Why last resort?
Putting an old but known scope on the rifle, bore sighting it and firing a group is simple. The new scope is a Vortex Viper of course [pause for reverent awe] but new and untested.
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A)he may not have another scope to swap, b) it means the donor would need resighting as banging them back on rarely seems to be perfect.
Vortex like all scopes, loopy included do occasionally make a dud but check the other things first. From the photo of the stock one pressure lug looks a little frayed may just be the light though.
To test the scope without removal a box test both by dialling and shooting a few should suffice.
@CamFlatt... Regarding the JB Weld comment, maybe you're confusing the bedding terminology, maybe not, hard to tell. Apologies if you're just talking about using JB Weld to glue pillars in place, but you often hear of guys wanting to use JB Weld for an epoxy bedding job, which is a totally different type of "bedding".
Pillar bedding is the inserting of two metal sleeves in the action screw holes, to give the bottom metal and action solid, incompressible "pillars" on which to apply a set torque to the action screws.
Epoxy bedding is what Nathan Foster writes up on his website.
You can google the differences between the two bedding methods. Very important to understand what they are and what they do. For max effect, you do both, but for your application just pillar bedding should suffice.
Pillar bedding your stock is easy. @Mooseman has just done it to the exact same stock, with good outcomes. I do not glue the pillars in place, I drill out the holes to within 0.25mm of the OD of the pillar and tap/press them in.
As others have mentioned, something else is also likely to be contributing to poor accuracy. Don't worry! Use a systematic approach of elimination, and you'll work it out.
Thanks for all your advice, it's bloody good to be a part of this group and have access to your collective knowledge! Called my local gunsmith (Laurie Bradley) and chatting to him I'm going to bow out and leave to the expert. He's going to properly bed the rifle in for me, and give the rifle a once over while it's there to make sure it's all looking good. Once that's done I will take the rifle and a mate that can shoot, and just confirm if it's me or the rifle
Laurie will be able to sort it if anyone can.....no reason he cant test fire it for you while he is at it.
@CamFlatt I have had the same issues but not quite as big a spread with the shots probably about 4-5 cm spread. I spoke to @Flyblown and he suggested pillar bedding and free floating the barrel. My rifle a SPS 243 ended up shooting a lot better at around 14-15 mm at 100 yards. If you do this you must be careful drilling out the main screw holes so that the pillars will fit and make sure they are square and not crooked. Cut the pillars so that they are flush with the holes then the action will sit on them and when tightened up they will prevent the stock crushing and give the action a solid base to sit on.
Make sure you remove the plastic bedding blocks under the barrel and make sure the barrel doesn't touch right back to the recoil lug. Run a piece of paper between the stock and barrel and make sure it doesn't touch anywhere along the barrel to the recoil lug.
If all the other suggestions don't improve the accuracy this might just be the answer. I ended up using light steel tube as I couldn't source any alloy tube, the steel works but a bit harder to work than alloy would be and it would be a little heavier but not noticeable. From memory the front pillar was about 19 mm long the rear one was 33 mm.
IF you decide to go the pillar bed route...give me a jingle Ive got HEAPS of arrow shaft here you can pinch a bit no worries.
It'll be interesting to see what difference the gun Smith makes to the accuracy once he's done.
One other thing to check, if scope has a locking ring for adjusting reticle focus, make sure it is tight. I had an issue on my Leupold because the locking ring wasn't tight so front ocular bell was shifting every time under recoil. Good luck
Interesting, never come across that issue!
When I got my first centrefire (Ruger 308) I was having all sorts of problems sighting it in, no consistency and generally about 4" groups. After a box or two of wasted ammo I eventually figured out the issue... the scope mounted by a gun shop was about 20mm too far forward and I was constantly straining my neck forward to look through it, putting a bunch of weird unbalanced tension into my body and pulling shots all over the place. Slid it back to a comfortable position and the groups instantly dropped to about 1.5" with cheap factory ammo.
Funny how obvious that stuff seems with a bit of experience, but as a newbie I had no idea!
Start simple, try different ammo and bullet weight
So I got the local gun Smith to bed and free float the rifle for me. Picked it up this morning, and took it to the range this evening. Conditions weren't the best, but manageable. I was running out of light, so was a but rushed between shots, and there was a bit of a gusty cross breeze. Given more time I think I can get better results, and I would like to try with some different factory ammo too. This was with federal 150gn. I shot two groups of three. The middle two shots were general sighting in before I tried to group. The worst was just shy of 5cm, best just shy of 4cm, and I'm pretty sure I pulled the last wide shot. I'm pretty happy with that, considering I'm not a hugely experienced shooter. It's definitely a dam sight better than the random 20cm group I had before!! I know I could get tighter groups given more time and practice, and possibly different factory ammo, but I'm happy with these groups for hunting. At least I can confidently take a shot out to 300m
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I reckon all that horizontal spread is your setup...the vertical spread reflects the guns accuracy...which is pretty damn sharp...
Having read this @CamFlatt don’t store your rifle with the suppressor left on:O_O: really fast way to stuff your barrel.
May I suggest that you sight in at 25 meters.
Get five shots as tight as. Ie enough to cover the lion on a red can. Help take the wind factor out.
Then move out to the 100 meter mark.
Also read this article https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Kno...at+Forend.html it will help with your shooting technique.
I’m not saying it the be end of how to shoot but it might just take that out of the equation. You have taken it to a smith, which is a good place to start. But as suggested above get someone else to come and shoot it. They will also give there 10cents worth but you will at lest take any shooting errors that you maybe committing again out of the equation. Maybe your Smith shot it? If so then do you have that target?
Just a few more ideas for you:)
Good luck keep us posted :thumbsup:
That's a lot better than the previous groups, your on the right track.
the most common problem I see with new shooters is they close their eyes just as they shoot its the first thing I watch for when taking a new shooter out and nearly every one has done it and they don't even relies they are doing it so if you take some one with you get them to watch you shoot and see if you are doing it
Thanks @Sideshow for the link, plenty to think about in there. I definitely was not supporting the fore end with those groupings and was just letting it sit on the towel. I'll try find some time later in the week to retest, and see if I can improve the groupings. I'll also try tee up a good shooter to come along with me :)
And yes I only put the supressor on the rifle when I get to the range, and take it off afterwards :)
What kind of bedding @CamFlatt, epoxy or pillar, or both? Pleased to see the improvement.
the old pleasant point range table is still alive after all these years I see LOL. definately hold that forend........sitting on a towel will do you no favours,maybe get away with it if you using a bi-pod and good repeatable technique... without a good hold of forend it can bounce around,if you were doing this with floppy cock bedding beforehand,20cm group is definately believable....I helped another young chap to tighten his groups up by a HUGE amount just by getting him to do that simple thing.....once upon a time EVERYBODY held a rifle in two hands...now-----not so much.
https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Kno...Forend%21.html
take the time to read this link......it should help explain things and help you out no end.
Haha yeah that's the one!
I don't know why, or where it came from, but I thought for zeroing I had to let the foreend rest, making sure I didn't impart any pressure on it so it was the same each shot. I wouldn't have shot at an animal without a front hold, so I'm not sure exactly why I thought it was ok for the bench haha. Lesson learned though.
Next step is to buy more ammo and head back to the bench. I was going to try some Hornady, but knowing I had poor technique I think I might stick to the Federal's and try to improve with them. Then if I'm still not grouping well I might try a change in ammo.
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read that article....HOLLYWOOD is partialy to blame....the rest is explained. its all good when you do it the same EVERYTIME ....read it LOL.
Yep I read it the other day when @Sideshow linked it, good bit of info in there for sure :)
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:thumbsup:
check those bases , sounds like a problem i had once.
wasted heaps of ammo