I am a new member and have recently purchased a model 14 308 with a Nikon Monarch scope. Needless to say I was excited to get out and sight in the rifle. After having bore sighted the rifle, I headed to the range. I started at 25 yd, and then moved to 100 yds. It was fairly windy, but not ridiculous. I shot off sandbags resting the forearm and the toe of the gun. It felt quite stable, but my groups were horrible. Probably averaged around 4 in groups at 100 yards. I went through the proper "break in" for the barrel, and shot two types of ammo (Remington 150 gr core lokt and Winchester 168 gr Ballistic Silvertip). Obviously, I left feeling quite dejected.

Day Two: I bought some 180 gr Winchester powerpoint and Federal 165 gr Sierra BTSP. Cleaned the barrel. Checked to make sure all screws on the scope mount and screws on the stock were tight. Conditions were excellent. Headed out to the range and shot 4 more 3 shot groups using various ammo. Again, the groups were bad (about 4 inches at 100 yards). At this point, I was ready to throw my hands up in frustration. I was letting the barrel cool between all of the shots. What more need I do?

I looked at the rest, and it is one of those sandbags that looks like a "H" form the end view. I had the forearm "wedged" down into the sandbag, such that there was a fair amount of pressure surrounding the forearm (not touching barrel). I decided to turn the sandbag 90 degrees and "rest" (not "wedge") the forearm on the sand bag. By know I was getting close to 50 shots in two days and my shoulder was a little tender. However, I was able to average 2 inch groups on the next four 3 shot groups. This certainly gave me some confidence.

Has anyone ever encountered this problem with this style sandbag? Does anyone have any advice on how to improve the accuracy on this new factory rifle? (I adjusted the Accutrigger to 3# when I first bought it. Its clean and crisp. The barrel appears free floated and passes the "dollar bill" test)

Thanks for the help.