Did I get a lemon?

[Lightninn]

Purchased a model 11 Trophy Hunter XP Youth in .308. For those not familiar, its one of Savage's kit rifles. I've tried several factory rounds with poor results. Rifle groups approximately 5" @ 100 yds. I suspected the scope and rings that came with the rifle were the culprit. So i ordered and installed a Zeiss Conquest scope and Talley rings. Went to the range and got the same poor results. Anyone experienced this and if so what steps need to be taken to correct this? I appreciate the input.

[jonbearman]

Exactly which ammo did you use?

[bootsmcguire]

What ammo? Did you try different weights and brands?

Is the barrel free floating?

How heavy is your trigger pull?

How were you resting the rifle? (sandbag, machine rest, bi-pod, free hand...)

[wrench man]

My 110 270 Winchester shot/shoots like this, it flat out REFUSES to shoot 130grn bullets, factory or hand loads, worth beans!!, I had it recrowned, checked the float, installed a Timney trigger, three scopes two sets of mounts bedded the action, nothing seemed to help? but it will put 150grn Partitions sub moa!?

Have you tried several weights of bullets??

[Szumi]

I bought a 10fcp-hs a year ago, due to the ammo shortage, I bought eight boxes of ww power points in 308 180g. All have shot 3 moa. Try something else.

[Dennis]

One of the few rifles I kept, fully stock, but I did skim bed the stock and tweak the trigger.

Mine loves Remington 130 Accu-Bonds & Hornady 140gr BTHP. I can clover leaf a group of three @ 100 yard almost any time I want. with either bullets.

I never hand loaded any as I use this as my hunting rifle only.

I tried several factory bullets. Several of them were all over the place except the two above.

Dennis

[Erik_J]

Not to be too redundant but.....

I bought a Stevens 200 in .308 and had an expectation of under an 1" groups - with any ammo. I thought I was in the same boat as you. I shot a bunch of 140 grain stuff - it gave me 5" groups. I bought a new stock and a Riflebasix trigger thinking that would solve my problem. Same ammo, now 3" groups. I then tried 168gr Federal GMM - 1" groups. Then, what the heck, I'll try the 175gr Federal GMM - BAM! the first two groups had two shots nearly same hole, and the third touching. My barrel just does not like the lighter bullets.

[Lightninn]

What ammo? Did you try different weights and brands?

Is the barrel free floating?

How heavy is your trigger pull?

How were you resting the rifle? (sandbag, machine rest, bi-pod, free hand...)

Ammo I've tried: Remington BT Match 168gr, Winchester BTHP Match 168gr, Federal Gold Metal Match BTHP 168gr, Winchester Ballistic Silvertip 168gr, Remington Core Lokt 150gr.

Barrel is free floating - tested with dollar bill.

Shooting from bench with sandbags.

Rifle has accutrigger and is untouched from factory.

One thing to mention is the Remington Core Lokt ammo. About half of this ammo causes the bolt to jam. You can unlock the bolt, but it required excessive force to pull the bolt back after firing.

Thanks for the replies. Still working at this...

[Hotolds442]

Try slipping a business card or two between the barrel and stock near the forearm tip. Just enough to put a little upward pressure on the barrel. See if your groups tighten up. Another thing I see is that you swapped out scope and rings but are still using the same bases? A scope base screw bottomed out on the barrel would cause accuracy issues also. Make sure your front bag is not putting the stock into the barrel when firing, and maybe try putting another shooter behind the trigger just in case it's you and not the gun. If none of those things work, send it to the factory and let them fix their mistake.

[Lightninn]

Swapped out the original rings and bases with the Talley integral ring and base.

[jonbearman]

If it is hard to open with just remington ammo have a gunsmith check the neck in the chamber.The reason I bring this up is I had one factory barrel that had only about a .0015 of clearance and remington has slightly thicker necks.If you dont have at least .004 thou clearance to release the bullet upon ignition it wont shot worth a darned with unturned factory brass in fact if you are shooting factory I would make it at least .006 thou clearance.It should be sent back anyways because it is savage who should replace the barrel if it was new.

[kkeene]

I have a model 11 308 with a green/black laminated stock that I got from Cabala's that was just as bad, often shot 7 inch groups! Screwed around with it for months, multiple scopes, different torque settings, and over 100 rounds of wasted ammo. Finally sent it back to Savage. They apparently had trouble with it also. They re-barreled it, then apparently re-crowned it (crown is not blued). Was better (1.5 groups but with strange POI shifts) when I got it back. I finally put it in a different stock. I am happy with it now and the strange POI shifts are also gone. Groups hover around 1 inch at 100 yards.

[bootsmcguire]

Only thought I have including what others have mentioned above is to get something heavier, and something lighter in your bullet weights and see if that barrel just doesn't like the mid-weight bullets you are feeding it.