110BA 338 Lapua atrocious accuracy the more I shoot.. and possible cause.. Recoil Lug

I purchase new 110 BA 338 Lapua Magnum 3 weeks ago.

Accuracy was good for first week but then slowing deteriorated with each shooting session. Was easily hitting Steel 3 ft Stop Sign at 1000 yards wtih handloaded 250SMK in Lapua Brass with RE33 or H4831

Got to the point this past weekend i couldn't hit **** at 1000 yards. Shots were dispersing +/- 2 mils (4 mil total spread at 1000 yards).

loaded up more ammo sunday and embarrassingly lol set up at the 100 yard line to see where my POI was hitting.

Checked the rifle and scope for proper torque and began firing off sandbags on bench.

Point of Impacts/groups for various loads were horrendous. The best 5 shot group was 5 inches at 100yrds. Worst was 15 inches!

I did see one trend in my 'groups'. A diagonal string from low right to high left (8 o'clock to 2 o'clock)

Changed out scope with now improvement.

rechecked torque on scope, base and stock.... all good.

Today, I removed the stock from barrel and discovered the recoil lug was not square with the stock!!!!

Here's some pics of the damaged recoil lug.

[IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...oil%20Lug1.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...coil%20Lug.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...BA%20stock.jpg[/IMG]

Savage is emailing me a UPS return slip today or tomorrow.

Man, that sucks! Keep us posted as to what Savage does and how long it takes to get it back from them.

What is the point of having that big lug with less than 50 percent of the chassis supporting it. That is not the best set up I have ever seen.

Here's a pic of one of my 100 yard accuracy shoots. The spreads are 5 inches to 15 inches! I color coded the various loads.

[IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...cy%20Shots.jpg[/IMG]

What scopes did you use? Looks like some stringing from the barrel heating up as well

I wasn't aware they made a 110BA in 12 ga......:noidea:

[IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...24%20Scope.jpg[/IMG]

6-24x56 35mm TACTICAL FFP MIL/MIL ILLUMINATED MP-8 XTREME X1 SF

and a Bushnell LRHS 3-12x 44mm

[IMG]http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...HS%20Scope.jpg[/IMG]

Both scopes shot same diagonal stringning with same ammo

Spoke with Savage Arms today....

New Rifle to replace the original will be shipped to FFL next week.

That's a pretty good result and turn-around from Savage I'd say; between the OP and today is about what? 2 weeks? Between shipping time and them actually looking at the problem and deciding to send you a new one that's not terrible. Good luck and hopefully the new one works out better for you!