capp325 said:
Well, it's up to you, I'm just trying to help. When troubleshooting any problem, the first step is always to eliminate the most likely cause of malfunction. Personally, I would should a box of factory ammo regardless of what some customer service rep who may or may not know what he's talking about says. But that's just me. Unless the gun is visibly defective – i.e. awful barrel to slide fit or damaged barrel crown – I can’t imagine how it could shoot 8 inch groups at 20 yards (you're shooting from a rest, right?)
The most likely cause of a malfunction that amounts to 20" groups at 50 yards instead of what should be 4" or less groups is neither the ammunition or the shooter - it's the gun. There's a big difference between "something's not quite right" and "this is ridiculous".
No, I didn't shoot from a rest, I shot point shoulder - just like I do in PPC. But seeing as I can - and did - pick up my Distinguished revolver and put six rounds into a tight little group from the same distance into the same target before and after shooting the BHP, we're not talking shooter error here. At least not on a magnitude of 7", switching from shooting double action revolver to a single action pistol.
I didn't talk to the customer service reps at Browning, BTW, I talked to a techie/shop dude. You just need to be persistent enough and you'll get there; same guys that their service center gunsmiths talk warranty issues over with.
This isn't an ammunition issue by any stretch of the imagination and never has been. Remember, there's actually three evident problems here: bullets are keyholing in the target (and they are quality bullets), the group size is closer to being described as a shotgun pattern, and the barrel bore is four thou bigger than it should be. This is many orders of magnitude beyond being a "fussy about ammunition" problem. Extend that 20 (it was actually closer to 17 or 18) yard group size to 50 yards, and you're talking about 20" groups instead of the 4" maximum size expected for these handguns. There is an enormous problem here, somewhere. The barrel may have an undersize O.D. for the slide, to go with the over size bore; the crown looks fine.
The fact that the bore is four thou oversize is reason enough alone to return the pistol. The fact that both quality jacketed and quality commercial cast bullets are keyholing in the target at 20 yards is reason enough alone to return the pistol. And the pathetic accuracy is certainly reason enough to return the pistol. Taken together, that's a pretty strong case for returning it for rebarreling or whatever so that ALL of those issues are dealt with.
Either way, I'll let Browning sort it out from here. I would prefer not to, but no amount of reloading tricks, bore lapping, etc is going to sort out these kinds of problems.
