Thread: Rifle troubles

Hi all,

A few months ago I decided I would finally try glass bed my Tikka using the Match grade bedding kit I bought a while back. I had bought a second hand stock to do the bedding job on, as I didn't want to screw it up and be out of my good stock.

I did the job with a mate who had done heaps before, and it appeared to go well.
I went out and tested it and it shot terrible, it usually shot Hornady ammo into half an inch or less, but was now shooting 2inch groups, all over the place.

I had never had a problem before, from day 1 the rifle shot great, never had a problem with the scope right up till I took it off for the bedding job.

I assumed that I had cocked up the bedding so decided Id try it back in its old stock.
So this afternoon tried I put the original stock back on and tested it.
Shot like crap again, I shot 3 groups and they were all about 2" at 100yards.
There was a bit of a wind blowing but not enough to screw the groups that bad, one group had 2 shots reasonably good, then another two way off to the right. Another group was dispersed horizontally badly and the 3rd was just crap. I used the same ammo I always had great success with and one of the groups had two lots of two shots. 25" apart, but the 2 groups themselves were 2" apart.

Any idea of what I can check?
I have put new rings on it, but the are the same as the ones I took off it.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

first off...check scope bases, I ve been caught out twice in 2 years by them working loose, next screw tension all over, check them all, then do it again.if no joy,
chuck another scope on, try that

Clean the rifle
Make sure any suppressor or brake screwed on tight
Check scope bases & rings
Check the action screws
Check that there is no oil or other liquid under the action
If free floated, check that the barrel is not touching the stock

I'm assuming you're using the same ammo and shooting position/ rest as previously ?

Are the groups getting worse the warmer the rifle is ? Last couple of shots in a group ?

The groups didn't matter at what time I shot them, the barrel didn't get particularly warm anyway. Used the exact se ammo, bipod and rear reat that I have always used.

Ill clean it, re set the rings to their required torque and check that the action is set in place properly.
I hope it is something simple Ive done wrong, as I have no idea what else it could be, it didn't look like I had screwed anything up with my bedding job.

Main thing with t3 is also to make sure you have clearance from the top of the recoil lug to action or it sill be like a seesaw and shoot barn door also, did you put tape on it to bed then remover for clearance after?

Random thought, if you don't have another scope, try it with iron sights.
If it groups better ( more consistant) it's the scope or mounts.
Doubt it's anything major, let us know how you get on

Had the same thing the other day.
I cleaned out under the action and barrel channel the other day and went out and checked some different primers and had two close and one two inches away.
So went back to the fed primers i was using and went out to muck around with the seating depth and same thing and even my accurate load was playing up.
Puzzled i went back home and started checking nuts and bolts and then thought that barrel channel had a lot of clearance.
Yep fucked up putting it back together and the lug wasnt seated properly from the cleaning session.
The young fella went out and shot a deer at 583y a day later!
Lesson learned check and double check

Originally Posted by tui_man2

Main thing with t3 is also to make sure you have clearance from the top of the recoil lug to action or it sill be like a seesaw and shoot barn door also, did you put tape on it to bed then remover for clearance after?

Yep- T3, recoil lug is first place I went, might be on the floor under the bench too......

I've put it back in the old stock which has had the recoil lug untouched so I'd expect it to be fine.
I'll pull it all apart tomorrow and borrow a torque wrench from work and make sure everything is clean and tidy and as it should be.
I'll clean it too, other than shine a torch down the barrel is there any other easy way to check barrel condition?

I do have another scope, but I wont try it yet as there is no reason why it should be the problem.

Hopefully weather is not to crap next weekend and I'll try it again.

As others have said it's probably not sitting on the recoil lug correctly. I hadn't cleaned my wan barrel for 100rounds or so and the accuracy went south pretty bad. Gave it a good clean basically back to metal and it came right

Check that bedding didn't get into the slot on the bottom of the action the is now causing it to sit cockeyed on the recoil lug. Thatswhat it seems like to me. Even a little flake of it wl cause you to twist the action a little if you really torque it down. It cold be torque sensitive too. In the original stock maybe the torque setting was such that the action was not stressed but now your cranking it harder and bending smething.

Let us know

Half inch or less and I would have left it

Have you oiled it? Check that there isn't any oil in the bedding area when you put it back together.

Originally Posted by MSL

Half inch or less and I would have left it

In hindsight definitely should've left it, but thought couldnt really go wrong glass bedding it........

Bedded my plastic stock T3 a few months ago too with match grade compound and stock stabilizer. Why stock stabilizer? because when prone, resting end of stock on bag I noticed that the groups went to crap when I moved ever so slightly to the next adjacent target suggesting that the stock flex putting unwanted pressure somewhere. I also suspected that having once not seated the recoil lug in correctly before tightening the stock screw may have resulted in crushing the stock a fraction, what gave me clues is that after it was re-seated right the mag took just a little bit more force to click in place than usual pop in click. This is when I decided to add pillars, replace recoil lug (old one peening) and bed stock all at once.
It had never shot factory ammo well and did a lot better with hand loads before bedding. Well after my bedding job the factory loads have really tightened up to surpass the hand loads (pre bedding) and that's with cheap prvi Partizan ammo. Need to redo my hand load development now.
The actual bedding job about what can go wrong is another story. Got there in the end.
btw my T3 takes two fouling shots from a clean bore before shooting right. I now only clean after every 60 shots. Those first two shots are just to random to be able to take the T3 hunting on a clean bore.