Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters One cold shot wonder recommendations

Hello, I am new to the forum. I recently purchased a new Weatherby Backcountry 2.0 in 308. Weatherby’s guarantee is that it is a cold bore 3 shot sub-MOA rife. It only has delivered its guarantee with two commercial loads… with some outstanding groups. However, in a quick three shot string… like the Elk bull is still standing, the first shot is spot on… the second shot is often about 1.5-2 MOA away in no patternable location, and the third shot is even further from the cold bore point of aim. It’s already been back to Weatherby twice fixing issues, and verifying the cold bore guarantee… I haven’t found a single 150, or 180 grain loads that will mildly perform at 100 yards. Only the Barnes 168 gr TTSX, and Federal’s 175 gr Terminal Accent are single shot lasers. My best cold bore group is under 1.5 inches at 330 yards in a light variable wind prone from my hunting bipod. I have tried at least 5 other quality elk capable loads… all of these rounds have radically different points of impact regardless of how close in weight they are to the two “good” cold bore loads. Looking for suggestions from Cryogenic treatment, to ideas where to start reloading to address this hot string nightmare. While I love the rifle for it’s weight, appearance, it’s still a 308 I want to be able to take into the backcountry and chase elk, etc. and have the faith that the rifle can reliably perform to 350 yards on an elk sized animal in a 3-shot hunting situation string. The scope is mounted to OEM torque specs with Tally mounts, and verified ring lapped alignment, bubble leveled, Schmidt & Bender German made 6X, verified on other rifles. Rifle bore was broken in exactly per specs to Weatherby’s barrel break-in procedure. Please help find the gremlin so I can take the rifle into the Bob Marshal this fall. Thank you in advance.

Sounds like a nice rifle. First off, is it properly glass bedded? If you are getting or got a 1.5" 3 shot group at 330 yards, as you state, I'd thank the lucky stars and only use that ammo.

We've had many threads regarding these super lightweight Weatherby rifles not shooting well. As has been discussed before, some guys just can't shoot these really lightweight rifles well. Or it may require some nonsense like throwing a rolled up towel over it, or some weird thing like that.

My question is, since this seems to be a common theme with these rifles, why do guys keep buying them. Also what is generally suggested is you buy a Tikka. They are light enough for any man, even men hunting in the Bob Marshal. I've had my share of dealing with Weatherby's factory authorized repair centers and I would not let those fools work on a stick horse.

Generally when a rifle throws/strings ammo as it heats up, that means it has a poor barrel that has induced stress from the machining process. Hence your question about cryogenic treatment. That was extremely popular in the 90's. Not used as much anymore due to better machining processes. After all this reading about poor shooting lightweight Weatherby's and Howa's, I'd personally steer very clear of those rifles. Hence my suggestion for the Tikka. Good luck with it.

Why don't you try a very long time gap between each shot to determine if it's due to the barrel heating up? Also, add a fourth shot to determine if it's a clean-barrel-on-the-first-shot issue? Also, don't discount the possibility that its shooter error due to not being used to shooting a very light rifle in a relatively powerful cartridge. If it is shooter error, then keep shooting at the range until you can shrink those groups.

Are the groups you reference from a clean cold bore or a fouled cold bore?

My two back up rifles are Tikka's that are 25% heavier, and are real shooters. I was trying for the "one & done" lightweight rifle that is enough as I age out realizing my VA disability isn't going to get better, or make things easier. Thus stay in the game as long as possible.

Sounds about right for a Mark V action...

I used to shoot rifles competitively... cold bore fouled shots, with 20 minutes cooling and an open bolt.

I shot my 7 Rem Mag Tikka (no brake) side by side of the Weatherby at 330 yards on the same target board, same hunting bipod, same weather conditions, and cold & hot shots all maintained a sub 2 MOA grouping...

Sometimes very light barrels are more finicky with loads. Finding the load that shoots right may take more load development than a medium barrel profiled rifle.

You used to shoot rifles competitively and you’re asking a question like this?


Weird.

If you can consistently shoot two different commercial loads accurately as you say, it is not the rifle. The problem will probably be you haven't done enough load dev't to find the right load.

IME when a rifle shoots similar loads to wildly different s POI the problem is the barrel or the bedding.

That’s about the weakest accuracy guarantee I have ever seen. .99 group for 3 shots cold bore 😳
Oh well read for yourself

https://weatherby.com/accuracy/

I have owned a number of Weatherby rifles since around 2000, both Mark Xs and Vanguards. In general they have grouped FAR better than older Weatherby rifles, and one of them was Mark X Ultra Lightweight in 6.5/300 with a fluted barrel--which with 3-shot groups put its best handloads well under an inch at 100--when shooting from a cold barrel as fast as I could aim and squeeze.

My guess is the barrel isn't stress-relieved adequately, despite the dinking Weatherby's done with the rifle. But there are all sorts of possibilities....

If it was on my work bench, the first two things would be:

(1) Check the bedding with a dial indicator fixture.

(2) Pull the scope mounts, verify contact the receiver and correct as needed.

The fact that it does shoot something acceptably is a good indicator. With factory ammo...it's a crap shoot, though.

Hope this helps. -Al

The first thing I would do is put a business card pressure point under the forearm of the barrel to see if constant pressure had any impact, good or bad, on accuracy and go from there. If it corrected the problem I'd full length bed or pressure point bed.

😳😳😳

WARNING: MODIFICATION OF THE ORIGINAL BARREL OR FACTORY STOCK BEDDING WILL VOID THE ACCURACY GUARANTEE.

You may want to catch up with a guy on YOU TUBE, "Backfire" I believe. He did a video on Factory Rifles and the MOA advertizement. Could be interesting to you.

Thank you

Yes, but is the manufacturer's accuracy guarantee getting him what he wants?