I have an older Vanguard .308 that a friend gave me because it wouldn't group worth crap. When he bought it, I bedded it for him and it shot great with almost anything. He owned it for about 10 years and one year he brought it to me and said it wouldnt shoot. We swapped scopes, tried all manner of loads and still it shot 3+ inches at best.

He was fond of driving around with the rifle barrel resting on the floor of the truck, and the crown didnt look great. I recrowned it and then it sat for a couple years. I threw a scope on it today and grabbed some 180gr Federal factory loads I had sitting around. Shot it at 50 yards just to see how it did. Still shoots all over, 2+ inches at 50 yards. Bedding looks good, everything fits snug and the screws tighten up quickly. Mag box isn't binding. Don't know what else to try. Is one of these actions worth rebarreling?

One of those 50 yard shooters huh...

What are you torquing the action screws at

Try torquing them to 55 inch pounds

Is the barrel floated?

Yep, barrel is floated

Did you put new rings and mounts on it? Are you sure they are tight? Are you sure the scope is good? If all that and the bedding and crown are good try different ammo and pressure points on the barrel. I know that the 308 isn't a barrel burner but did he shoot it a lot or drag a cleaning rod through it a bunch?

As far as I know the Vanguards are Howa actions, a lot of people rebarrel them.

Dave.

Have you cleaned the bore lately?

When I say lately I mean like in the last 15 years

Shod

I bet that's the problem

1+

I don't know anything specificaly about the Vangaurd,but with such poor accuracy I am also thinking that it may be an issue with your scope,or mounts.Have you tried it from 100 yards with the current scope?.If it's just an old spare take off scope with out adjustable objective it may actualy tighten up a little at 100 yards.Are you shooting store bought ammo?.If it was mine,and I couldn't get it to improve I would just keep it for a truck gun like the guy you got it from.I know people rebarrel them,but unless you can do all the work yourself,and enjoy it as a hobbie I don't think it would be worth the expence,or your time.

Yep barrel was cleaned before I started shooting. Bases and rings are new and tight. The scope is older and been used on several guns before and has always been reliable.

The vanguards are known to be very accurate could that barrel be copper fouled ?

The 180 grain projectile may be a bit long with a 308 depending on your twist rate. What do the groups look like at 100 and 200 yards? Are you sure the bullet is stabilizing?

clean it with a strong copper cleaner if you haven't already.

As all of you are pointing out, it could be lots of things and it is hard to pinpoint the issue without having the rifle on the table to do a complete autopsy. That said, I will just put in another word for barrel cleaning. All I want to say is there is cleaning and there is cleaning. I had a Rem 700 that would not group. My friend who is much more experienced than I am with rifles asked if i cleaned the barrel. I said I had. He said give it to me. He worked on the barrel for hours-copper solvents, brushes, bore shine, not sure what he all used. He gave it back to me and I immediately recognized than my idea of clean was not clean! After he did his cleaning it shot almost everything in an inch or less. I learned a big lesson on cleaning a barrel.

My thought when I read this last night was "copper fouled". I bought a 30-06 from some bubbas a while back for a song. I knew they were selling it cheap because it wouldn't group. I cleaned that barrel with Hoppe's copper cleaner for two weeks and it's now one of my most accurate rifles.

X2
I've had the same thing happen. A barrel can look clean, just looking down the bore, after regular cleaning with a quick patch and brush cleaning, but still be copper fouled.

When I was young I had that problem with a Ruger #1 in .22-250. I had been cleaning it with gun oil only and after a time accuracy went south. Finally I got some copper solvent and was shocked at how I had neglected the barrel. It took two day to get the copper out, but accuracy came back to its original quality.

Did the previous owner cook the barrel?

Yep. Barnes CR-10 Copper Bore Solvent will likely prove how buggered it really is.

Being a truck gun, was it fired with a slight obstruction from the truck's floor?

Previous owner didn't shoot it that much, the rifling looks fine. I had cleaned it previously but did so again and used some foaming bore cleaner on it to see if it showed any copper. Came out without a trace of blue. Going to retorque the action screws and shoot some 150's through it tonight.

A bore brush, some patches, and a couple of dabs of JB would have the cleaning question settled pretty quick be it metal fouling, carbon, or whatever.

The barrel should be fine unless he has shot several thousand rounds. I would say in excess of 5-8 thousand unless he just kept shooting with a very hot barrel. There have been reports of barrels shooting 10-30 thousand rounds with virtually no loss of accuracy in a 308.

Double check the crown first, check the ignition and possibly put a new spring in it. Check scope and mounting again. Do a deep clean with copper solvent that sits in the barrel, and clean until all traces of copper are gone. This may take a couple of days.

Cut to the chase: bore brush, patches, JB compound.

I know you said you re-crowned the barrel but what did that entail. I would throw my money on the crown still being buggered up. Fouling causing that kind of issues don't seem too likely to me. I mean I have seen accuracy diminish with fouling but to the point of taking a sub moa shooter to a 4-6moa gun...

Have smith check to see if the barrel has loosened up had a guy on another site have his 1/2 moa gun go to crap and the barrel backed off slightly. Tightened it and its back to a 1/2 moa gun.