Bear hunter custom

[bowhunter42]

Hey rezmedic, I thank you so much for the offer of another set of eye balls but Im up here in eastern washington, I used the factory torque settings, but this afternoon I re-torqued them to 45" pounds and shot the load my weather warrior loves and it looked like a shot gun pattern instead of a group, so I took the scope and rings off, wrote a very detailed letter explaining what I have done and tried with it and the problems I encountered and shipped it back to savage, I talked with customer service this morning and he seemed to agree if after 100+ rounds and it still dont want to shoot it needs to be looked at back at the factory. I know the scope wasn't at fault cause after I pulled it off the savage I put it on a weatherby and it grouped great. well I really do thank you all for all the help. ;D Jay

[bowhunter42]

one thing I cant figure out, is it would get real bad carbon fouled after a few shots but hardly any if at all copper fouling, and it seem the more it was shot the worse it would get even if it was cleaned after every group shot out of it. that is unusual for a new gun usually its the other way around

[mattri]

Have been reading this with interest from the start. It sounds like you did everything you could to make it shoot, and when all else failed sent it back to Savage. From a very detached position it sounds like you made all the right calls. Please keep us informed as to how this turns out.

[bowhunter42]

Thank you mattri, I will keep you all informed, I just hope we get it back some what quickly, Its my best friend,and hunting partners rifle,and we are heading in to the back country in mid September for our yearly high country mule deer hunt. I have never had to send anything back to Savage ever, so I don't know what their turn around time is like.I do have a spare savage in 300 wsm he can use that has been very good to me in years past and is a proven shooter. He has a ruger in 30-06 But the area we are planning on hunting this year is in the avalanche chutes and extremely steep and rugged terrain, and having a rifle that is capable of consistant shooting beyond 300 yards is almost a must. I would not be surprised if we get one down, that we spend 2 or 3 days getting it out.

[bowhunter42]

just an update on this, My buddy took the rifle back to the gun store where he bought it and the owner wasn't going to send it back, he was arguing with me that it was the scope that was the problem. I then mounted that scope on my 300wsm and shot it at 76 yards out my back door, all 3 rounds were touching. I made adjustments to the scope to get the group in the bull and called it good. took the rifle out this weekend and shot at a rock at 250 yards and hit right where i was aiming. I then called that my 200 yard zero and pulled the turent off and set it to zero, I then proceded to shoot at 650 yards with a gun scope combo that no one in there right mind would call sighted in. I dialed up what I thought was the proper dope and fired 2 shots both shoots were in the center and touching needless to say the gun store owner has sent the gun back and I owe my buddy a new scope cause he ain't getting this one back. lol Jay

[bowhunter42]

UPDATE: I just got the rifle back from savage yesterday, not sure what they did to it, It came with a service invoice that just said: repair, clean and check complete, boresight only, function fire -passed, target passed 100yds. it shot a 1.3 inch 3 shot group at 100yds with 165sst. they sent the target they shot, back with the rifle and as I look at it the first thing that came to mind is(what a crappy group) but I must say its better than what it was shooting. I just bedded the action so I haven't had a chance to put it back together and shoot it yet. I'm heading to Cody Wyoming this week and plan on stopping by the Best of the west shop so maybe I will Take the rifle with me and shoot it there, I will keep you posted. Jay

[bowhunter42]

just another update, I FINALLY got this thing to shoot, I had to go in a whole nother direction with the load though, and kinda stumbled onto a awesome long range round! After bedding the entire action I tried to get 185 Berger's to shoot out of this thing and the best group was over 5 inch's at 100, I then changed the torque settings on the action screws and my group shrunk to 3inch's. I was at my wits end and decided to try a heavier bullet. I settled on the Nosler Accubond 200 grainer, I started with 4831SC and fed 215 primers with a coal of 3.486, 60 thou of the lands and went out and shot a 5 shot group, all the rounds went into 2 holes less than a half inch apart! I really didn't like the velocity of this round and thought I could do better. I switched to reloder 22 72.3 grains and left everything else the same, It still shot a 2hole 5 shot group but the velocity was 100fps faster and the ES was in the teens with the SD of 9. the bullet has a BC of .588 which is higher than both the 185 and 190 Berger's. then went on the Berger ballistics calculator and input the data and was blown away by the drop chart. at 1000 yards this round has 244 inch's of drop where my 185 Berger's has 266 inch's. and the nosler is over 200fps faster at that range. I took the rifle to the range today and zeroed it at 200, then started to develop the data for the bdc turrent that is going on the scope. I was using 400yds as my mid range distance and this gun put 3 shots into a 1inch group at that distance, all 3 rounds were touching! moved to 700 yards for my long range target and shot a 3 shot 4 inch group. I'm really blown away about how well this rifle likes this load. I then shot some out of my rifle at 700 yds and dialed up 675 on my turrent and put all 3 rounds in the 4 inch center dot.needless to say I'm going to be switching to the 200 grainers myself.

[rezmedic541]

OK some more info for you. I increased loads by 1 gr. I use IMR-4350 and CCI mag primers. I did have some probs with the 250 Hornady I lengthened them .006 and they are now great. All my loads are under a 1/2 inch at 100. My speeds are right at max however the 250's are running at and average of 2648 and I think max is 2616 but no pressure signs noted. the rifle has been cleaned twice and has had a total of 48 round down the pipe.

[bowhunter42]

The RL is pushing these 200grain AB at a crono'ed 2944 fps that's only 54 fps slower than my 185 gn Berger's. the only thing I'm worried about is I'm not sure how temperature stable reloder22 is? just got back from shooting it again, we were shooting coffee cans filled with water at 800 and then took a couple of shots at rocks at 1086 yds. the rounds hit right where they were pointed. Man I love this long range stuff! Jay