Last fall I got a new Browning AB3 7mm Rem Mag for $400 after the Mail in Rebate and out of the box I threw away the 2 piece mounts and threw on a pic rail and an Athalon Midas BTR 2.5-15x50. With some rounds that didn't particularly shoot well out of another 7mm Rem Mag, I was shooting terrible groups off of a poor rest and had a hell of a time sighting it in, but I wasn't particularly worried because of the circumstances of the rounds I was shooting and the poor rest. Over the winter I loaded up 10 rounds each 1/2 grain under book max of 139 Interlock, 140 Berger VLD hunting,154 SST, 160 Bulk Midway rounds, 162 SST and 162 ELD-X. I thought one of those would surely shoot well. Over the winter I put the M-Carbo trigger kit in and also had the muzzle threaded for a suppressor and he had to take the stock off for that so I assumed he correctly torqued the action screws when he reassembled it. BTW that M-Carbo trigger kit is magic on that AB3!

Fast forward to a month ago, I got a used Savage Model 11 300 WSM with a DBM, accutrigger and Tupperware stock. It was $300 and had a little surface rust around the end 4 or so inches of the barrel and was the most filthy gun I ever have seen. I took it apart and cleaned everything and ran a oil patch through the very dirty barrel. Break Free cleaned up the rust and the dust bunnies out of the trigger and I wiped down the stock inside and out and it really did look almost like new. I took off the 2 piece scope mounts and put on a 25 MOA Burris steel Pic rail and a Burris m-tac 4.5-14 scope that I had forever.

Last week it was a nice warm day in Northern Minnesota 35 degrees and sunny, so I threw both of the guns in my Tahoe and headed out to the forest I had a couple sand bags that I threw on the hood after I found a suitable logging road to throw a target on. It wasn't super stable, but I felt alright. It took a few rounds to sight in the Savage and I threw up a 1 1/8" group with 168 A-Max and a 1 1/16 inch group with 180 Bulk midway rounds. Not bad shooting off a hood, but not great. I did realize that the rail had more cant than the scope had elevation. I ended up shooting about 7 MOA high. The Browning put up the same 3 to 3 1/2 inch groups that it did before with all 5 of the ammunition variations I loaded up. I was pretty disappointed, but I assumed that it might be the scope since that was a new scope when it went on, and has never been on another rifle. I checked the torque on everything and the rail, rings, and stock on both rifles is perfect torque.
The next day I swapped scopes between the two and headed back to the range. Sadly the Browning shot 3 inch groups with the remaining rounds I had... On the plus side, the Savage put up a 5/8 inch 3 shot group with the 180 grain midway bulk bullets and that Athalon scope.... So it isn't the scope, and I am blessed with a great shooting cheap 300 WSM. I really love the way the accutrigger works for hunting, and I LOVE the 300 WSM!

Now, what do I do with the Browning. I can't send it back to browning since I had the barrel threaded. I think I might see if the gunsmith can figure it out, because I am out of ideas.