When do you give up on a barrel/trouble shooting

Jimbee

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I have a 6/7 prc that I've got about 130rds through. I haven't been able to get it to group consistently under 2" for 10 shots. It's a nitride treated Tikka action with an UM chambered and installed Ace barrel. AB Raptor 8 can. Maven RS.1 2.5-15X44, Sportsmatch rings torqued 25/65 inch lbs. Rokstok torqued 65in lbs. I re- torqued and even skim bedded the stock. I've tried 106tap, 105 Berger, 115dtac. H1000, 7828ssc, N570.
Here's a picture of the last 3 groups I shot. Between the last 2, my ten shot average dropped 100fps with the same load, measured by my Garmin Xero. Shots were all a minimum of 1 minute apart with a homemade barrel cooler. 20240906_120329.jpg
 

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Jimbee

Jimbee

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Here's a few more pictures of groups.
 

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The Guide

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Have you stripped it down to the barreled action and cleaned and reinstalled everything? Do you have another stock or chassis to try the action in? You could even put it in a KRG Bravo and single feed it to test.

Jay
 
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Jimbee

Jimbee

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Have you stripped it down to the barreled action and cleaned and reinstalled everything? Do you have another stock or chassis to try the action in? You could even put it in a KRG Bravo and single feed it to test.

Jay
I've had it apart and back together a few times. I put a 6GT barreled action in and it shot okay.
 
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Jimbee

Jimbee

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Have you stripped it down to the barreled action and cleaned and reinstalled everything? Do you have another stock or chassis to try the action in? You could even put it in a KRG Bravo and single feed it to test.

Jay
I do have a KRG Bravo I could try, just starting to think I might be wasting my time?
 
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Are you able to bore scope the barrel? Anyone else available to shoot it just to double check? How many groups are we talking about that haven't grouped well?
 
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Jimbee

Jimbee

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I was just thinking that if you ruled out the "rest" of the equation then you could rule out stock issues too.

Jay
That seems like a logical next step. I'll try and do that tomorrow. The drop of 100 fps is really weird though.
 
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Have you pinged UM yet to see if they have any recommendations? I know it would be a PIA to send it back, but you already have a good chunk of money into it, and no sense in spending good money on bad if there is a chamber/barrel/fit issue.
 
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Jimbee

Jimbee

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Have you pinged UM yet to see if they have any recommendations? I know it would be a PIA to send it back, but you already have a good chunk of money into it, and no sense in spending good money on bad if there is a chamber/barrel/fit issue.
Not yet, just figure I'm the most likely source of error.
 

TaperPin

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Since the barrel has never shot well, the first thing that comes to mind is checking the barrel twist to make sure it’s fast enough to stabilize those bullets.

Then I’d swap scopes, and if that didn’t change anything, talk with them about sending it back.
 
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Jimbee

Jimbee

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Since the barrel has never shot well, the first thing that comes to mind is checking the barrel twist to make sure it’s fast enough to stabilize those bullets.

Then I’d swap scopes, and if that didn’t change anything, talk with them about sending it back.
7.5 twist.
 

TxLite

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I had a bergara ridge 7 rem mag I was fixing to give up on. As a last ditch effort I glass bedded the action and sure enough it started shooting lights out after that.
 
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