Can't get a decent grouping on a 30-06 tikka

O

oldspice

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
7   0   0
I can't figure it out. It grouped great with 180gr winchester silver tips last year.

Then when I went to take it out this spring i couldn't get it to group at 100 yards to save my life. So I bought some different brand (federal blue box 180 gr) of ammo and tried.. Nothing.. Took off the scope and discovered the bases were loose. I lock tighted all the base screws down and tightened it all up. I admit I didn't have lock tight on them before.

back to the range with federal blue box 180 gr. And again terrible grouping. We're talking about 3-4 inches groups at 100 yards and can't hit a target 16x16 at 300 yards. 2 boxes and couldn't get a decent grouping.

Pissed off, I cleaned the barrel really well. And picked up some 180 gr power points.

Back to the range.. even worse. 2 boxes and terrible grouping.. 4-5 inches at 100 yards.


So I cleaned the gun out really well last weel. It was horribly streaked with copper from those power points. Checked all the based and its tight. Rings are Tally's and super tight.

Bought some federal fusions rounds recomended by the knowledgable local gun counter guy. And on his suggestion I bought some 165grs instead of my usual 180's.

best grouping tonight was 2-3 inches. I'm still not happy.

I've been shooting from a bench the whole time. Tonight I even used a weighted gun vise to steady the gun.


What to check next??? What to try?


I can't go back to the winchester silver tips. They literally blew up on anything I shot. I shot a pumpkin with them at 300 yards and found peices of lead through out the pumpkin. They don't hold up at all.
 
I had a similar issue with a T3 in 338 WM.
It wouldn't group well with any bullet weight so we removed the stock and replaced the aluminum recoil lug with one made of steel and very slightly larger, then bedded it well..... seemed to solve the problem, at least that was my remedy.
This is not to say that would work for you, it did for me .
 
I am new to shooting (2-3 yrs) , but I have shot a lot. I admit I don't know where the action screws are...


The scope is a leupold VX3 4.5-14
 
I actually posted this before but i'll share my stories with ya.
I collect and shoot many rifles and since t3 lites came out, i was a big fan. my first 2 T3 was shooting average .5" @ 100 yards after 15 rounds of reloads.
so i have bought the 3rd in tikka 300WSM. I reloaded 150+ rounds with different grains and powders and could not group the rifle at 100 yards. Changed the scope and everything else, still no group with many reloads. I got so fed up, took the stock right out and started to see where the barrel and stock touched.
Before i tell you what i did, T3's do not freefloat and the syn stock will have 2 lifters in stock to hold the barrel and 95% the the gun shoots every well i believe.
if you have done re bedding, Which syn stocks are already so tight with the action and there is almost no way you can rebed the damn thing..
1st, Unscrew the two nuts that hold stock to the action and see if there is any up, down movement since T3 lites will almost never wiggle sideways with its super tight fit...
if it seems to be loose someway, get thin cloth and pay it the on stock, put the action back in (bum way to rebed the stock) and see it that is tight enough.
2nd, chalk the barrel and put the stock back and pull out again see if stock is evenly touching the barrel or one side is rubbing more.. if that happens, get a good ol grinder and grind away the stock to even it out ( (which i had to do)
After doing that, grab few more boxes of ammo in different FPS and Grains and try it again.
I got mine from 6" grp at 100 yards to 0,2-05" at 100yards after grinding the barrel right out to free float.

also some guns do not like to shoot with clean or dirty so find what your gun likes. for eg, my gun does not like to shoot clean barrel, if i clean the barrel every 4th round, the 1st give away shot is always 3-4" higher then others so when i go hunting, i shoot 2-3 rounds and keep it that way.

Warning: if you temper with the action or stock your self, zero warrenty so if you know what your doing then i'd say go ahead.
I will gladly help you and show you what i did with mine if you really need help. just pm me anytime!
 
Even though you don't want to use the silvertips for hunting, I would try them again just to see how they group. Then you can determine if it is the gun/scope or the ammo that is the problem.
 
kimmer82 said:
I actually posted this before but i'll share my stories with ya.
I collect and shoot many rifles and since t3 lites came out, i was a big fan. my first 2 T3 was shooting average .5" @ 100 yards after 15 rounds of reloads.
so i have bought the 3rd in tikka 300WSM. I reloaded 150+ rounds with different grains and powders and could not group the rifle at 100 yards. Changed the scope and everything else, still no group with many reloads. I got so fed up, took the stock right out and started to see where the barrel and stock touched.
Before i tell you what i did, T3's do not freefloat and the syn stock will have 2 lifters in stock to hold the barrel and 95% the the gun shoots every well i believe.
if you have done re bedding, Which syn stocks are already so tight with the action and there is almost no way you can rebed the damn thing..
1st, Unscrew the two nuts that hold stock to the action and see if there is any up, down movement since T3 lites will almost never wiggle sideways with its super tight fit...
if it seems to be loose someway, get thin cloth and pay it the on stock, put the action back in (bum way to rebed the stock) and see it that is tight enough.
2nd, chalk the barrel and put the stock back and pull out again see if stock is evenly touching the barrel or one side is rubbing more.. if that happens, get a good ol grinder and grind away the stock to even it out ( (which i had to do)
After doing that, grab few more boxes of ammo in different FPS and Grains and try it again.
I got mine from 6" grp at 100 yards to 0,2-05" at 100yards after grinding the barrel right out to free float.

also some guns do not like to shoot with clean or dirty so find what your gun likes. for eg, my gun does not like to shoot clean barrel, if i clean the barrel every 4th round, the 1st give away shot is always 3-4" higher then others so when i go hunting, i shoot 2-3 rounds and keep it that way.

Warning: if you temper with the action or stock your self, zero warrenty so if you know what your doing then i'd say go ahead.
I will gladly help you and show you what i did with mine if you really need help. just pm me anytime!
Click to expand...

I will take the stock off tonight and have a look at how tight it is.

Where are the action screws and how tight should they be?

I could try the whincheter silver tips again BUT you'd think with trying 4 other brands of ammo I would get something to group under 3 inches????!? I really think something is wrong.

I am pretty sure its not the scope, the rings or the bases.. I could see it being the fit of the stock or the action screws.. In the spring I took the stock off the gun to clean out anything that was in between the gun and the stock. Maybe I didn't put it together correctly or didn't put the screws back in right. Could someone give me a bit of guidance on how to do this?

Thanks again.. I am still new to guns..
 
make sure the lug in the stock meshes with the recess in the action. sometimes they don't fully seat if your not careful. double check your scope mounting or switch it out for a scope you know shoots well.
 
As others have said tighten stock/action screws. Something else you can check is to wrap a dollar bill around the barrel and try to slide it down the barrel in-between the barrel and stock, your should be able to slide it all the way down to around action screw/recoil lug area. If you can't slide it down you can sand down the barrel channel on the stock to take any pressure off the barrel, wood stocks are notorius for warping over time. Also when your guns sitting on a rest at the range try the dollar bill test. If you have another scope you can swap-out, as a last resort, try it as possibly your scope is failing. Do try 150g, 165, 180g as every gun will have a preferance when it come to ammo.
 
I had a similar issue years ago on a high powered rifle. Ended up being a faulty scope. I changed out the scope and all was back to normal.
 
thanks everyone.

I'm pretty sure its either copper fouled, action screws tightened wrong or its not seated in the stock the right way.

I bought the toque screw driver some hopppes copper solvent and I will go to work at it tongiht.

Thanks!
 
I had heard of simular problems with some T-3 lites, but also heard about tikka"s awesome accuracy accuracy. I bought the T-3 hunter with the wood stock and had very good results with groupings, talked with others with the wood stocks and same story very good groups.
Might have to bed the stock
 
I realize some of you have skipped over some of the thread. Please note the gun shot awsome up until this spring. So its not a issue of the barrel touching the stock and need to grind the stock or an issue of needing to bed the gun. I admit I am new to accuracy problems, but I am pretty sure if it shot great before, its none of these issues.
 
hoppes copper solvent will not clear out the barrel. I have tested and tried most g96, shoot out, foam, hoppes stuf to take the cpper out but nothing can beat SWEET'S 7.62 Solvent.
it stinks so make sure to use it somewhere away from your room but it will take the copper right out.
and it should not be your scope since leupold can handle any mag loads and 30-06 do not have a recoil to shake the hairs of that scope. if the rifle was working fine before you took the stock and action apart, there will be the problem. like canada man said, 5 dollar bill test to barrel and stock or go detail with chalk and grind whatever is pushing against the barrel.

Hope you fix the problem!


also it shot great before he "took it apart and put together" the aluminum block in stock mught have moved, might have not snuggled the action tight to stock (you need to push the action down very hard to secure since Tikka syn stocks will have a very tight fit) and again, Tikka are not a free floating barrel with $ points in stock that is balancing the barrel. If he might have put it together and possible one side of barrel has 1lb of more pressure then the other side, there is the problem.
 
Last edited:
kimmer82 said:
hoppes copper solvent will not clear out the barrel. I have tested and tried most g96, shoot out, foam, hoppes stuf to take the cpper out but nothing can beat SWEET'S 7.62 Solvent.
it stinks so make sure to use it somewhere away from your room but it will take the copper right out.
and it should not be your scope since leupold can handle any mag loads and 30-06 do not have a recoil to shake the hairs of that scope. if the rifle was working fine before you took the stock and action apart, there will be the problem. like canada man said, 5 dollar bill test to barrel and stock or go detail with chalk and grind whatever is pushing against the barrel.

Hope you fix the problem!


also it shot great before he "took it apart and put together" the aluminum block in stock mught have moved, might have not snuggled the action tight to stock (you need to push the action down very hard to secure since Tikka syn stocks will have a very tight fit) and again, Tikka are not a free floating barrel with $ points in stock that is balancing the barrel. If he might have put it together and possible one side of barrel has 1lb of more pressure then the other side, there is the problem.
Click to expand...

I took the stock off and re torqued the action screws to 30lbs. Does this sound correct?



I spent about 2 hours passing wet patch of hoppes copper solvent, then a couple dry patches. Used the brush a couple times on a wet barrel. I was still getting lots of copper coming out so I put a wet patch through and left the gun muzzle down to soak for the night. The bottles instructions said to do this. So I'll see what it looks like tomorrow.

I couldn't believe the amount of copper coming out. This is the 3rd time I have cleaned the gun in 2 weeks.

Hoppes copper solvent was the best stuff I could find in town. It will have to do. Can't always get what you want in small towns.
 
Just saw your post edit with the additional info..

The aluminum block you mention. I pushed down hard on it and it didn't move. This is good right? When I put the action back on the stock I pushed it down pretty good. But I am thinking I should take it off again tomorrw and see if I can push it in more.
 
oldspice said:
I took the stock off and re torqued the action screws to 30lbs. Does this sound correct?



I spent about 2 hours passing wet patch of hoppes copper solvent, then a couple dry patches. Used the brush a couple times on a wet barrel. I was still getting lots of copper coming out so I put a wet patch through and left the gun muzzle down to soak for the night. The bottles instructions said to do this. So I'll see what it looks like tomorrow.

I couldn't believe the amount of copper coming out. This is the 3rd time I have cleaned the gun in 2 weeks.

Hoppes copper solvent was the best stuff I could find in town. It will have to do. Can't always get what you want in small towns.
Click to expand...


Yes 30lb torque is plenty for it and yea good idea on soaking it right out.
When you get the accruacy back to where you want to be, make sure to find out if your barrel likes to be little dirty or always clean after few rounds.
I usually do 5 round groups with cleaning the barrel right out after, then another 5. if the first shot always incline or do not group with other 4 shots, then you have a gun that likes to shoot tad bit dirty.
some of the rifle that i have likes to be sparkly clean when i shoot bit my T3 that has givin me truble likes it dirty. I will actually clean it very well and put 2-3 rounds through the barrel before hunting trip. This will prevent the first off shot and give you better accuracy with 6x6 buck @ 300+ yards.


But make sure to test the barrel to stock. $5 bill will tell you lots of information! good luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom