OK, long story short I've got a Savage Smokeless ML that was given to me. It's not that it's inaccurate, it's probably the most frustrating gun I've ever fired in my life. The bore looks great, no rust / pitting / etc. It's not the accutrigger model but it does have a Rifle Basix trigger on it.
I've tried Barnes T-EZ, TMZ, Expanders, Hornady SST (300g). None of them group well but the TMZ bullets sometimes will not even group on a 2x3 FOOT piece of paper. I've tried two different scopes, two different mounts, iron sights, and three different powders.
It's decidedly worse with Smokeless loads than Blackhorn 209. It's about 4" groups with Blackhorn which isn't what I'm looking for but would work in a pinch. With 5744 42g it literally shoots 12" to 14" groups at 100 yards and sometimes I cannot even find the impact on the mentioned 2x3 piece of cardboard. The loads that do not hit most certainly feel like squib loads (less recoil) but why? I am using Winchester 209 primers and the supplied Barnes Sabots.
I'm not real experienced with ML rifles but I have a TC Omega that will consistently group < 2" with 3 different bullets and blackhorn 209.
So I returned this gun to Savage about 6 weeks ago. They looked it over, replaced the breech plug, fired it, and returned it. They sent what is more or less a one hole group target with it. I took it to the range today and it was every bit as bad for me as it's ever been. 3 out of 10 shots didn't impact my target frame at 100 yards and the group was over 10". I'm seating the bullets to the witness mark on my ramrod and I'm out of ideas.
I've ordered some of the short black MMP Sabots that Savage recommended and a box of the 250g .452 XTP they recommended. Is it possible I'm just running into issues with Sabots or is this gun just a turd they didn't fix?
