Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles If you had a rifle that you think should group better

What would you do?
It is a Stick approved Ruger 77 Mk ll trued 7mm-08 with a Shilen 1 in 9 #1 taper match grade 20” ss barrel solid bedded in Brown Precision Kevlar stock. It probably has 150 139 or 140 grain factory rounds through it. I can get 1” groups at 50 yards, but not 100. I don’t shoot far hunting and it gets the deer that I shoot at. Should I: re-torque the screws, reload for it, free float the barrel, try a different scope, shoot it more, clean the barrel better, try a different rest, try different factory ammo… or just forget about it and go kill deer?

How does it shoot at 100? Sounds like a dog.

Do you reload?

Have you tried federal fusion?


Yes.

Change one thing at a time and look for improvement.

Usually starting with the easiest.

It may be several things compounding to create your troubles.

It sounds like he needs a buddy that knows what to look for and knows how to shoot and evaluate an accuracy issue. I ran into a similar issue a couple weeks ago. A buddy called and said, "hey, we have a rifle that doesn't shoot well, can you come and take a look at it". Sure no problem. Found the rifle to shoot damn well with the proper ammo. Preliminary checks were done even before I pulled the trigger on that rifle. Usually the culprits for a poor shooting rifle is the scope mounts and rings, scope, mechanicals, ammo and shooter error.

Featherweight, as you say it is a #1 contour.

Only test your cold bore shot. Set a target, shoot it cold bore. Wait until fully cool then shoot it again.

My guess is your shots are walking due to heat, if everything is solid and the optic is proven reliable.

I’d make sure mechanics are sound then try different ammo.

Is the scope proven? Are the mounts and rings solid, properly put together? Are you very familiar with benching techniques for light rifles?

Is the magazine box binding the action? If it is, free it up some.

No mounts, it's a Ruger.

Yeah, do everything you suggest.

i do that.

I'm no BSA 1917 or David Tubb, but if you were to ask my opinion on causes of hunting accuracy issues, using a generous 1.5 moa as a benchmark, with no insult intended or implied, I'd say shooter technique 50%, ammo/reloading 15%, optics 15%(includes parallax), faulty bedding 15%, and then there are rifles that will not shoot no matter what you do 5%. The reason I value shooter skill so high, is years of experience with NRA Sporting Rifle High Power, which brings the largest variety of shooters and equipment to the range. And don't get me started on bench technique, I've had damn good hunters come to me and say, my new Whatsis .30 is a pos, and after questioning, they used a rolled up jacket off the hood of the pickup to sight it in, with predictable results.

My first thought as well.......been there, done that with 3006 hawkeye.....taking some metal off the mag box at bearing points made things a whole lot tighter.

That might be a bingo with the magazine box. When I have torqued the screws down tighter, the magazine box does not open well. Before Stick gets here to lay some of his Alaskan crude on me, guess I'll need to admit that moma raised a dummy. How tight should those action screws be? And yes on the range technique. I've helped a lot of guys sight in for the gun club sight in days and I've yet to see anyone shoot an moa target. At $40-$50 a box for factory ammo, none of us in these parts are shooting as much as we once did, me included.

It doesnt really matter on screw torque though specifications call for 95 inch lbs on my Hawkeye......

What matters is that the mag box remains loose after tightening......the box should rattle to show that binding is not an issue.......a tight, quiet magbox may be a problem.

Open up the hinged floor plate and see if you can rattle the magbox with your finger......try not laff at what i just posted.

Change scopes would be my first choice.

I might add i dont know jack squat about no gunsmiffing, but i did read about the mag well/box binding issue years ago on the Rugerforums.net. I think this topic is a sticky on that site under bolt actions.

It's also good advice for Kimbers that "don't shoot".