I have had the same experience. One day at the range a young man at a bench beside me was having a bad time. I noticed he was jerking the trigger so bad he was totally missing the target at 50 yards. I went over and looked at what he was doing, I told him to stop and go home. He was flinching so bad he was not shooting good at all. The young man told me he was due to go hunting with his new father-in-law the next morning. His wife had just given him this new rifle, and he had to get it sighted in before he went hunting. He asked me if I could help him to at least get on the paper. I took his gun back to my bench and put it in my recoil killing rest. I removed the bolt, and aligned the scope with the bore. Then I shot one shot at the center of the target. That shot moved my rest more than my .338/378 Weatherby(w/brake). I then aligned the scope with the hole in the target. Switched to a target at 100 yards, and again did the same thing only adjusting scope two inches below the hole. Then shot three shots the group was two inches high at 100 yards. Told the young man his gun was finished but he had a lot of work to do on himself before he would be able to shoot well. He asked me to shoot it free standing just to see what he was going through. I turned and took one shot from a standing position, the scope hit my glasses, and my dentures came loose almost leaving my mouth. Man THAT LITTLE BROWNING KNOCKED THE HECK OUT OF ME! I recommended he quitely go and exchange it for another Browning in a differant caliber. That way his wife would never know, and he would have something he could shoot.
Saw him later at Fredies, he had done as I suggested. He got a differant Browning in 30-06, still stainless, but standard length action. Overall gun is longer, but the little lady never knew he exchanged it. On his hunting trip he was able to get out of shooting anything. He let his Father-in-law do all the shooting. But next year he is set. He has been shooting his new gun and is doing well with it.