poor grouping w/ new Savage 11 Long Range Hunter 308

[chowder]

Got some good pointers over on 'Long Range Hunting', including 2 videos on scope setup/ cheek piece adjustment/ natural point of aim,etc.Also a Great article on what can happen to a shooter who only sights in using a bench rest position and switch's to a field position - I was simply not aware of the possibility that you can look thru different portions of the scope from different angles even after taking a 100 deer or so over the years, sure feels humbling!. I'll put the links on here at some point, pushed for time right now. I'm kind of feeling like I've opened Pandora's box by having some trouble with this rifle but I sure am opening my eyes to some stuff I really should know something about!
Anyway, I'm going to readjust the scope to my natural rifle hold position and then readjust the cheek piece to line up my eye with the scope, re level the scope and then shoot again with some Fed GMM and see where I'm at. There may well still be an issue w/ the Bushnell 4200 Tactical that I bought for this rifle that still needs to be resolved, but I think the biggest problem at this point is with the 'nut behind the stock' ;D . -Andy

[cfvickers]

I would bet 10 dollars to a donut that it is the accustock alignment/tightness. You can look at one and see if it is right screws need to be fairly tight but not cranked down, looking from the front, down the barrel, you should have a good bit of clearance on the bottom and sides between the barrel and stock, and it should be the same amount on all sides. Sounds simple but it can be a pain to get it right until you have tinkered with it a bit. Have you taken the stock off for any reason, to adjust the trigger maybe? Either way I have seen a few that came from the factory canted in some way and needed the stock screws adjusted and the stock realigned. These guns generally shoot extremely well. I would bet yours will too. I got my 6.5-284 all out of whack for about 3 months and it would not shoot well at all.

[chowder]

I did completely readjust the scope and cheek piece to fit me and then releveled the scope,etc and the whole package felt much better but the rifle still would not group well, so I shot 2, 3 round groups w/ both the Fed and Hornaday Match grade ammo w/ the Model 11 long range hunter and the groups are still poor. So I removed the Bushnell 4200 Elite Tactical and the rings and rail from the Model 11 308 LRH. I did shoot 3 groups with my Mueller equipped Model 12 22-250 just to make sure that my portable bench or some other thing wasn't behind the model 11's poor grouping problem b4 I remove the Mueller scope from the 22-250 to put on the model 11 to see what gives. The 2 groups from the 22-250 were roughly .5 MOA or less so I would say that Mueller scope has no issues.
Kind of hate to take the scope off of the 22-250 to check the 308 to find out if the problem is coming from the Bushnell 4200 but I don't have any other good choices.
What's anybody's guess as to how much I will have readjust my data table for the 22-250 when I finally get my Mueller back on it? Thanks, -Andy

P.S. I can't back out the allen heads in the rings for the Mueller because the cheap little allen wrench strips itself, the set screw heads themselves look fine. I did order an 'accurizing' torque wrench set from Midway, hoping the bits that come with it are better quality than the wrench that came w/ the rings. Any other suggestions?