Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Ever had a gun that just would not shoot well?

Ruger 77 MK2 in .30-06'. I'm going to shoot a group with it and send it back to see if they can fix it. 3" groups 100 yds. with factory ammo. Slightly better with reloads but not much.

2Seventy

A beautiful weatherby markv europa in 7mm Weatherby mag. Best I could get out of that gun even after free floating barrel was 4-6"

Ruger #1 AB in 7x57, 2-3 inches at 100 with all loads. Rebarreled with Lilja 28" barrel in 7x57 AI by friend after sale, shoot quite well.

Had a #3 Ruger in Hornet that was a scattergun...sent to Fajen back in '84 for wood treatment then it shot sub MOA with mostly any load you cared to concoct. It disappeared with 4 other guns in a burglary and thus taught me the value of gun safes and neighbors. All in all I wish I could keep the neighbor in the safe for a spell. Feds are keeping him safe now. I really do miss that one.

T/C Encore .25/06-Shot patterns instead of groups

Mark X Mauser .30/06- Shot patterns instead of groups

Ruger 77 MkII 7MM Remington Magnum-Shot patterns instead of groups

Weatherby "Weatherguard" .223- Patterns again.

Remington "Custom Shop" Model 7 .308 More Patterns

HBB

Ruger 77/17- put on a new barrel

I've had a few factory rifles that wouldn't shoot well. Most are now sitting in my safe as customs.

The rifle that drove me craziest though, was a custom built by a name smith with a Shilen barrel chambered in 22-250. That thing would not shoot for anything, no matter the bullet, powder, charge, case. I tried everything, and darn near wore out the barrel. It wouldn't even shoot 50gr bullets with H380 well.

The smith did his best for me, and ultimately swapped out the barrel on his dime after setting back and rechambering, recrowning, rebedding, incense, sacrificed chickens, etc.

I'm not a pro so I hope nobody minds me answering.
I also had a Ruger Mark2 boat paddle in 30.06 I could not get to shoot well at all. Too long to tell the whole story here, but
by the time I had spent a bunch of money to make it "shoot", and boxes of ammo, etc, it had become a bigger investment financially and emotionally than i wanted to deal with anymore. No way I would ever gain my confidence back in that gun.
Finally traded it.
New owner doesn't shoot it to bad.

Chilean Mauser carbine that was rechambered to 7.62x51 (.308).

PAINFUL to shoot, thanks to a very poor, short stock and flat, sharp, short steel buttplate.

Also, could not be made to shoot less than 3" groups at least 4" high at 50 yards.

I did sell it to a then-friend for $50 more than I paid for it.

Funny, I haven't heard from him since... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

This one was a real money pit-
It started as an Orbendorf Mauser in 8X57 and it was going to be my dream rifle in 35 Whelen.
First, I paid $175 for the rifle with a so-so aftermarket stock- Then, a friend who is a retired gunsmith put a Douglas 35 Whelen barrel on it for $100- Total cost now $275- Then it went out to be Teflon coated for $160- total $535.
First trip to the range produced groups from "2 to "6 with no apparent reason for the differences- Weeks and months of experimentation with factory loads, different bullets, powders, primers, shooters and scopes produced more of the same. Trips to the gunsmith revealed no apparent damage or disease in either the gun or the shooter. Spent another few bucks to have the stock rebedded.
Finally, gace up and had a Shilen match grade 35 Whelen barrel installed.
Nest trip to the range, after firing a three shot group and could see one ragged hole in the white at 50 yards. Upon walking to the target, found two other holes in the black- Good solid three inch group at 50 yards. More load combos- same result. Now I am into this for about $1200, not counting ammo shot and gas to get to the range.
Figure now, the only thing it could be was the stock- Bought a Boyd laminated stock and had it glass bedded by a pro gunsmith- Now I am at about $1500, but who can put a price on a dream rifle, right?
Next trip to the range, 1/2 inch group- for the first shot- next two shots open the group up to about 5 inches.
Now, on this trip to the range, I had fetched along an old 303 Enfield that had been languishing in the back corner of the gun shop where I worked. Pitted, rusted and banged up, I had taken it to Rocky, my favorite gunsmith to make sure it was safe to shoot, and he had given it his blessing.
Iron sights, factory ammo and a rusted, pitted clunker about a 100 years old- three shots into 1 1/2 inch- Talk about irony...
I brought the 35 Whelen dream gun home and parted it out, carefully explaining to all buyers why I was selling the parts. One fellow got Douglas barrel and a match grade Shilen barrel for $75 total- Buy high and sell is my motto-
Later, I bought A Remington Classic in 35 Whelen and after having the lugs lapped, with the same scopes, dies and reloads I was was using in the dream rifle had no trouble shooting 1 1/2 groups consistantly. I have never had anyone that could come up with a plausible explanation of why my dream rifle would not shoot, after replacing everything save the action and trigger.

Royce

There was a good list on the net of what to try accuracy wise and I lost the link. Perhaps somone will find it or another.

Obvious things are something loose, the aiming, bad bedding, fouling, crowns, scopes, barrels and ammo thats not compatable.

I like to buy factory guns new and used and try them out. I sell a few, keep a few anyway and keep trying on the others.

One of these is a original Westerner. The guy that sold me the rifle said that it was a 1.5 moa gun at best. Sure enough he was right and I almost sold it. Then I did the crown over again myself and really ripped some metal off. I should have not done this to an original pre 64 in retrospect but now it's very accurate. It was the crown for sure on this particular gun.

http://www.charm.net/~kmarsh/accuracy.html

The only gun I've not been able to get MOA or very close to it with was also one of the sweetest little guns I've ever owned. It was a Ruger 77 UL with the tang safety in .257 Roberts. I imagine it probably had a bum barrel. I loved that little gun WAY bad! It just didn't love me back. I rebedded it 3 times - that angled front guard screw CAN be a bit tricky. No go. Still the best it'd do was @ 2 MOA, and I guess I'm just spoiled, but I couldn't live with that. I know I tried a minimum of over 60 loads with that rifle, and at least 8 different bullets of 100-120 gr. wt. None would shoot 2 MOA consistently. Though I loved that little gun, I finally threw in the towel and sold it. The guy I sold it to just LOVED it, and not being so demanding, shot several deer with it at last contact. Not a one required a 2nd shot. Funny, isn't it, how demanding we've become? He wasn't a great shot, but he and that rifle were good ENOUGH. That's really what counts afield, but being a shooter who probably spends less than 2% of his time afield, I like to get better satisfaction at the bench or when position shooting.

Had another, a M-7 Rem. in 7/08, that would only shoot the 130 gr. Speer FB with H-205, and when that powder was discontinued, I never found anything that would break 1.75 MOA, so let that one go, too. Even let the dies and scope go with it, too, which is always a mistake. I just wanted to shoot that 130 Speer, and when it didn't please me in that regard, had to let it go. Again, yet another example of how spoiled I've gotten myself. I did everything I could to both those rifles, bedding, polished the crown, got the triggers nice, sealed the wood well. Nothing worked.

I can't help but wonder now, if those might have been candidates for cryo treatment, but it could have been misaligned chambers, or any of several other factors. I'll never know, and really, it's probably as well.

If I ever encounter another UL in the "Bob," I suspect my knees will come down with a case of the shakes, and I'll have to take it home and try again. Darn that was a nice rifle! If it had only shot like I wanted it to. Wives are for keeps, but there's just no use keeping a rifle that won't shoot like you want it to these days. I do so LOVE being this "spoiled!"

I have a 77 in .257 bob Question how do you know if it's a ul?? I just got it and am still learning about the 77. BTW mine shoots 3 shots in a inch at 100.

Gun that wouldn't shoot? Yeah, my Soviet Bloc Mosin M44, $49.95 at Big 5. Can't get that thing under 4" five-shot groups at 100 to save me..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

About 20 years ago I had a Remington 700 BDL in .308 with a Leupold 3-9x scope. Never could get any group better than 4 inches. Factory loads, handloads, glass bedded, free-floating, ect. Nothing worked.

Savage 110 in 7mm mag, rough chamber wouldn't expel factory ammo. Couldn't hit a target with the 5 shots that were all I fired, didn't like using a rubber hammer to open the bolt! POS.

More than a few. Someone else ownes them now...Essex

All of them went to the Gun Show PDQ after I realized that they were a lost cause! One reason Gun Shows scare me!

Two or three Winchester Model 70's in .308, believe it ws bad barrels, couldn't get them to group worth a sh__ no matter what we did to them. Sold then for something other than a Winchester and not in .308.

I hete to admit it but I have a rifle that is so inconstent it drives me wild. It's a Winchester M-71 in 348 . I absolutely dote on this actiion and cartridge. It hates me in return.

I want to shoot cast bullets in it at reasonable hunting velocities. Let"s say a 255 grain cast bullet at 2000-2200 FPS.
Anywhere in that range would be fine.

I've tinkered with forened bedding until I've run out of ideas.

I've tried several different bullet lubes, different hardnesses of bullets, have taken bore slugs till I'm blue in the face, changed primers, powder and loads and can find nothing consistent.

And behind all this playing around I'm haunted bya single group shot at 20 below zero that gave me a five round group of 1.25 with a peep sight and ivory bead at 100 yards. I not only can't duplicate it , I can't come close. No matter what I experiment with a typical group exceeds 3 inches and often 5 inches. The load that gave me that fine sub zero group opened up to nearly 8 " during August. I immediately thought of performance differences with the 4831 used in extreme temperatures but could not find a warm weather sweet spot by reducing the load.

I've spent more time with this rifle than any other I've owned and a lot more than powder, bullets. primers and lube than I like to admit to.

It's only a mediocre shooter with jacketed bullets as well, 3 inch groups being the norm (or worse).

I haven't quite quit on this sucker yet but it's getting close to that point.

What really ticks me off is my failure to solve it's problems. After a whole lot of years tuning and stocking rifles this is the only one I haven't been able to shoot to my satisfaction.

I wish I could say it's a bum barrel but I can't detect a flaw in the bore. Perhaps a barrel stress that can't be seen.

For the next year or so I'll continue to waste money trying to learn it's quirks but I have low expectations. Something about it says LEMON. And then. it may be for sale and I'LL DENY THIS POST IN IT'S ENTIRETY.

You think you've got problems, you need to spend a year with this rifle.

Believe it or not, a Tika T3. I have supressed the memory so successfully that I can't even recall the caliber. I couldn't hit my house with it if I shot it from the inside. Different powders, bullets, primers, grains, even different underwear, this POS thumb it's trigger at me every time. It has found a new home. Traded on a Savage 308. Life is good in the sub MOA range now.