First, the rifle—a Winchester M70, Pac Nor Barrel (#2 Contour) chambered in .264WM, 1:8” twist, McMillan Edge stock. Rifle was built and bedded by Redneck. Talley LW scope mounts hold a Leupold FX-3 6x42mm.
A few years ago, I worked up a good load for this rifle using 120gr TTSX’s around 3375fps. Accuracy was consistent around 0.75 MOA (prior to the TTSX load, I was shooting 140gr Gamekings with the same accuracy). End of this past season, I noticed the groups had opened up considerably (~2 MOA). I didn’t think much about it at the time….it was right at the end of the season and I was more concerned with the rut at the moment so I just grabbed a different rifle. I had already planned on trying a different bullet this year anyway so I just set the M70 aside.
Fast forward to this summer…I cleaned all copper fouling out of the barrel, loaded up some 140gr Hunting VLDs to try out and hit the range. Velocity was decent but the accuracy just wasn’t there. 2-3” groups @ 100yds. Knowing that VLDs have a history of not working in some rifles, I chocked this up to “my rifle just doesn’t like VLDs” and I sold all that I had left. Next stop, Partitions.
This past weekend I hit the range with a box of 140gr Partitions (0.010” off the lands) and tested a few powders. Velocities were good, and some loads were even close to single digit extreme spreads, but the accuracy, again, was about 2-3” @ 100yds. Frustrated.
As I was wiping the rifle down last night to put it back in the safe, I checked all the scope ring screws and action screws—everything was still good and snug. As I was finishing up I bumped the rifle against something and heard a rattle. That caught my attention and I started tapping it to see if I could isolate where the noise was coming from. Turns out, my scope’s eyepiece had somehow backed off about two turns and was a little loose. Still don’t know how I missed that until last night…nor do I know how long it has been loose.
This might be grasping, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me if it is possible for a loose eyepiece to cause this level of inaccuracy. I know the proof is in the shooting but it will be a few weeks before I can make it back out….and I already have the next round of test loads ready to go in decreasing OALs to see if some jump would be better. Still, the eyepiece thing is just nagging at me…probably won’t be able to stop thinking about it until I hit the range again.
Anyone have any insight?
