I know it's been a while since this topic was posted on but for those who are interested I believe this addition sort of concludes it well.
Last weekend I was off down south to hunt fallow deer so I decided to make sure The Judge (my T3 Lite Stainless 9.3x62) was shooting ok.
This rifle has taken a few big roos and some goats before so I was pretty confident about its abilities.
I just wanted to be sure so I took it out to the range last Tuesday afternoon for a few shots at 100m.
I was stunned to find that every group put the first shot high and then strung DOWNWARDS from there.
Being frustrated I decided to see what 3 quick rounds would do.
This was the result...
The first shot was the top one and the second and third continued down.
This left me very discouraged and disappointed so packed up and headed home.
A couple of things were possible.
On my previous hunting trip in January a plastic buckle on my sling broke and the muzzle dropped about a foot onto the dirt as I was climbing down a hill.
Maybe the bbl was bent or was touching the stock.
With a piece of paper I discovered it was still floated as it had come from the factory.
The other possibility was that it needed a good clean.
Now this, you may say, is obvious, but many of my other rifles are dirty dogs and have shot truly impressive groups with the grubbiest bores imaginable.
But the Tikka had never really had a serious clean.
Perhaps it needed more TLC than my older rifles.
I started with TetraGun and after letting it sit for a while gave it a bit of a scrub before patching it out.
Then I put more TetraGun in it and let it sit longer before patching and another scrub.
I did this a couple more times and then cleaned it with some stuff called INOX, which is a lubricant and penetrating agent.
The odd thing was that I got none of the green stain of copper fouling, just dirt, and in the scheme of things not even a lot of dirt.
I was pretty dubious as I headed out to the range on the Wednesday afternoon and set up some targets at 100m to see if the clean bore would do the trick.
I also took Heinrich, my '41 k98 Mauser 8x57JS sporter, with his new 26" Stainless bbl, Timney trigger and Choate sporter stock to see if he would yield an acceptable group with some old 180gr Nosler Ballistic Tip loads I'd made up for the rifle before it was rebarrelled.
The Judge has a Lynx 1.75-5x20WA scope designed for dangerous game and close hunting so at 100m the target wasn't real clear.
Here is the first group I shot through The Judge after the clean:
To say I was stunned when I walked up to make an inspection is an understatement.
Remember, this is the same load as Tuesday's woeful group.
So, with the purpose in mind, I sighted it 3" high at 100m so it's flat all the way out to 217yds.
The first shot, covered by the yellow sticker, was a sighter, but once I got it on target I shot another group to see that it wasn't messing with my head.
It shot this.....
Now where I come from anything sub-MOA is good.
If you can push it down to ¾ of an inch you're doing well, especially out of a light hunting rifle.
Getting it BELOW the ¾ mark, especially with a super light big bore rifle....for me, that's a great success.
For those happy to trash T3s as cheap plastic rubbish remember that this has had no modifications to the trigger or bedding and the load is one that was recommended to me by a friend, it has not been tested to within an inch of it's life.
I wonder if all those "legitimate" rifles can turn this out?
Suffice to say that I now know the T3 likes a good clean and that it's incumbent on me to keep it that way.
Now all I needed to do was clean it before Saturday morning.
As it turned out we didn't bag any deer but the time spent during the week was an important learning experience.
I'd also like to thank Bob for what turned out to be a great load.
