Good Guns gone bad

stan_wa

WKR
Joined
Aug 6, 2020
Location
Washington
Im in the middle of trouble shooting accuracy issues on two of my rifles currently. Its a super frustrating process. Long story short I had a great shooting gun, then one day it didnt shoot so good. Now I got two guns one in 6 CM and one in 28 nosler on its 2nd barrel. Nether is shooting great groups.
So im going thru checking everything, load, rings, scopes, muzzle devices, cleaning and all the torques.

I wanna hear about a bolt actions rifle that was giving you accuracy issues that you then fixed or were able to get working great and hear what you did.
 
So many things…

If a gun shoots then stops, I check for a carbon ring in the throat. You can see that but you can’t see other things, so I check that first.

Are you sure it’s not you?
Did you start doing something different/wrong? Flinch?
Add a bipod or something?
 
My buddy had similar issues. He is more of a just shoot it without cleaning. I advised him to try cleaning the barrel as clean as possible. It seemed to work for him as accuracy was restored after a handful of fouling shots.
 
Well, I didn’t want to bore you with my long story, but since you asked, here it is. My first “good gun” was a Seekins Element 28 Nos. I put about 700 rounds through it; my baseline load was an MR at .33 MOA. I honestly couldn’t believe how amazing a 6lb 28 Nosler could shoot. That gun never shot a 5-shot group over 1 inch and consistently produced 10–15 round groups at 1 inch, always under 1.5 inches. I loved that gun—the great performance made me a big Seekins fan. Then one day, it just stopped shooting good groups. So, I sent it to Seekins and they ended up changing it out for a 6 Creed Element. While that was happening, I bought a 28 Nos Seekins PH2 2 for the slide. And so the story begins.


The 28 Nos was mounted with a Trijicon Tenmile in Seekins rings, along with an SRS Ti Pro all from my original 28 Nos. I started trying out loads, but nothing was shooting great. I tried 195 Berges and 180 Eldm rounds. After putting 100 rounds through, I was pretty disappointed. (See loads and data.) I even thought maybe I’d forgotten how to shoot, so I tried shooting my buddy Mike’s gun and he shot mine; we saw that the groups were consistent, around 4 inches with 10–15 round groups. This told me it was not likely the shooter—trust me, I wish it were.
data for that barrel:1741670343441.png

I had previously tested this scope on another rifle and it functioned properly. So, I sent the gun to Seekins. After inspection, they concluded it was shooting poorly, installed a new bolt, barrel, and stock, and determined the issue was with the bedding of the stock. They sent it back to me with great customer service—included was a fantastic 3-round proof group (I had asked for a 10-round group, but they called and asked if 3 rounds would be okay as they were confident it would shoot well; I was willing to accommodate).


When I got the new gun back, I shot two 5-round groups with load IDs 2 and 3—getting 1.75 inches and 1.5 inches, respectively. For my next steps, I plan to do the following. At each shooting stage, if the 5-round group looks acceptable, I’ll shoot 5–10 more rounds to confirm. But if the 5-round group is 1.5 inches or more, I’ll stop, as it’s already unacceptable:


  • Check the muzzle brake for buildup and clean it by soaking in Lemon Shine dish soap.
  • Remount my Trijicon in Seekins rings.
  • Shoot 5 rounds of 180 Eldm loads.
  • Swap the scope to an NF scope and install new Seekins rings.
  • Shoot 5 rounds of 180 Eldm loads.
  • Shoot 5 rounds of 195 handloads (loaded by a friend with different brass and powder).
  • Remove the muzzle brake.
  • Shoot 5 rounds of 180 Eldm handloads.

The 6 Creed, SWFA 3–15, Seekins rings, factory Seekins break were all installed per the proper method. I have only tried different loads in the gun but made no hardware changes. I’m about 150 rounds in; I had a load that initially seemed good, but when retested, it was not performing well. Below is the testing:
1741670399563.png

So my plan for next steps: I’m going to:
Try a different scope
retest load ID one because it was the best so far—and what, 6 Creed can’t shoot Berges and H4350 in ADG brass???
I’ll also shoot a box of Berger box ammo.

I think the 6 creed can be made acceptable its just got a picky barrel as it has shot about 6 out 13 ,10-15 round groups under 1.5". nothing has been spectacular however.
How about you tell us info about your setups.

I am really starting the thread cause i want to learn in general what other have seen and what fixed there issues not so much to only ask for help with my issues , as i struggled thru this i thought it would be interesting forum topic. Im lucky to be surrounded by some good dues to bounce ideas off of. But ill take any good advise as well!
 
Had 2 seekins 300 WM barrels that were unacceptable in accuracy dept. solved it by having a good smith chamber a bartlein instead. Unsurprisingly, it shoots without fuss now.

what is your DA typically? Might have marginal stability with 8 twist if you’re close to sea level and trying 112s.
 
that might explain the wild 112 groups . I’m at like 500 ft elevation .

I'd think you'd be fine on the 108 EH but berger's calc says 8 twist at 500' elevation is just under fully stable. Seems the milder charges shot a little better for ya - 42+ grains in gunwerks (ADG?) brass is pretty hot.
 
Yeah and it seems like I get 5-10 that stack real tight then. A few that go roge.

Regarding the 42.5 grains I did do a pressure test and backed off from 1.5 from seeing signs on the case but maybe I should go down to 41? Or 40
 
Yeah and it seems like I get 5-10 that stack real tight then. A few that go roge.

Regarding the 42.5 grains I did do a pressure test and backed off from 1.5 from seeing signs on the case but maybe I should go down to 41? Or 40

Velocity likely tells the story. The Gunwerks (ADG) brass typically has fair bit less capacity than hornady/lapua that most load data is based on. If you're a ways from pressure signs (on previously fired brass) and velocity isn't abnormally high, you're probably fine. Virgin brass sometimes plays nice with larger charges than fired/resized brass.
 
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