Gents:
I've often wondered about a rifle that simply won't shoot a particular bullet or bullet weight well. There is a thread right now in the reloading forum about shooting the 140gr TSX in the 7x57, and BSA responded, in part, "It" - the rifle - "may just not like those Barnes." I'm sure we've all had rifle bullet combinations about which we can say the same thing.
A lot is written about finding optimal charge weights, COALs, etc., in load development: all very true. But if a rifle still doesn't shoot a particular bullet very well, is it really that the barrel and bullet are incompatible, or is it that the load recipe just isn't working? In other words, is it possible to force a barrel to "like" a particular bullet by simply changing one or more of the load components (i.e., powder, case, primer)?
RM
You won't force it to shoot.
It will force you to try something different until you find that magical recipe unless it just happens to be junk and won't shoot.
My only real example of taking a gun that was a shiitshow and then found what it liked was a Ruger 77 MKII that did not like a boat tail bullet, 3" groups. Stuffed a flat based Sierra in it and 3 shots under 3/4" was the norm.
Had a Savage LR Hunter 25-06 that was a pretty good shooter staying just around an inch but a CCI Mag primer made it a 1/2-5/8" gun. Same charge and bullet just swapped primers.
