are you handloading every shot or feeding from a magazine all shots. the first shot is probably the one that is away from the groups of two which leads to question #2
I've tried it both ways. It doesn't seem to make any real difference.
Is your case filled with powder or are you using a non filled case then...
those last two groups pictured were 26gr varget under a 55gr vmax. not crimped and loaded to mag length.
Is your brass new or has it been fired a few times
Not new. probably have 2-3 loads on them. Full length resized.
are you crimping the bullets or not crimping the bullets all of the above relate to bullet setback or change in the OAL. It looks to me that my most consistent groups are with new brass and or a case full of varget. I just loaded some 75 grain bullets over benchmark I could here them crunch the powder when I loaded them. No possibility of setback. but may screw the bullet up and I probably will have to go to TAC and a crimp. Will see when I shoot them latter this week.
you said no muzzle device? Have you examined the muzzle with a good light and a magnifying glass, nothing is perfect even a Mercedes comes out once in a while that is a POS.
I have not given it a detailed look, but I don't see any gouges in it. I tried a couple comps with this barrel but I didn't like any of them, and truthfully I thought they might be the reason for my chitty groups so I 86'd them and just through a tread protector on the barrel for now.
HOW about scope parallax, the groups look suspiciously like some I shot once with a scope that went back to the factory, somehow I got a Zeiss 2.5 x 8 that was a muzzleloader scope set for 50 yards. Move your eye relative to the scope and see if the crosswires move.
This was one of the 2 places I was going, although this scope was on my other predator AR and I could consistently shoot sub 1" with it on the bench. I do wonder though because of the double pairs in each group. It made me wonder if I'd have shot a 6th if it would have ended up in one of the "sub-groups" or not. I suppose anything is possible with a >$200 scope.
finally do you live in an area where it is windy most of the time...
Not when I was shooting.
What do you think it is?
I'm leaning towards either a bad barrel, bad scope, or possibly a problem with the barrel to receiver connection. What I mean is I put a Houge FF tube on the gun. I have one on my RRA Coyote and I love it, so I decided to go with it here. The problem is you can't use a standard barrel wrench on the Houge tube (at least I can't figure out how to) The prongs in the wrench are too short to engage the holes on the barrel nut, so I'm left to use a strap wrench and redneck torque on the nut. I have no idea if I'm too tight or too loose. I've read where this can cause big accuracy problems but I can't figure out how to fix it short of replacing the hand guard with something else.
