Help with 17 Mach 11

[rk3006]

I have been wanting one for a while,well i finally bought one,a Savage Mk. 11 heavy bbl. stainless with lamanated stock. I cleaned the bore with Shooters choice and checked the screws (all were loose) I tightened them and mounted a 4-14 Nikon scope. Took it to the range and the first group at 50 yds. was 8 inches using CCi ammo. The bbl. is free floating and all the screws are tight. Since then I have fired over 40 rounds and the rifle is shooting a shotgun pattern instead of groups. What is the problem? The crown is great, bbl. and stock look good. Could it be the ammo. bad bbl. in need of a forend shim or ? Everything i read on this caliber said it was a tack driver, What gives,can anybody help? Maybe i should have waited and bought a Marlin,but the Savage looked so nice. HELP. :cry:

[htrjv]

rk3006, what kind of a pattern are you getting? Vertical stringing?  All over the place?  Are the scope mount screws tight?  Have you used to scope on another gun?
Several things  may be at work.  Is the barrel evenly set in the stock?  Can you take a dollar bill, and run it from the end of the forearm down to the receiver?  My Mach II is free floated down to about 2 inches in front of the receiver.
Have you looked at the muzzle with a magnifying glass.  Sometimes the crown has a burr which effects the bullet differently with each shot.
On my 17HMR Marlin, the stock screw kept loosening up, throwing each shot to a different POI.  Joe

[Keith L]

I would start with the optics.  Look for loose mounting screws etc.  If it is all fine there swap out the scope and see what happens.

[rk3006]

Thanks Guys, The stock screws are all tight and the BBl. crown looks good, The bbl. is free floted to about 2 inches from the reciever, I'll change the scopt tonight and retry tomorrow. The groups are all over the place, not stringing. I also bought a box of CCI to try along with the Hornady. I will post with the results tomorrow.

[Keith L]

I got to thinking after I posted.  My Savage HMR had a gorilla trigger on it when I bought it.  If your trigger is really nasty then you could be pulling the gun off target with each shot.  I used a Rifle Basix sear to get a good crisp pull.  That may be something to think about as well.

[reyn 61]

I just bought a savage 17hm2 in the MKII. The grouping is awful. I shot it today for the first time and was highly dissapointed. Ive changed out the scope and will try again tomorrow. I have a rifle basix sear in it so thats not a problem. I also have owned the 93 HMR and never had a problem. It averaged an inch at 100yds. I have a CZ hmr that shoots the same. The best group i got at 50yds was 1 1/2 inches. At 100yds it opened up to 3-4inches. I shot both the cci and hornady. The cci shot a lot better. The hornady was all over the paper. If its no better tomorrow im trading for a CZ hm2.

[Doc T]

I bought a Savage MKII in the short 17 and mine is very accurate.  At 40 yds it is almost a one holer and at 80 it is less than 1 inch. It does have a horrible trigger, though.

[Double D]

BSA Model 1215 22lr barrel relined to 17M2.  25 yards.

Only problem I saw with this ammo was that you can see the shoots appear on target...especially when you shank the 5th shot! Twice!

I was testing CCI and Hornady ammo to see which is better in this gun.  These are all 5 shot groups. Those are 1 inch squares and 3/4 inch red circles. The range was 25 yards.

CCI 17gr Ballistic tip





Hornady 17 Gr. Max







If you have spent anytime shooting on the range sooner or later you notice a bug crawling on your target. If you are like me the temptation is always there to shoot at the bug.  I have done it numerous times.  The bug always disappears and you are never really sure if you hit it or not.  With the 17M2 there is no doubt.

1st kill

Pennsylvannia Black Wasp 25 yards!

Only two things could make this gun better...Scope with parallex adjustment and a good shooter.