Long story short, I bought a new Bergara Premier Mountain 2.0 in 28 Nosler for my elk gun and had a ton of problems with it from day 1. The rifle would barely group at 1" with Nosler 168gr HPBT's, it had a ton of pitting and imperfections in the bore when I bought it brand new, and I kept being told by Bergara CS that it was fine. They recrowned and polished, but stated nothing was wrong with it, which made me chuckle. Their documented 3 shot group with 168 Nosler HPBTs was .9MOA.
I went through about 5 different types of factory ammo (Nosler 160gr accubonds, Nosler 168 HPBT, 150 expansion tips, 160 ballistic tips, and handloaded 160gr Accubonds). Probably put close to 100 rounds through the gun, but without fail, all rounds had a much greater drop and lack of grouping further out you went.
For example, the 150gr expansion tips would hit 8" low and 2" right at 200 yds and the 160gr ballistic tips would hit 12" low and 3" right. We are talking about a 4" group too at 200..... It's like the barrel was somehow destabilizing my projectiles, but I had no keyholes. Never run into this issue before. I contacted Bergara one more time to see if they could look through it one more time, but they basically told me to pound sand and that since it shoots .9 MOA at 100, it'll shoot well at 200, 300, 400, etc.
Everything was tightened, checked, rechecked, remounted multiple times. Both scopes I shot with were checked to make sure they were tracking. I've had multiple people shoot and get the same results. What a bummer, but I just feel like I'll never have confidence in this gun.
So.... I need a new 28 Nosler rifle because I have plenty of ammo, love the fast and flat ballistics, and I have all the necessary handloading equipment for it. Have been looking at the Browning XBolt Hells Canyon Longrange rifles (McMillan stock and the regular one). Anyone have these and highly recommend them in 28 Nosler? Dare I ask if anyone else has had a similar issue with a 28 Nosler from Bergara?
I went through about 5 different types of factory ammo (Nosler 160gr accubonds, Nosler 168 HPBT, 150 expansion tips, 160 ballistic tips, and handloaded 160gr Accubonds). Probably put close to 100 rounds through the gun, but without fail, all rounds had a much greater drop and lack of grouping further out you went.
For example, the 150gr expansion tips would hit 8" low and 2" right at 200 yds and the 160gr ballistic tips would hit 12" low and 3" right. We are talking about a 4" group too at 200..... It's like the barrel was somehow destabilizing my projectiles, but I had no keyholes. Never run into this issue before. I contacted Bergara one more time to see if they could look through it one more time, but they basically told me to pound sand and that since it shoots .9 MOA at 100, it'll shoot well at 200, 300, 400, etc.
Everything was tightened, checked, rechecked, remounted multiple times. Both scopes I shot with were checked to make sure they were tracking. I've had multiple people shoot and get the same results. What a bummer, but I just feel like I'll never have confidence in this gun.
So.... I need a new 28 Nosler rifle because I have plenty of ammo, love the fast and flat ballistics, and I have all the necessary handloading equipment for it. Have been looking at the Browning XBolt Hells Canyon Longrange rifles (McMillan stock and the regular one). Anyone have these and highly recommend them in 28 Nosler? Dare I ask if anyone else has had a similar issue with a 28 Nosler from Bergara?
