LongBomber
CGN Regular
- Location
- Fernie, bc
I feel kinda stupid, but at least my rifle is finally shooting well. When I bought the rifle I also got some gunslick foaming cleaner, more on that later.. I did my usual barrel break-in, and set to shooting. My groups were pretty poor for a Savage LRPV, normally around 1 1/2 MOA. I with the groups running half to 3/4 moa vertically and 1.5 moa wide. I bedded the rifle, out to 1 inch in front of the barrel nut. No help, groups tighter vertically but still wide horizontally. I tried about 5 different bullets, with a few different powders in each. I would say I put about 150 rounds on paper with all the different loads and about a hundred more at some rocks and water bottles. I cleaned the rifle 5 times in that time frame.
In the mean time I used the foaming cleaner in 2 other rifles, my 300rum and a 325 wsm, both of which are semi-custom jobs, and consistent half MOA shooters. I took them out two weeks ago and the groups were horrible, running around 2 moa. The only thing changed was the cleaner. After a frustrating trip to the range I came home and cleaned using a different cleaners, I kept getting a dark grey residue on my patches. I switched to JB and gave the barrels a good scrubbing. Then followed with #9, which I left in over night. A few patches later no more grey residue.
So I went back out to the range. My 22-250 went from this (100 yards pre-bedding, berger 75gr VLD):
To this (5 shots, 75gr VLD):
And this at 200 yards (8 shots federal 40gr, top group):
The bottom 4 shots are from a friend 300win mag we were sighting in. A bedded remington sps with a trigger that feels like 10 pounds. I thought it was not bad for a light hunting rifle. A little trigger work would help a bunch. I tried the rifle and thought the safety was stuck on, that's how hard the trigger pull is!!
Both my 325 and my 300rum are back to normal after the same cleaning routine. I should not have taken the cleaning method for granted!! Well at least I can actually hit a few gophers with it now.
In the mean time I used the foaming cleaner in 2 other rifles, my 300rum and a 325 wsm, both of which are semi-custom jobs, and consistent half MOA shooters. I took them out two weeks ago and the groups were horrible, running around 2 moa. The only thing changed was the cleaner. After a frustrating trip to the range I came home and cleaned using a different cleaners, I kept getting a dark grey residue on my patches. I switched to JB and gave the barrels a good scrubbing. Then followed with #9, which I left in over night. A few patches later no more grey residue.
So I went back out to the range. My 22-250 went from this (100 yards pre-bedding, berger 75gr VLD):
To this (5 shots, 75gr VLD):
And this at 200 yards (8 shots federal 40gr, top group):
The bottom 4 shots are from a friend 300win mag we were sighting in. A bedded remington sps with a trigger that feels like 10 pounds. I thought it was not bad for a light hunting rifle. A little trigger work would help a bunch. I tried the rifle and thought the safety was stuck on, that's how hard the trigger pull is!!
Both my 325 and my 300rum are back to normal after the same cleaning routine. I should not have taken the cleaning method for granted!! Well at least I can actually hit a few gophers with it now.
