Help, What Happened

[truckie]

I have been shooting my new .50 Pro Hunter. Last week accury was great , less than 1"at 100 and 3"at 200. Today nothing worked .I could not shoot a good group to save me! I did notice that the stock was silghtly loose and there is some play in the barrel and reciever when the action is open. When I got home I tightned the stock will try again later this week. Is play in an opened action normal,it is tight when closed?  I did not remove the barrel between cleanings. Any answers?

[manofthe45]

The stock was probably the main problem.  as long as the barrel lockup is tight when closed you should be fine.  A little locktite on the stock bolt will help if stock keeps coming loose.  do you use a wire brush to remove sabot buildup.

[Grumulkin]

It is normal to have a little play when the action is opened.

It's unlikely that the loose stock was your problem but tighten it up and see.  If scoped, a loose base or rings could definitely cause your problem.  Tighten the stock screws a bit better.  I shoot by encore with a 50X209 and a 375 H&H Mag. barrel and only had the forend loosen a bit (solved by tightening the screws and not with Locktite).  I've found that with Encores, one must attach the bases with Loctite if you want them to hold but you don't have to use Loctite on the rings.

For my muzzel loader last season, I used Shocky's Gold powder sticks, plastic sabots (from T/C) with .44 cal. handgun bullets and did not have to clean the barrel at all for the 20+ shots I fired.  The end of season cleanup was very easy with no appreciable buildup of anything plastic or otherwise.

[Bullseye]

I would say the loose stock was the problem based on my personal experience.  My groups with my 50 cal went south once a few years ago and kept getting worse until the sock got loose enough I noticed it.  Tightened it up and found all the accuracy I had lost.