Jmad. Just curious but when you say you're getting lousy groups with the PT's and AB's, just what size are those groups?
Tiny groups are nice for bragging rights and I have a few rifles that make me look good but in reality, just how accurate does a rifle have to be for big game from antelope on up? I would much rather have a rifle that shot 1.5" groups CONSISTANTLY at 100 yards than something that is sub-MOA but never puts them in the same spot when shooting. A friend of mine, now long deceased
was a hobby gunsmith and a darned good one. I had a commercial FN mauser I picked up for $100 that had a somewhat beat up stock and a corroded barrel from WW2 milsurp ammo cal, my friend said he had a barrel in 30 caliber and would install it and pt it in a piece of walnut he had laying around for $125. :shock: What a beautiful piece of wood and the barrel had a 1 in 12" twist which would work quite well for my cast bullet shooting. Well, he did a fine job and with my handloads groups were as small as .375" at 100 yards. I like to sight in 3" high at 100 yards for hunting and that's what I did. After the sight in, I let the gun cool down aand shot another group. Another tight rop but not where I sighted in for. I don't remember exactly where the group ended up as this was back in 1973. Let's say it was 4" high aand 6" to the left. I let it cool down again and the groups was somewhere else again, but not in the same place as the last group and not where I sighted in. I tried different ammo, different handloads, even tried several different scopes to no avail. I rebedded it three times, again no help. I swear, that stock was a squirrelly as a snake on a hot frying pan. The gun sat in the closet for years.About that time, I got transfered from Nevada to Arizona and I thought, why not bed that gun in the original commercial FN stock and see if it'll shoot any better in that one. Groups ran right around two inches and at least it was somewhat consistant but sure was an ugly gun. Well, sometime in the mid 1980's I learned that McMillan was just up the road about 120 miles from me so one day I drove up and discussed my problem with then. They showed me several stock choices and I picked the one I liked best and took it home. I glass bedded the rifle into the stock and shooting some Winchester 180 gr. Silvertips I had on hand got 1.25" to 1.5" five shot groups. The rifle has turned out to be a consistant 1.25" average with everything I've run through it and some handloads are just a hair under an inch when I do my part.
My point in all this blabering is if the rifle is consistantly shooting 1.5" groups, you're good to go to at least 300 yards on antelope deer and probably 350 yards plus on elk. Anyway, there ain't no bench rests out in the boonies. :wink:
Seriously though, while you've said groups were lousy, you never did give group size. Maybe I missed it but but I don't remember seeing any.
Paul B.
Tiny groups are nice for bragging rights and I have a few rifles that make me look good but in reality, just how accurate does a rifle have to be for big game from antelope on up? I would much rather have a rifle that shot 1.5" groups CONSISTANTLY at 100 yards than something that is sub-MOA but never puts them in the same spot when shooting. A friend of mine, now long deceased
was a hobby gunsmith and a darned good one. I had a commercial FN mauser I picked up for $100 that had a somewhat beat up stock and a corroded barrel from WW2 milsurp ammo cal, my friend said he had a barrel in 30 caliber and would install it and pt it in a piece of walnut he had laying around for $125. :shock: What a beautiful piece of wood and the barrel had a 1 in 12" twist which would work quite well for my cast bullet shooting. Well, he did a fine job and with my handloads groups were as small as .375" at 100 yards. I like to sight in 3" high at 100 yards for hunting and that's what I did. After the sight in, I let the gun cool down aand shot another group. Another tight rop but not where I sighted in for. I don't remember exactly where the group ended up as this was back in 1973. Let's say it was 4" high aand 6" to the left. I let it cool down again and the groups was somewhere else again, but not in the same place as the last group and not where I sighted in. I tried different ammo, different handloads, even tried several different scopes to no avail. I rebedded it three times, again no help. I swear, that stock was a squirrelly as a snake on a hot frying pan. The gun sat in the closet for years.About that time, I got transfered from Nevada to Arizona and I thought, why not bed that gun in the original commercial FN stock and see if it'll shoot any better in that one. Groups ran right around two inches and at least it was somewhat consistant but sure was an ugly gun. Well, sometime in the mid 1980's I learned that McMillan was just up the road about 120 miles from me so one day I drove up and discussed my problem with then. They showed me several stock choices and I picked the one I liked best and took it home. I glass bedded the rifle into the stock and shooting some Winchester 180 gr. Silvertips I had on hand got 1.25" to 1.5" five shot groups. The rifle has turned out to be a consistant 1.25" average with everything I've run through it and some handloads are just a hair under an inch when I do my part.My point in all this blabering is if the rifle is consistantly shooting 1.5" groups, you're good to go to at least 300 yards on antelope deer and probably 350 yards plus on elk. Anyway, there ain't no bench rests out in the boonies. :wink:
Seriously though, while you've said groups were lousy, you never did give group size. Maybe I missed it but but I don't remember seeing any.
Paul B.
