Evening! And need some help!! Sorry kinda long.....

I got a Savage 110 in .270 Winchester a couple of years back. It WAS a tack driver. I worked up some hand loads and truthfullly it liked everything I worked with, naturally some more than others. I was out practicing and tried some Custom Hornady 130 grain SST Interlocks. These rounds seemed HOT when I shot them. I shot a five shot group, (only five shot were fired of the Hornady rounds), went to look at the target and it looked like I had shot it with buchshot, probably a 6 inch group. Well, I figured out it did not like them, which really suprised me as it had shot all bullet weights GOOD up to that point. I went back to my bench and noticed that the grip cap was broken out of the pistol grip on the synthetic buttstock. Evidently the recoil from the Hornady rounds had broken it out because of the way I had it set in my Firestorm rest. I went back to a load I knew it liked, not thinking too much else about it, just hated my stock grip was broken out. Well, the next group looked liked like the Hornady loads, like I had used a shotgun with buckshot.
I started to try and diagnose the problem. Rings tight, scope seemed ok, I NEVER cleaned from muzzle always from breech, and I had broken the barrel in slowly.
Then I cleaned the barrel and noticed a LOT of copper fouling, seemingly from the Hornady rounds. I had never had that much fouling before. Back to the range, no luck, still really bad.
I changed scopes and rings, it helped some, but still not like it was when I first got the gun (I had been using the cheap scope that came with it, it worked good till this point??).
COULD the grip cap getting broken out upset anything? It goes up into the stock on stalk and fits into the structure of the internals.
If not, what could this be for it to go crazy all at once? It shot FINE right before the Hornady, the lousy ever since??
I have shot for years, and know my way around firearms fairly well, but this one has me stumped. And I REALLY like this rifle. Any ideas?

Check for other cracks in the stock, check to see if your stock screws are tight. Did you shoot any moly coated bullets through it?

I haven't found any other cracks. Will look deeper. The screw BEHIND the trigger guard was a little loose, other two tight as a tick on a dog.

My bet is on damage to the stock. I would go over it real close looking for cracks. Maybe try to flex the stock a bit and see if any open up...

Sorry man.

I actually do suspect the stock. Anybody got a good stock for sale?? I don't mind wood and in rough shape, I know how to refinish!!!!!!

Yeah the screw behind the trigger guard is just a wood screw, the other two are the action screws. If you didn't already, take the stock off, and look it over real good, especially around the lug area, pistol grip & pillars.

was there any different 'sound' or 'feeling' you got when shooting it the last time from when it shot good? if so i would suspect a crack in the stock somewhere. i deal a lot with wood and when you shoot from a stock with a crack sometimes you will feel a different type of vibration or a slight twanging or a stinging sensation from the area. maybe the cap had something to do with the support of the rifle. i would take the action out and inspect the entire stock under good light and mag glass to see if it is cracked anywhere. can be fixed easy enough, but if you find a cheap stock get it for use or for a spare. myself, i would repair since i like that blonde wood, pretty! 99% stock issue. oh, check to see if it warped over the years....a lot of stocks will warp in the safe or wherever you keep them if the humidity is too high or too low. my .02

My bad I should have stated its a synthetic stock.

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Originally Posted by JHouse

My bad I should have stated its a synthetic stock.

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You did state that but sometimes things just work for all types of stocks. I would check headspace and make sure the barrel nut is tight after i went over the stock with a fine tooth comb. There is something that changed with those 5 shots. A barrel doesn't go out like that for no reason. Did you check the scope base screws when you changed scopes?

OK an update. Found it. The cheap scope crapped out. Don't know why, maybe the recoil from the Hornady's was more than it could take. Next on was a Nikon I had as a spare. It was crapped out too and didn't know it!!!. Figured out it was bad at a serious range sighting session. It wouldn't zero or hold when it would. Crap. So off to my LGS where he loaned me a scope, just to make sure it was a bad scope as the main variable in this situation Yep, started printing good again!

As a sub note. Sent the scope back to Nikon. They replaced it for free. It sits on the 110 .270 Win. now and all is right with the world.

But TWO bad scopes??

As another side note, just picked up a new-to-me Savage in .243. Non Accu-trigger, but it does have a good trigger. Gonna be my varmint/wife and daughter's deer gun.

Nice to hear Nikon made good on the bad scope. Not entirely unusual that two scopes would go bad.

2 bad scopes on the same gun? I'd be checking my bases and rings, they may be breaking those scopes.

My 300 WSM came with one of those factory scopes, it lasted all of three shots before it fell apart into three pieces. Not a big deal as I already had ordered a new scope and was just wanting to see how she shot before the new scope arrived.

I bought a stainless package gun from one of our members and it is .270 and after a couple shots,It wouldnt zero or do anything right.I replaced the scope and will shoot it soon to test the zero problem.In my opinion the gun is way to light for this cartridge.I am doing something about it as we speak.