Hi All,
Ahhhh I just got back to this and believe me mjbgalt I feel your pain
I have a rifle that has been giving me fits with it's lack of consistancy but that's another matter. Now I noticed that your using Millet Rings. Well I have a set on an older BSA Monarch and to be honest they are not very good. ON Sunday I was trying the rifle out with some handloads, have not shot the rifle much as it's a fairly new acquisition to the collection
but those darned millets are moving on the dovertails, rifle is chambered for 270 win. The BSA Monarch action is machined with dovetails and the front ring stayed put but the rear one was walking forwards and the front ring was slipping on the scope tube Scope is an older Nikko Sterling Platinum 4x40 and I thought it was playing up until I noticed the ring movement
. It's scarred the tubed where it moved and they are as tight as I can get them using a long series Allen Key
.
I have taken the back ring off and apart and ground the side down so the clamp can tighten up some more and stoned off the mating halves of the rings to se if they will grip the tube better. This is all temporay until I can find some better rings to fit the BSA Dovetails then the Millets can go into a spares box.
My advice would be check those rings very carefully and change them for something better as soon as possible
.
Now barrels are funny things not all like to be floating in free air as the "experts" tell they should be
I found out the hard way when bedding a P-H 1200 Super in 7.92mm. The rifle was produced during the take over and shut down of Parker-Hale to the inletting was not up to their normal standards and the bedding was spotty to say the least. I got it NIB and would have returned it to P-H if they were still operating but that was not an option as I got it several years after their closure the rifle shot groups of arounf 3" at 100 yards. So I bedded it and added too much compound and free floated the barrel. WTH I thought and took it the the range where it shot patterns, patterns of about 6-8" at 100 yards
so I added card shims under the barrel at the fore end and continued adding them until the groups shrank down to around MOA. Once I had it there I packed it off to a good gunsmith to bed with this pressure
which he did and a very neat job too. He also fitted the Leupold bases to the action properly as their contour did not match the action and he tested the rifle with factory ammo and being a 7.92mm (8x57mm) the choice was limited so we used Privi Partisen 196 grain SP and with that ammo it groups around MOA now. My handloads should (we hope) improve on that.
Another thing I would check is the leade in your chamber as I have heard that the throating is done with a seperate reamer and this can be out of line with the bore. Seems your model can have this problem as the gunshop I use here in the UK had a two like this recently that were incapable of shooting groups under 3" at 60 meters. Both were returned to the importers and refunds obtained. Both were chambered for the .223 cartridge. There is argument between the father and son who run the shop about stocking any further Remingtons over this, the father says stuff them and the son wants to give them another chance
As for powder switching yep that can make a huge difference
why I am not sure but I had this happen with some Hornady 150 grain RNSP bullets in my 308. At first I could not get decent accuracy and gave up with them but I had acquired three boxes of them so came again to try them with the sme results. Then I had the brainwave to try a different powder and groups halved in size now with a little tweaking the load should be a good hunting one. I wanted a lower velocity for woodland Roe and Muntjac stalking and these bullets seemed like they would fit the criteara well.
Good luck with your rilfe and I hope you find out what is causing the problems
