Hi everyone, new member and need some advice.

I have recently purchased a new savage palma and immediately started reloading for it. all my hand loads shoot very inconsistently, usually 1"+. each group looks like it has 1 or 2 fliers. At first i thought it was my shooting so i kept practicing. then one day i bought some factory fed 150gr soft point ammunition and they shot great. all 5 shots into the same hole with every group i shot.

to my understanding the rifle's chamber and barrel were designed to shoot 155gr bullets. so Ive been using sierra's 155gr palma and nosler 155gr custom comp. i use varget powder, neck sized fed cases, and cci br primers. all cases and bullets are weight sorted and primer pockets clean. each charge is weighed in a manual scale.

could 5 grains make that much of a difference or should i be using a different powder. any advice would be greatly appreciated, i feel like i have spent more money on load testing than i paid for the rifle.