Scope/receiver issues?

[brother1]

Help me figure this out!
I bought a used (but never shot) Savage Axis .308 for my upcoming sheep hunting trip. I mounted new bases, and a lightweight Leupold scope, thinking that this is the best combo for my needs. Sight it in with my laser boresighter...take a shot.. not on paper at 25 yards. Mess around repeatedly, and then go old school. Take the bolt out, and bore sight it manually. Scope crosshairs are exactly dead center of the target, and my visual boresight verifies this (and the laser verifies this too) Shoot again, and not on paper! walk up to about 15 yds, shoot, and I'm about a foot low and a foot to the right. Max out the adjustments, and I'm only marginally better.
So, obviously it's a rings or bases or scope issue right?
Change the rings to a better set, change the scope to another one I have (field proven Leupold)...shoot again....same result.
Back to the shop, switch the bases around..put it back together....scope is still boresighted perfect. Shoot at 25 yds...about a foot low, and a foot to the right!
Could the holes in the receiver be off?
If the laser is on the bullseye, and the scope is on the bullseye, how can it be hitting so far off? It doesn't make any sense to me! Could the barrel be warped somehow?
Now I leave for hunting on Friday morning and I have to borrow a buddy's gun or take a much heavier one up the mountain.
Any advice would be appreciated here, before I send this thing back to Savage or to a good gunsmith.

 

[kamlooky]

Get some detailed photos up.
You have some weird chit going on there.
Sooo far out it should be obvious?

 

[gunrunner100]

Is the laser the cartridge style or the spud style? A spud style will not take into account a warped barrel.

 

[bearkilr]

I have a base line, cheap Savage in 17 HMR where the rear base holes were drilled canted, I had the same problems you have. I contacted 3 different Savage authorized warranty repair places via email, no one responded. The only fix I found was using Millet Angle-Loc rings and a shim under the rear base. This is a beater 17 HMR truck gun, I wouldn't recommend doing that on a rifle you're about to take sheep hunting.
Are you using two piece Weaver bases? Have a look or post a picture of the bases attached, without rings or a scope. My rear base was noticeably canted.

Also,does it shoot to the same point of impact 1 ft low, 1 ft to the right or is it all over the place?

 

[brother1]

The bases look fine, and it's a cartridge style laser. Like I said though, when I eyeball it down the barrel, the scope is dead on with the bore, and the bullet impact is way off. Always low and to the right. I'm using two piece burris style bases, as the factory ones were spaced too far apart for my scope(s). I've mounted a lot of scopes, and in fact was doing another one for a buddy at the same time, and his worked perfectly, mine has the issues. If it's a barrel, it's a relatively cheap swap from what I hear, but if it's the receiver holes, I'm not sure what I can do... and I'm not sure how much more I want to spend on this (inexpensive) gun.

 

[Boomer]

Before we get too extreme on fixes, lets check out the obvious first. Ensure the base screws are tight. You installed the Burris rings, so I assume those screws are tight, but check them anyway. Don't over tighten ring screws, or scope damage could be the result. About 20 inch-pounds is the correct scope, but if you don't have an in-lb torque wrench, hold the screwdriver between you thumb and first two fingers only so the screwdriver hangs directly below you hand, in this way you shouldn't be able to over tighten the screws. Once the ring screws are tight, check to see that the scope can't move in the rings. Make sure the rifle's action screws are tight.

Using your bore-sighter, check to see that the scope adjustments track. If you move the elevation and the windage and the cross hair is still on the laser point, you have a scope problem.

Check the crown to ensure there is nothing obviously wrong there.

If all the screws are tight, and you've insured that the scope can't move in the rings that you've just tightened, and have ensured the scope tracks, examine your fired brass. The brass will mirror the chamber, and if there is a problem with the chamber, you should be able to see it in the brass. If it takes a lot of effort to chamber a round, blacken a bullet with a permanent marker and chamber it to see if the bullet is jammed into the rifling, this might be the case if the lead is not fully cut. A chamber problem is a warranty issue.

If all that checks out, You could try adding a pressure point to the stock's barrel channel just behind the tip of the forend, but experimentation is the only way to determine how much or even if this gives you the correction you need.

 

[Juster]

a foot low and a foot to the right.

Does it tightly group a foot low and a foot to the right? Or does it go all over the place?

 

[brother1]

Before we get too extreme on fixes, lets check out the obvious first. Ensure the base screws are tight. You installed the Burris rings, so I assume those screws are tight, but check them anyway. Don't over tighten ring screws, or scope damage could be the result. About 20 inch-pounds is the correct scope, but if you don't have an in-lb torque wrench, hold the screwdriver between you thumb and first two fingers only so the screwdriver hangs directly below you hand, in this way you shouldn't be able to over tighten the screws. Once the ring screws are tight, check to see that the scope can't move in the rings. Make sure the rifle's action screws are tight.

Using your bore-sighter, check to see that the scope adjustments track. If you move the elevation and the windage and the cross hair is still on the laser point, you have a scope problem.

Check the crown to ensure there is nothing obviously wrong there.

If all the screws are tight, and you've insured that the scope can't move in the rings that you've just tightened, and have ensured the scope tracks, examine your fired brass. The brass will mirror the chamber, and if there is a problem with the chamber, you should be able to see it in the brass. If it takes a lot of effort to chamber a round, blacken a bullet with a permanent marker and chamber it to see if the bullet is jammed into the rifling, this might be the case if the lead is not fully cut. A chamber problem is a warranty issue.

If all that checks out, You could try adding a pressure point to the stock's barrel channel just behind the tip of the forend, but experimentation is the only way to determine how much or even if this gives you the correction you need.

I've checked out all the screws and they are tight (but I don't have a torque screwdriver), the crown looks fine, no marks. I will check the brass, that's one thing that I haven't done. My laser boreighter does hang up when I'm pulling it out, but the shells go in easy, and eject fine. I was just freehanding it at 15 yards to see where it was hitting on paper, so I'm not sure how tight it groups. But when I switched scopes and everything else, it was always hitting in the same area. The scope adjusts fine, but I'm just maxed out on my adjustments, when I try and get the crosshairs lined up with the point of impact.

 

[Boomer]

If everything else checks out, then try putting a shim under the front base to cure a rifle that prints too low. When one of my rifles was shooting high, a tip I got from Whynot was to use a piece of plastic cut from a hotel key, that's about the thickness you need to adjust a foot at 100, but you can try that and use additional shims as required. As for the windage problem, selecting a scope mount that has windage adjustment built into the design might be your best bet. A Redfield JR mount comes to mind.

Just for giggles, try shooting a group with the rifle canted away from the windage error and see if that makes any difference. It would drive me crazy, but it should be possible to correct a windage error by canting the scope.