Savage 110 .270 Accuracy problems???

[Crackerjackshot]

Hello everybody,
This is my first post to the site. I am a bit confused with my gun. It was given to me back in 2003 time frame as a birthday present. Right when I got it, it was superbly accurate, easily grouping under an inch at 100 yards. More like .5 MOA. Over the years its been banged a couple times and has some scratches in the stock. Last couple of years it has mainly sat in a gun case with once a year being taken back home to hunt. During my time I'll shoot a couple shots with it. My groups are now out to 1.5 or more at 100 yards. I use Hornady SST 130 gr. .270 for it and always have. I am just looking for maybe some key things I can go over on the gun to double check for maybe issues or tightness problems in some of the lugs? I am not very knowledgable with guns, I just shoot them well. Thank you guys in advance for any help.

[Ol' BW]

I've had some similar problems with a few of my old stand bys and I figured out what changed. I GOT OLDER!

My eyes are different, I have high blood pressure now, I'm more out of shape. When I walk to the 100yds target and back, it takes me longer to get my breathing and heart rate under control to make a shot.

Just your eyesight can make a big difference. When I was in High School I had no trouble with my sight picture. Fast forward to college and I signed up for a marksmanship class my senior year as an easy elective. I couldn't figure out why the target was fuzzy and why I couldn't put the bullet where I was aiming. It was a few more years before it was bad enough for me to realize I needed to get checked out. I had an astigmatism.

Your rifle cannot get worn out from not using it, although it is entirely possible that things may have changed with it especially if it has a wood stock. Swelling or shrinking wood due to temp or moisture, corrosion causing parts to loosen, the list goes on. Check your scope bases and rings, make sure they don't have any tension breaks or loose/broken screws, check your action screws (that hold the stock to the action. . .) for consistent tightness, test your scope to see if it has a broken erector causing the cross hairs to shake when bumped. (Some scopes have plastic erectors holding the cross hairs in place.) These are just a few factors to check, I'm sure others will be along with more.

BW

[big honkin jeep]

Clean the barrel well and maybe try this.
It's a pretty good article on how action screw torque can affect accuracy.
http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/savage-action-screw-torque-tuning/

[TCfromEC]

I would make sure that your action screws are tight and you scope bases and rings are tight. I have had that same issue and usually it is one of those things that is causing the problem.

I once had a Savage 110 30-06 package gun that the Simmons scope had craped out on so I put a new one piece scope base, some weaver quad lock rings and a new Nikon scope on and made sure that the base and rings were tightened to specs. I did not have time to sight it in so I gave it to my buddy to sight in who is a good marksman and is very meticulous in everything he does and is the only person I would trust to sight in the rifle. He said that he could get the rifle close but it just would not group and he could not believe that he could not get better than 5-6" groups as he had also shoot the rifle before and knew that it was a good shooter. He said that is was good enough to kill a deer at 50 yards in the woods (that is probably the longest shot we would get where we hunt) but there was something going on with the rifle. I went to clean the rifle and found that the rear action screw was backed of 1/2 turn from snug. I had pulled the rifle apart completely for a good cleaning after the last deer season as I had hunted in the rain that season so I must not have put it back together correctly. I cleaned the rifle and tightened the action screws to about 30 inch lbs. Although I was had little time before the season I made sure I took the time to go back to the range and found that the rifle would shoot 1 inch groups all day.

Moral of the story is do not take anything for granted, check everything and make sure it is good. About 2-3 months later I finally came clean and told my buddy what happened with the rifle the day he could not get it to group, I was a little embarrassed that I wasted his time with the rifle that was not ready to go. We both had a laugh about it and lesson learned.

[Crackerjackshot]

Thanks everybody for your replies! I checked the action lug and it WAS a little loose? As in I could turn it without much effort though I don't have a caliper to measure. I was afraid of torquing too hard. Something I did find that I thought was weird was the aft screw of the trigger assembly doesn't tighten. I can loosen it, and then tighten it back to a very loose "tightened" position but it is not as tight as the forward screw by a long shot.

Ol BW- As far as I know my eyes are about as good as they have been. I started when I was really young so I am still under 30. Also every time I've shot the gun to test it, it was entirely bench rested on our shooting stand and sand bagged down. I used the elevator in the front for lining up the shot to make it perfect and then just pulled the trigger as the crosshairs were perfectly still. Otherwise I would just be thinking that my shooting skills have left me.

Thanks again. This is a great forum.

[short round]

Check to see if barell is touching stock, by sliding piece of paper between stock & barrel, if so sand out tight spot. The screw at the rear of the trigger guard attaches the guard to the stock & doesn't need to be super tight, over tightening can strip the threads in the stock.

[GaCop]

Thanks everybody for your replies! I checked the action lug and it WAS a little loose? As in I could turn it without much effort though I don't have a caliper to measure. I was afraid of torquing too hard. Something I did find that I thought was weird was the aft screw of the trigger assembly doesn't tighten. I can loosen it, and then tighten it back to a very loose "tightened" position but it is not as tight as the forward screw by a long shot.

Ol BW- As far as I know my eyes are about as good as they have been. I started when I was really young so I am still under 30. Also every time I've shot the gun to test it, it was entirely bench rested on our shooting stand and sand bagged down. I used the elevator in the front for lining up the shot to make it perfect and then just pulled the trigger as the crosshairs were perfectly still. Otherwise I would just be thinking that my shooting skills have left me.

Thanks again. This is a great forum. As stated ,the rear most screw does nothing but hold the rear of the trigger guard. Check to see if you have copper build up. A good cleaning with an aggressive copper remover may just restore accuracy.