Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What happened

This year ive had a time with factory ammo. Started with my 300magnum a couple weeka ago but this time it happened to my go to deer rifle, my Remington 700 7mm08. I had went to the range last week with it, and it was throwing rounds everywhere with no consistency at all. I was shooting factory Hornady American Whitetail ammo that ive used for the last 3 seasons. Now ive never gotten tack driving accuracy with them but never had no trouble getting 1-1/4in groups at 100yards which is fine for my uses with this particular gun, but this time it looked more like a shotgun hit the targen than my favorite deer rifle. Now Earlier this summer i had upgraded the stock to a B&C alaskin and put a better scope on it(2.5-10 Nikon Monarch) so i wasnt sure if something was going on with one of those upgrades or not. I went back today and tried the American Whitetails again with the same issues, hitting everywhere, i couldn’t measure the shots but id guesstimate 4-5inch group with 6 shots. I was to the point of wanting to throw that scope away, I figured that had to be it. I happened to have a box of Winchester Ballistic Silvertips on hand and decided id just try em. Bingo groups came back. I put 4shots into a inch. I Really hate to use ballistic tips on deer anymore after having a bad experience before with them exploding on a shoulder but may have to switch back. Any ideas what could of caused these hornadys to be so unreliable this year?

Factory ammo is the problem. Not real consistent sometimes...

Id double check the stock too... differennt ammo will make the barrel vibrate differently, might have aspot taht barely touches where one roud effects it and the other doesnt?

How many years ago was the "bad experience" with ballistic tips?

JB says they have been much improved over the years and particularly the 7mm versions.

I have been using 140gr BTs for at least a decade in my 7-08 without issue.

There is no slower death known to man than the death of old internet wisdom.

I'd not fret the ballistic tips.


My bet is the stock swap is your issue. Different pressure point and barrel harmonics.

Are we speaking of the same bullet? miles

When I worked in the gunsmithing department at Browning Arms Co. I worked on many rifles sent in for accuracy complaints. Usually the problem was found to be one of the following, loose scope mount rings or base, fouled bore, crown damage or bedding problem. We always mounted a shop Leupold scope tightening the customer's base, cleaned the bore with JB compound (some looked as though the owner never cleaned them), checked the guard screws for proper tightening and checked for crown wear/damage. If those steps failed to produce acceptable accuracy then we examined the bedding. We scraped the barrel channel to relieve any uneven pressure points reassembled and shot for group again. If we didn't get an acceptable group then adding a little forend tip pressure usually solved the problem. Very seldom was it necessary to re-crown or go to the extreme of replacing the barrel. One thing I learned is that you cannot tell how a barrel will shoot based on the bore's appearance. I saw lots of rifles with not so great looking bores that shot really well and conversely some with great looking bores that could not be made to shoot well. Good luck, hope some of this info helps you get your rifle shooting better.

Good post gunswizard...

Yeah man, good post....Hb

A rifle that starts throwing its shots around the target COULD also mean you hit the coffee pot heavy that day. Homesteader

The “very first” place is Scope bases/rings. Those are the “cornerstone “ of consistency, and the easiest to correct. From there, bedding and receiver bolt torque. Then swap to a different and known scope. Of course, all this was stated by a hand loader, in which many of our firearms have “never seen” a factory load! memtb