New Rifle-First Groups-Not Good

[IDHUNTER]

I'd certainly try it on sandbags and no bipod first. Certain bipod/rifle combos can be jumpy on such a hard surface.
But I'd also try other ammo too, often the middle of the road ammo shoots best when I use factory ammo. Hornady precision has worked well in several rifles. You just never know, it may LOVE Remington core loc or something.

Thanks, I'll give the sandbags only a try too.

 

[Unckebob]

Thanks, I'll give the sandbags only a try too.

The advice on checking the free float of the barrel on a bipod is a low/no cost check as well. Have someone do it when you are behind the rifle (obviously unloaded, no mag) because you might be putting pressure on the stock when you load up the bipod to shoot.

 

[morgaj1]

The advice for shooting off a bipod is solid. My son has a Mauser M18 (almost the same rifle as yours). Shooting off bags, it is routinely <0.5MOA rifle. When we shot it off a bipod, it was easily a 3MOA rifle and was very erratic with shots all over the place. Come to find out, the stock was touching the barrel under bipod preload. Since he prefers to shoot off a bipod, I bought a Boyd's laminate stock and it is now back to a consistent <0.5MOA rifle.

 

[Warmsy]

That looks exactly what my rifle would do with any ammo until I realized the stick was touching the barrel. Very frustrating 2 years... Finally glass bedded the action and now it shoots any ammo I've given it about 1" at 100 yards.

 

[grfox92]

Change ammo

That Norma WT ammo is shit, IME.

It shot like hot garbage for me too.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[IDHUNTER]

The issue appears to be the ammo. I went back to the range with more ammo choices. I did verify that the barrel wasn't touching anywhere. I still shot off the bipods because I didn't want to change too many variables at one time. I shot Barnes Vortex 150s, Horandy Superformance 162s, and Federal Fusions 150s, and they all shot 1" or less. Now that I know the rifle is capable, I'm going to start reloading for it with 160gr Accubonds. Thanks for all of the advice.

 

[Harvey_NW]

Now that I know the rifle is capable, I'm going to start reloading for it with 160gr Accubonds. Thanks for all of the advice.

160 Accubonds in front of near max charge of H1000 was pretty much an easy button in a a couple different 7RM's I've had.

 

[IDHUNTER]

What did you find to be a max charge? The hodgdon website shows 66 gr as max but i see lots of others shooting close to 70. I'll definitely start low and work up but just curious.

 

[Harvey_NW]

What did you find to be a max charge? The hodgdon website shows 66 gr as max but i see lots of others shooting close to 70. I'll definitely start low and work up but just curious.

Can't remember exactly with the 160, I think it was close to 67. With a 168 VLD it was 69.5.