedded my Kreiger barreled Savage last night...can't wait for it to finish curing so I can get out shooting and see how much it helped.
 
paperslayer,
It's hard to fault Jerry for what he's done for the CGN community. He's been shooting a lot of different rifles other than Savage. I remembered reading about his debut with a Savage built F-Class gun in .260 AI years ago. I had used a .260 AI back in 1999 to win the Long Range Challenge on a McLennan custom action.
Savage had been getting into competition by that time with their Palma gun and single shot. You either like those actions or not.

Truth is, he proved you don't have to be a gunsmith to make a winning F-Class rifle. Savage barrel nuts and prefit barrels have changed all that. To some people this is great news. No more waiting 1 to 2 years for a gunsmith to assemble a rifle or pay the huge cost of a custom action.

Jerry also is a Dealer here and has the right to promote his business as he paid for the privilege. He also would not be successful at it if it didn't work.

I've bought stuff from Jerry and will continue to do so. He always comes through.
Once in awhile I may poke fun at Jerry and Yodave for their Savage zeal, but all in good taste as an old Rem 700 lover and gunsmith might do.
Now that Remington is producing a Savage clone it doesn't make me all fuzzy inside. A lot of that has to do with marketing.
 

To be fair to our OP, this thread was opened in humour. With tongue in cheek.
And much good reading has resulted.
We all have our personal favorites.
It matters not so much what brand one happens to prefer. (A bono-fide pervert, I relentlessly perma-flog on an ever expanding array of old bubba'd Mausers, fer crying out loud f:P:2:). And who cares?.... for sure no serious BR or F-class competitor in the land does. All good.

Next you know, myself, and likely many of you fellows 'n gals, have learned something from members here that know whereof they speak. They, who also unstintingly share that hardwon knowledge with us all.
Guys like Jerry, and the long list of others that genuinely seek to help us. Out of love for the sport.

Rant concluded.
Sorry about the drift Glenfilthie.

As it happens, I glassbedded a .308 M700 20'' tactical(HS Precision stock) just yesterday. It too, was printing around 1 1/2 MOA..
Expect to shoot it on Teus., will post a range report to this thread ASAP.
 
Just spent a very nice, albeit chilly day helping a new shooter put some lead downrange with his new Rem 700 SPS tactical in a MDT TAC 21 chassis.

Were some challenges in working with the factory throat but a bit of mix and match, and we came up with a great set up. Initial test showed this rifle can hit 1/2min at 100yds. More testing for sure but a very promising start.

Box stock factory action, promark trigger and all. Trigger is going bye bye but it did function

YMMV.

Jerry

PS Thanks for the kind words guys....
 
Were you loading rounds a few at a time on the range? We've had a few fun days up here trying to figure out how to keep the wind from messing with the scale... LOL. Fun times with catnthehat and others.
 
I have had a number of factory firearms that would shoot .5s and could squeeze the odd .3 out of it or under.

My savages BR 6mm would my tikka 222s, my 308 5r would and also my sako 6 ppc.

I have seen many more do it with the right loads and shooters.

I don't think it's all blowing smoke !

But I have also seen 1.5 inch groups turn into .75 groups !!
 
This is the beest I could do with a stock 700 Tactical 20" with factory Hornady 168gr bthp. It was -25 and my finger was cold so a couple pulled, but not bad, now I can get a load developed to see if I can improve.

Rem700_zps95e69828.jpg

photo-7_zps2f8edce4.jpg
 
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And you are only to happy to sell them what they need to help them along the way. perhaps you should have a forum all to your own! win win.

So now it's wrong to offer advice and solutions to members of the forum on which he, (Jerry), is a supporting sponsor? I don't think so.

Jerry seems to always take the time to help out shooters with a problem, no matter how many times he's answered the same question. Should he be able to profit from his advice and service? IMO Hell yes.
 
These are consecutive 5 shot groups at 100M I squeezed out a 30BR barrel when I first started shooting it ...although I am not a "competiton" shooter, I managed to agg 0.3" over the first 100 groups during a 6 week period, so conditions varied a bit.
83320a6a.jpg
 
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JEC do you shoot out at the Sherwood Park range? Driving around on the club's Gator impressing the chicks and making us poor working men envious of those flashy shooting irons you have so many of? I think I recognize your work! :)

In any event I went out to the range with the last of my Nosler 168's and have pretty much conclusively ruled out Reloader 15 and IMR 4320 as propellants. I tried IMR 3031 and that really seemed to help; groups came in at around 0.8" which is good enough for the girls I go with (but probably not the hotties that fall into a swoon when JEC goes rumbling past on that new Gator...is that you, Jim?)

I really want to try some Varget because some of the guys at the range today were saying the same thing that some of you are about it - unfortunately they didn't have any at P&D yesterday. I think that short pipe might explain the powder preference.

Who knows? The testing continues apace!
 
Guess you busted me glen ... hey, I seem to be the only "working stiff" on site:) 3031 seems a little fast so watch for pressure with the 168's. Out to 300M you probably won't notice much difference with the short barrel. Varget is worth a try...and .8" is getting in the zone.
 
My 300 RSAUM with the 20" barrel likes 168's and IMR 4035 was getting .75 MOA consistently with no real load development.

It prefers 185 scenars with IMR 4035 at the first step of load development I'm getting .5 - .75 MOA.

Should mention it's a factory LTR.
 
As it happens, I glassbedded a .308 M700 20'' tactical(HS Precision stock) just yesterday. It too, was printing around 1 1/2 MOA..
Expect to shoot it on Teus., will post a range report to this thread ASAP.

Just to clarify, as ^gramps up here needs to get his reading glasses adjusted. My Remington was having some issues making some tight groups, but I fault a lot of that on using 748 powder. HOWEVER... The last 5 shot group it put on paper came in at .556 MOA at 100. Shooting 46 gr of Varget, with Amax 155's, cci large rifle primers and FF lapura Nickle cases. And this is before it was bedded.

Besides the custom load this rifle is 20" SPS tac in an HS precision stock, mounted with a bushnell 3200 10x tactical optics.

I personally have little love for savage rifles and have always loved Remington's, Both companies have made great rifles and not so great rifles. Some times it just takes the right load to make a rifle work. I know with this remi there is no way you can make a bullet touch the lands while being in a case, it's just way to far.

To the Op, I would suspect you just need to find what that rifle likes to shoot.
 
Just to clarify, as ^gramps up here needs to get his reading glasses adjusted. My Remington was having some issues making some tight groups, but I fault a lot of that on using 748 powder. HOWEVER... The last 5 shot group it put on paper came in at .556 MOA at 100. Shooting 46 gr of Varget, with Amax 155's, cci large rifle primers and FF lapura Nickle cases. And this is before it was bedded.

Besides the custom load this rifle is 20" SPS tac in an HS precision stock, mounted with a bushnell 3200 10x tactical optics.

I personally have little love for savage rifles and have always loved Remington's, Both companies have made great rifles and not so great rifles. Some times it just takes the right load to make a rifle work. I know with this remi there is no way you can make a bullet touch the lands while being in a case, it's just way to far.

To the Op, I would suspect you just need to find what that rifle likes to shoot.

Nothing wrong with W748. It's one of the more popular powders for .308 Win. & .223 Rem. although your rifle may not have a preference for it. If you were shooting in -25 deg temperatures that's fairly cold! My hat is off to you for that. You were obviously motivated to go have some fun. You might want to consider using a powder like Varget or H4895 if you want to use powders known to be temperature insensitive. It will definitely help in keeping some consistency in your loads when you shoot in warmer seasons.
 
You might want to consider using a powder like Varget

Agreed. Varget seems to be less susceptable to temp changes. I shoot it, works great. Haven't found anything else that shoots better, nor have a need for it. As long as it remains available.

Hey Buzz, why don't you post a picture of the bughole you shot before it was bedded. Then we can compare it to the bughole you'll shoot after it was bedded. Unless of course the bedding f'd it up. ;)
 
Good thing I took pictures of them Gootch! Both groups were at 100 yrds.

This was a 3 shot group ( I still think I pulled the low one) but its 44 grain of 748 powder with a 155 amax.
86F0A07C-EB57-4425-820A-022010218BA3-14407-00000B4C8CE3706B.jpg


And this was Varget powder, 46 grains, 155 amax and a 5 shot group.

FC062AE0-62F9-43EA-8066-4B1779101CAF-14407-00000B4C7B2DC8AF.jpg


I am now a convert to Varget powder. Say what you will about Remington's, but they still shoot well with the right load.
 
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