.280 barrel problems?

[Tom H.]

I picked up a .280 for my brother in law (Rocky Mt.Elk Model) and he has been having some problems with it.
It would begin to group and then, well, it would start to throw shotgun patterns, or shift the group entirely.
When It first occured I was with him.  The base was tight, the rings are Warne which aren't suspect, and the scope is a Burris (it was originally a Sightron II, 3-9, which we sent back because we originally thought it was a scope problem.  Sightron tested the scope and when they couldn't  repeat the problem, they replaced the scope :grin: Great C.S.

I have never seen a barrel do this, larger groups maybe, but not migrating like this.

It can always take a trip back to the factory.

He did pick up an ultra slug 20 barrel and it groups the way it should.

Any thoughts, comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tom

[Brett]

I'm thinking barrel heating may be your trouble.
How much time are you allowing between shots in a string?
After the gun has sat awhile does it return to shooting normal groups?

[Ditchdigger]

You didn't say what ammo you were using,but it shoud'nt make that much difference. It might help to check the stock and make sure its tight. Mine got loose once and did like your's ,but not quite so bad. I use Rem. 150 gr. Corlokts and get 1.5" at 100 yds. Also loosen the forend and slip a business card between the barrel and forend in front of the mounting lug,and try that.  Digger

[safetysheriff]

If shooting off a bench take off both sling swivels studs, shoot with the rifles forearm resting on the bag just ahead of the Handi's frame(because of the irregular forearm shape on a Handi), rest the rifle on something SSSSmmmoooth like denim, not leather or suede to cut down the friction under the rifle.    That has helped me a bunch.

Is he anticipating recoil after a few shots?    You didn't say if you also had shot the rifle.     Is the barrel allowed to reasonably cool between firing-off some rounds?    Have you fired different brands / lots of ammo?

[Tom H.]

Thanks for all of the replies.

I actually did alot of reading on this forum before firing the gun because I know that it can have its quirks.

We were shooting 140rem factory (had a good rep on the board)

The barrel got warm at very best.  It was when the group jumped from centered at 100 to 2"R and 4"d and quickly walked itself off of the paper.
This was probably 15 shots over an hour.

The scope was removed, base was checked and the scope and rings reinstalled and fired again.

we were using sandbags (cloth) for a rest and the sling swivels and butt were not catching on the bags.

I can understand groups moving, but this is a bit too drastic.  If anybody had a similar problem, we would know that it was the barrel.

BTW, I cut a set of stocks for the gun to make it more "shootable"
A classic style butt to make it recoil back,  and forend with a nice flat for the bags.
I put the same style foreend on my tracker II 20ga and it is much easier to shoot from the bench.
Hopefully they will help, but not with a dud barrel.

[Fred M]

Tom H.
It sounds like you got more than one thing wrong. Go read my write up on my web page about tweaking the H&R Ultra. That will give you some ideas. Click on the www button on the bottom of this page and you will find in on page two. Fred M.

http://www.angelfire.com/ma/ZERMEL/tweakultra.html
click on 24 for page two and then go to 11

[Tom H.]

Hey Fred, thanks for the link.  I'm sure that a few of those steps could improve things dramatically, but if the barrel is a dud, I'd rather just see if the company would replace it first.

It certainly is interesting to see what would make a rifle shoot though.  Looks like alot of trial and error went into that project.  But then again, it all makes sense.

Tom