Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Question on Point of Impact Shift 300 Savage

I have two Savage 99's that I hand load for. Last deer season I checked the sight in with a 150 grain Speer Hot Core Spitzer over 41 grains of Reloder 15 and fired a couple of rounds. It was shooting 5 inches low, it was a nice tight group. I checked a second Savage rifle that I brought and saw the same tight group 5 inch lower than both rifles shot the year before with a 150 grain Sierra Pro Hunter Spitzer also over 41 grains of Reloder 15. I only switched bullet manufacture since I was out of the Sierras. Cases, primers, and OAL from the previous year all the same. Has anyone else experieced the group impact change with different bullets of the same weight and shape? Any explanations as to why this occured?

The barrel reacts differently when you change bullets. Pencil barrels especially susceptible to POI change. My 99 shoots 1/2 MOA 3 shot groups. Change bullets and weights and POI can be 12-24 inches away at 100. Heavy barrels are less prone to this

Savage 99s have a two piece stock and the forend is attached to the barrel, so it is easy to torque the barrel up or down and change the POI. My brother had a 99 and was having a time with it. I found out that when he sighted it in he was pressing it down into the bag and was therefore flexing the barrel up. When he shot at deer, he was wrapping the sling and torquing the barrel down. He had a difference of almost 10 inches in POI. So I suspect you may have used a different pressure on the rifles at the two different range days.

The only rifle I have which shoots two different bullets of the same weight to the same point of impact is my 375HH.... all others simply are different, and will vary by 5 to 10 inches.
Dang it!

Prose is right-on.

Good luck.

Thanks for all of you who responded. Since I had two different Savage 99's do the same thing. Well I guessed that their was a reason. Just To clarify, everything from 2017 to 2018 was identical except for bullet manufacture.

Yeah it's kind of a pain in the butt.

I'm not sure buddy. I only shot a 300 savage one time. My dad left me his Savage in .300 Savage. I took it to the range and used some old loads he had . One shot @ 50 yds , 1" low and I called it good. I dont think the gun was shot since 1984 when he took his last buck.