Precision Carbine 308 with 5R barrel...meh.
So I've been trying to get a good load for this rifle but just haven't hit on anything magic or repeatable. I've used bullets weighing 125, 150, and 168 but none were obviously better grouping than any of the others. I've tried various powders too; W748, H4895, Varget, IMR4064 and IMR4320 with none of those showing any appreciable superiority over the others. On average I'd have to say that this has been to date about a 1.50" (or MUCH worse) gun no matter what I feed it. On occasion it will shoot sub MOA but any attempt to replicate the results with the same load combination has resulted in failure upon retesting. While 1.50" groups are not horrible accuracy I fully expected much better from this rifle. My first Precision Carbine with just the regular Savage barrel shot much better but just never did feed and eject to my liking. I asked in another post but never received a reply, if Savage actually made the 5R barrels that were available on some of their rifles or if they sourced them from elsewhere. My last hope is to try some of the heavier bullets like 175 SMKs (if I can find some when the current component drought ends) but I don't hold out much hope since none of the factory heavy loads I tested proved outstanding. I'm beginning to think that this may just be a mediocre rifle but on an upnote my cheapo Axis 223 shoots like a rifle costing 5 times as much! Anybody got any ideas? At this point I'm open to most anything.
