grouping issues with new savage

I

iluvmy300

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A buddy of mine picked up a new Savage 111gl in 25-06 just before deer hunting season. Nice little gun. He did not pick up a scope with it at the time and seeing as how he was going to be doing some close quarter shooting for his first hunt he figured no big deal, he'd just use the iron sights. He says he did group a few shots before going out hunting. But his definition of group is different than yours and mine. He says we was on paper and close to the center at 100yds. Ok, so deer season has come and gone and he did not get a shot off this year. His wife bought him a nice bushnell banner 3-9x40 scope for Christmas. Last week he took the gun into a reputable gunsmith in Winnipeg to have the scope mounted and boresighted.

This past weekend he came out to my place to sight everything in. Sunday morning I setup the benchrest and targets. His first group of 3 at 25yds produced a wild grouping of 4". We tried another group with a bit better results. We dialed in the scope a little and shot a couple more with more wild results. What the hell? I tried a group and again wild. For the hell of a it we tried the target at 100yds. Completely missed a 30x30 target. After no less than 36 rounds we called it a day. He had to get back to the city so I had no time to inspect his setup a little closer.

This is a brand new rifle with only 40 rounds through it. At the time we began shooting he had only shot 4 rounds with this gun since he got it. I assumed all mounts and rings were tight as he just had it mounted - but like I said I did not get a chance to really look this thing over. I told him to pick himself up a cleaning kit and some different ammunition. He was shooting Remington corelokt 120gr.

So basically my "to do" list on this rifle thus far is to a) check all mounts, screws, etc... b) give the barrel a good cleaning, and c) try some different ammo.

What other suggestions would you guys have?
 
your to do list would be the same as mine. Same thing happened to a buddy of mine with his new scope. To make a long story short, scope was moving with recoil.
 
Try shooting a group at 25 yards with open sights. Try to put the scope on a different rifle, and see if it groups as it should. You can make the obvious deductions once you try these tests.
 
You might also want to check that the action screws are tight and that there is no obvious damage to the crown of the barrel. Also check for stock interference with the barrel.

Do not assume that the scope was correctly mounted -- with that kind of problem--everything is suspect.

44Bore
 
iluvmy300 said:
do you really wanna start this...:p

nothing wrong with Savage ;)
Click to expand...


Nothing wrong with savage, but the banner is a different story. My experience is that they are hit and miss, (no pun intended), on keeping zero.

I know of a couple that have been in service for years with no problems. I also have personally used one that would lose zero after 3-4 shots. No matter how much you dialed it, there were no shots close enough to call them a group. Needless to say, it's now on my 22lr, and the .308 has an elite 3200. Sometimes you do get what you pay for....
 
A friend of mine suffered the same thing with a brand new 3-9x40 Pro-Hunter scope I bought him for Christmas a couple years ago. It seems him and another buddy were having a "few" wobbly pops and decided to mount the scope on his older Tikka 7Mag. The next day at the range they couldn't get that rifle to hit nothin' and figured the new scope was to blame. They were ready to pack it in as they only had a few rounds left when they noticed marks on the scope tube by the rings. Seems the day before they'd snugged the scope just enough to set up the eye relief, but forgot to finish tightening the screws (remember the "pops"?) A quick job with the screwdriver and that Tikka was back to it's former sub-MOA groupings (unfortunately marking the sh!t out of a brand new scope) I think the boyz both learned a valuble lesson after that mis-adventure...KF
 
Had the same problem once with my .308. All over the board.

After I checked the iron sights at 25 yds, put the scope back on, added some blue locktight and tightened the rings, I haven't had a hitch since.
 
I would almost bet on the scope then. My hunting partner bought a tasco 4-12 or 16 x 42 should be a fairly decent scope and put it on a 22-250 savage heavy barrel stainless with the choate stock. Must weigh 11 pounds or so and same thing happened. The last thing we thought it could be is the scope. This gun hardly lifts off target when you pull the trigger. But it was and now he an absolute tack driver on his hands with the scope change.
 
I have a bushnell banner that came on a rifle I bought, the rifle is a Remington Bdl in 7mm rem mag and it shoots awesome. Under MOA with factory ammo.

that said there is a chance that the scope is defunkt, check all the screws and I put masking tape on the rings to provide a non-slip surface as well as additional clamping, its may not be required but I do it with positive results. If that doesn't work then put a scope on the rifle that you KNOW shoots well and vice versa, put the banner on a rifle that you know shoots well.

Remington core-lokt has always shot well in my 25-06's when I had them but they weren't Savages either. I have a hard time believeing that its ammo related, somthing is broke or loose
Those savages have an adjustable head space on them, perhaps it was adjusted wrong?????

Either way 4" groups at 25 yards is horrible, I wouldn't even chop wood with something that groups like that

Brambles
 
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