Bill,
As far as the results you have listed, what come to mind is it was a 3 inch day. This is why I like to shoot with other shooters, when you dont shoot good, you can see what the others are doing and judge your shooting with theirs. There is just days where you will shoot better than others. case in point; we shot the NBRSA Eastern Finale at Shelby Deer hunters, at the time we was getting the begining of hurican Sandy, in attendance was some of the best benchrest shooters in the Eastern United States, with 2 hall of fame members, and many that have points for hall of fame, with the Eastern division shooter of the year also there. Now with all of this we shot at 200 yards, with the best equipement money can buy, on that day a group around 1/2 inch was something amazing, and most shooters was hoping to keep all of there shots at just under 1 inch. There was some big groups shot that day, now on a good day these same shooters would average shots in the .3 to .4 area with some groups going even smaller. I know this is an extream example, but it goes to show that the conditions of the day will dictate the size of the average groups shot. You could do this same test on another day and you will get entirly diferent size groups. There has been days I thought I shot like crap, but ended up winning the match just because I was shooting better than I thought considering the conditions. I dont like shooting under 100 yards, unless it is a rimfire, so with that said I will usualy shoot at 100 yards.

Now with all of that said, I will state my findings with Savage rifles. When I shot groups I only shoot 5 shot groups, the only exception is with load developement I will shot 3 shot groups, or if I am low on target space, or realy want to see how a rig preforms I will shoot 10 shot groups. As far as load developement, I never shoot factory ammo, and I always tune the ammo to the rifle. I usualy set up my loading press, right beside me when I am doing load developement. I start with research, and pick an appropriate powder for the cartridge, if many are having luck with a certain powder in a certain cartridge I will try it first, no need to re-invent the wheel. I also pay attention to what Sierra's load book list as it "accuracy load." I have usualy had good luck with that. I usualy find where a jamb is on a bullet, and work in .005 incraments in and out, I find that seating depth is far more important that powder charge, also powder charge will change as the day moves on, and on diferent days, with diferent conditions. I keep a load book with the information I find, including the amount of rounds fired on a barrel.

Now on equipement, I usualy shoot off of a hart mechanical rest with a leather bag that fits the forearm of the stock, and a leather rear bag, made by protektor. I have also shot off of a harris bipod, with a leather rear bag. I usulay shoot a 25 power scope when testing rifles, and higher power scope on a competition rifle. Most of the time I have an old tried and trued Japanese Tasco 25 power world class, that is one of my favorite scopes. I also have a couple of Vortex crossfires that are 8 to 32 power, that I have shot some competition with. I will never shoot off of anything else, as I feel that this is not fair for the test of the rifle. Usualy when I shoot a group, I limit myself to 7 minutes, as that is what I am use to doing with benchrest shooting, even with most time, I find that I am done much sooner. I make sure I am confratable when everything is set up. I aways shoot over wind flags, I usualy shoot over 3 flags at 100 yards, and 5 flags at 200 yards. Sometime I will place flags on either side of me just to see if a condition is changing. Most time I shoot off of a wood bench, as that is why my local range has, I prefer to shoot off of concreat, but sometime we dont have the choice. The thing is the becnh has to be sturdy.

Now when I triy out a new rifle, I literly pull it out of the box, and shoot it. I may change trigger pull weight when capable, with accu-trigger I usulay turn the weight up some, as usualy from the box, they are set too light, to where they will trip when closing the bolt. There is nothing that spoils a group more than a malfunction, and I try to make the rifle as repeatable as possible, even if it take more trigger pull. I will remove sling swivals, as they can realy screw up a group when they hit a shooting bag, or rest. Now with that all said, I do load developement, and tune the rifle. I will then shoot some groups. My findings is every Savage rifle I have ever shot, will shoot groups at an around an average of 1/2 inch at 100 yards. I have shot low end and high end savages, and this is the norm. With that siad I will get a group or two that is bigger than a 1/2 inch say a .7, and I will get a group or two that is smaller than a 1/2 inch, which put the rifle into shooting a 1/2 inch consistantly. (Considering the conditions, as stated earlier.) I have shot sporter barreld guns, I have shot varmint weight guns, I have shot plastic stocks, wood stocks,and found them to all be the same. I usualy pick light recoiling rounds such as a 223 or 22/250, as recoil will affect groups size, I can honestly say I have never shot a small group with a 308, or other moderate to heavy recoiling round. Most of Svages line up is around 10 lbs, I can say with a light recoiling round, weight is not much of an factor. Sometimes weight can be a hinderance, as a gun can not have good shoot ablilty when it is heavy.

Now with that all said I will change my shooting technique to talior the needs of the gun. Some guns I shoot free recoil, some guns I shoot pined hard to the rest aginst my shoulder. When ever shooting off of a bipod, you must preload the bipod. I also found that you have to have something under the bipod, such as a scrap of carpet, or rubber, at a bipod off of a concreat bench is a horrible thing. I had one gun I shot that I have to place my hand on the back of the stock, under my chin to hold it down into the rear bag, as because of the long barrel and bad weight displacement, the gun was nose heavy, I also pined this rifle against the rest.