Anybody have one of these that can give a report on some factory ammo accuracy with it?

I bought a brand new one a few months back and just got around to taking it to the range yesterday and was pretty disappointed with it's performance. I had 3 different types of factory ammo(Hornady superformance 139gr sst, Hornady American Whitetail 139gr, and Winchester Super-X 140gr powerpoints)and they all grouped 2-2.5". I also have a box of the 120gr Federal Fusions but I forgot to bring those with me.

Anyways, if you could share your experiences I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

My old M70 FWT wood stocked, I glassed the lug and floated bbl, shot sub MOA all day long......even w/factory 140 CL, and a 4x B&L Balfor.

I'd look at bedding, or send it back. I did have a 223 Coyote long ago, for a VERY brief time, bore had chatter marks on lands, 2-3" from muzzle. Win told me to send it back, but the time for service was not acceptable for me, and it got traded. it shot horrible. That was my only bad experience w/M70s.

Maybe others can chime in. Seems the middle screw needs light tension IIRC.

Not a 7-08 but my .270 EW has been very easy to find sub MOA three shot groups from either factory or hand loads.

Do a little trouble shooting. Read Short Action Smoker's thread on troubleshooting the Kimbers. Same principles apply to any bolt rifle. Make sure the mag box is not binding thus causing the action to flex, the recoil lug is not bottoming out, scope base screws are not pressing on the barrel shank and front action screw is not pressing on the bolt. Make sure action screws are sufficiently tight. Make sure scope mounts are sufficiently tight.

If all those things check out, then look at bedding and crown.

John

if they all grouping the same, just make sure it ain't the shooter. there's some amount of technique involved in getting a sporter to shoot those nice tiny groups off the bags.

also try a different boolet weight. it might not like 140's. never did think one of my .308's would shoot til i changed the projectile weight ...

I wouldn't normally rule out the possibility of the shooter being the problem but I shot 2 other rifles during the same outing and was able to produce much better results. Granted they were smaller calibers but I printed multiple .5" groups with a CZ 527 in 204.

As for different weights I plan on taking the federal fusion 120's with me next time to see how they perform. Also going to have friend come along to shoot the rifle as well, just in case it is something to do with me.

Also, just to be clear everything was torqued to spec using a Wheeler fat wrench.

My 308 shoots fine. This is the 2nd person I've read about having issues with an EW in 7-08. It seems that a much higher percentage of Kimber's in 7-08 were having accuracy issues based on posts I read hear and other places.

Not drawing any conclusions either way, just wondering if there may be some reason for accuracy issues with 7-08.

The Model 70's have a heavy trigger pull. This has been documented here several times. I found that when I backed off the trigger to a modest 3.5 lbs my groups started to shrink. I also had some issues with the rings not being tight enough.

Now it is better but not where I would like. I have been waiting to be able to buy powder and get into reloading. Alas there is no powder to be had - my kingdom for some Reloader 19

Re: ammo - try Federal and Win 140 Ballistic tips and Ballistic Silvertips. I would expect sub MOA in a rifle up to par.

I don't have a trigger pull gauge but I adjusted it as light as it will go. That being said it is still heavier than most of my other rifles. I have already placed an order for a lighter trigger spring to remedy that.

As for ballistic tip ammo the Hornady Superformance that I shot was ballistic tips. I expected them to far outperform the other types of ammo that I had with me because that has always been my previous experience with anything Hornady loads with ballistic tips, unfortunately I was mistaken.

Like I said, I was just hoping to hear some other people's experiences with the same rifle to see if that might point me in the right direction. I plan on handloading for this rifle eventually but until then I would like to find the best option in factory loads that I can.

This doesn't sound like an ammo problem. Tear it apart and look again for something binding. Also, is the scope a known good scope. If not, you may want to switch to a known entity to see if anything changes. My 7-08s were easy to get to shoot about 1 MOA. Getting under that took ammo tweaking. I had best results with 110 TnTs believe it or not. I also got great groups with 168 SMKs- that pretty much runs the whole spectrum of what you can shoot.

Your not drawing any conclusions but I can guarantee it isnt a problem with the 7-08 as a cartridge. Hell Remington can make one that shoots

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Have a buddy that bought a EW in 300wm and had accuracy issues and had to send the gun back, not sure what they did to fix it!

My EW 7mm-08 had accuracy issues, along with an heavy trigger. I sent it to Hill Country Rifles. They bedded it, tricked the trigger out, re-crowned the barrel. It ended up shooting pretty good but not great. I sold it, bought a Sako 85, 7mm-08 this cured it.

The scope is a Bushnell Elite 6500 2.5-16 and unfortunately I do not have another scope with a 30mm tube.

I have a new fw 7-08 and it shoots fine I did lighten the trigger. Also I own 4 new Winchester they all starting really tightening up after about 50 rounds. I had 2 EW Winchester and both shot well. My first 3 shots with my 7-08 after sighting in with Remington 140 grainers were close to an inch I couldn't find brass until I empty those but I was thinking dang maybe I should stay with those

To my knowledge Hornady does not load Ballistic Tips. They make their own tipped bullets called SST, Interbond and GMX. Oh, and in varmint bullets, the VMax.

If the groups are truely consistant, then might be the bullets. My 7/08 Finnlight gave me fits until I tried Sierra 140's. Made all the difference in the world and in fact Sierras are what I use to see what a rifle will do.

I've had three ew's (still have two), a ss fwt, a wsm fwt, and my buddy has a 7-08 fwt compact. All of my m70s are FN rifles and all shot reasonably well with at least some factory load or another from the get go. All of my ew's needed to be shot a bit before I got the best accuracy out of them, but none are 7-08. I can tell you that me, my father and our hunting buddy have a total of 6 rifles in 7-08 currently and all have shot reasonably consistent well with either federal fusion or federal blue box factory loads. A couple have been spectacular with them to the point that we were considering not handloading for them, but all were very consistent. My best advice is to go along with what others have already said. Take the rifle apart to check out the basics and make sure things check out (nothing binding, decent bedding, barrel not leaning on the stock, rings/bases tight, and proven scope). Torque everything back properly and reshoot it to see if anything changes. If it does, then you're good. If not it could be a lot of different things, but you should get decent looking groups with something, maybe not tiny groups, but nice triangular shaped groups. If that happens, you're good and just need to find a handload combo it likes or spend some cash trying different factory stuff. If it still doesn't shoot, you have to decide whether to send it back to fn, take it to a good gunsmith to really have a look at it, or send it for a ride. Good luck whatever you do and let us know how it turns out

Craig

I've got a stainless Featherweight Shot Show Special from a couple of years ago. The lightest I can get the trigger is about 4 lbs., but it's a true sub-inch rifle. FN can build them.

AB2506,

I guess your right, I was referring to the sst's. I guess I have always considered a polymer tipped bullet a ballistic tip.

Capt Craig,

I took the gun apart tonight and everything seems right to me, nothing seems to be binding and the factory bedding in the B&C stock seems pretty good.

As far as torque goes what would you recommend for the stock?

Anybody?

In factory ammo, I've found that Federal is the best bet. Try the reg. blue box, your Fusion, or Fed premium.

Three things that will almost always improve a new rifle's accuracy are bedding the action, adjusting the trigger, and re-crowning the muzzle (or at least getting it checked). Have a good gunsmith check it out.

I have found that each gun might prefer different ammo. I wouldn't recommend a particular brand as being more accurate with a few exception (Fed gold medal match being one).

I will make one generalization and that is that Superformance ammo has proven to me to be very inaccurate in the 4 or 5 calibers that I have tried it in!

A buddy's very nice 7 Rem mag shoot the Barnes Vortex stuff better than any other factory ammo we tried (5 different brands) I found that hard to believe but I shot the groups myself.

Maybe that rifle is just a turd? If you can't find an easy solution, find someone with a bore scope and see if there is an obvious flaw in the barrel.

My ELite 6500 has been a great scope so I can't fault it but yours could be bad. Bushnell has turned a lot of garbage out over the years and maybe one of the 6500s slipped through QC

Thanks guys.

Anybody have a suggestion for a torque spec for the bell & Carlson stock? I've read everything from 35-65 inch pounds. 65 seems pretty excessive to me.....

65 inch pounds should be fine. Just make sure it's INCH-pounds, NOT foot-pounds.

John

I tried 5 boxes (3 different lots) of the 7mm-08 139gr Superformance in an X-Bolt and got groups of about 2.5 to 3.5 at 100 yards. The gun shoots most everything else into an inch. I sent emails about it to Hornady giving them the scores by lot number, but no reply. I just hope it didn't mess up the barrel somehow.

The one I owned was fairly accurate.

My M70 EW shoots the Federal loading of 180gr Partitions very well. I haven't shot anything else through it yet, it is a 30-06 btw.

Dennis, ordinarily I would have to agree with you, but in the last few years, over and over again in a number of rifles (at least 12) I have seen Federal ammo produce great groups - for factory ammo. The latest example was a Sako 30-06 that a friend of mine bought. He purchased at least 12 boxes of ammo from Winchester, Federal, and Hornady in various bullet weights. He tested it all and found that his most accurate loads were all Federal - blue box, Premium, and Fusion. I wasn't surprised in the least. I'm aware of the "each gun is a law unto itself" adage, but recent experience has shown me that Federal is making some pretty good stuff.

The result is that if I were shooting factory ammo and had a new gun to sight in - the first brand of ammo I'd try would be Federal. I wouldn't be shocked if I eventually found that Federal wasn't the best, but it would nevertheless get the first chance to prove itself.

My friend has a 300 wsm that was a sour shooting pig as well. He tried all kinds of factory ammo thru it with the same results: 2 1/2 - 4+" groups. He tried the federal gold medal match, HSM custom loads, Barnes vortex (I believe that's what the box said), and Hornady superformance ammo. All of it sucked. He said if he could get any of those to shoot good he would try to duplicate that load. I then told him that that rifle should shoot chitty bullets good. You don't need to spend $65.00+/box on ammo to have a good shooting rifle. My 300 wsm EW tube does very well with factory el-cheapos (winchester powerpoints and remington corelokts)..

snowboardguy.... don't count on the superformance to shoot well. I have yet to see a gun that did like them. I think they are trying to push them too fast for their components.
Not to break your chops, but.... trade it for an X-bolt in a 7/08. You wont be disappointed. Mine shoot great. Even with factory fodder(excluding Superformance). BTW, where abouts are you in NY?

Mark,

I actually own an a-bolt in 300 wsm. It's a great rifle and I'm sure the x-bolt is too but I really like this gun and want to get it figured out. As soon as this cold breaks I plan on getting some more range time with it.

I'm located in otsego county, how about yourself?

I have a .300 WSM in the EW model. It shoots great. I handload Accubonds. I did lighten the trigger. Shoots 5/8" groups.

It's interesting... I'm 3 for 3 on superformance ammo. The rifles I've tried, 2 pre 72 sako's (270 and 3006) and one FN winchester 7mm08 all shoot about 3/4 inch 3 shot groups and 5 shot one inch groups. The winchester was spot on velocity wise with a 22 inch barrel. I've yet to chronograph the two sako's. I haven't even worked up handloads for the winchester since the superformance shot so well. That said; those two sako's shoot just about everything into an inch except the cheap federal that wal mart carries. So maybe it's the rifle as much as the ammo...

Funny I have the same gun and I had horrible accuracy with 180 Accubonds. I had the front scope mount come loose and was bout to send the gun down the road when I switched out to Leupold dual dovetail mounts and tried 180 partitions. Now I'm dreaming of adding a McMillian edge, but find the BC stock serviceable.