Barrel defect and accuracy?

[oldblue56]

Hello all, my first post here so thanks in advance for your advice and opinions.

I have a Savage Elite Precision 110 chambered in 338 Lapua Magnum. I haven't been able to obtain the accuracy I have come to expect from most of my other savage rifles. Best I seem to be able to do is 3/4moa. I know this isn't horrible by any means, but I'm used to 1/4 - 1/2 moa max out of most of my rifles. I finally obtained a bore scope and decided to take a look after the latest cleaning and noticed the area identified in the pics below. Perhaps this is not that unusual for factory barrels I don't know, first time using a bore scope, but would like opinions from people with more experience than me. Does this look like a major defect in the barrel or just what you get with factory barrels?

These components are too expensive and hard to come by to just keep blowing through testing if I've already reached the max potential of my barrel.

Barrel has 120-130 rounds through it at this time. I have taken it out to 1000 yards so far and no problem hitting silhouette steel target (30"x18.25"), but grouping is about the size of the target unfortunately. Wanted to take it out to a mile and beyond, but if this is all I can get from her I don't see much success in trying that.

Commponents:
Projectile: 300gr A-Tips for now, but have some 300gr Berger OTM to try.
Brass: Lapua Brass
Powder: H1000
Primers: CCI250

Thanks,
Brent

 

[celltech]

OEM Savage barrels are button pulled and not polished...all I see is the normal button chatter marks, carbon, and copper. I should show you some of mine...

 

[Ledzep]

Looks like a superficial surface blemish, but I very much doubt it's the cause for inaccuracy. I'd bank on you losing the "factory button barrel" lottery being why accuracy isn't super. I'm not a fan of that action for .338 Lapua sized cases at all, but I think the path with the fewest headaches out of your situation is a rebarrel with a quality blank.

FWIW, I was recently enlightened to the cause of that "button chatter". It's not really from the button chattering at all. It's machining marks left over from reaming the bore. They get pushed into the grooves by the button.

 

[oldblue56]

Thanks, for the replies. I thought that might be the case, just haven't had much experience with bore scopes and factory barrels. The rebarrel is what I was considering and will probably be the route I eventually take. Probably just spend my time shooting the other rifles while I save up for a quality barrel.

 

[GrumpyOleFart]

That barrel is fine.
Start at the beginning.
Check your rifle, torque and set it up as you want.
Check your technique.
Zero your rifle, get as tight a group as possible, work out your best recipe for reloads, then start walking out the distance.
Master each distance then keep stretching it out.

And enjoy it.

 

[1moaoff]

Factory 338 shooting groups at 100... 3/4 inch groups aren't bad.

Have you shot rifles that size before? As you go up in size every little thing you do wrong is amplified!

 

[Wannashootit]

Wanted to take it out to a mile and beyond, but if this is all I can get from her I don't see much success in trying that.

Don't know why you would say that, with a 3/4 minute rifle.

My son has one that shoots a bit better, honest 1/2 minute with either 285 ELDM's or the 300 A-Tips. We found very little difference in accuracy or dope. The powder "situation" got us trying Retumbo and Vhitavuori N565- and the N565 outperformed the H1000 we'd been using, so you might try another powder to see if it can be improved upon.

If you're shooting ELR competition I could see where "concern" over a 1/4 minute of accuracy would be valid- but I could care less about whether it's 1/2 minute or 3/4 at ELR ranges, it amounts to only a few inches. I'm far more concerned about vertical spread (low ES), and the wind gods...

 

[Steel head]

Looks pretty normal for a savage barrel.

I concur with the above-don’t chase tiny groups.
ES, bullet consistency and conditions are far more important.

 

[BuildingConceptsllc]

That barrel is fine.
Start at the beginning.
Check your rifle, torque and set it up as you want.
Check your technique.
Zero your rifle, get as tight a group as possible, work out your best recipe for reloads, then start walking out the distance.
Master each distance then keep stretching it out.

And enjoy it.

This is good advice. Those mag rounds can be a lot harder to get super tight groups too. If you aren't experienced shooting those guys, that likely has something to do with it. Try a few other bullets too if you really want to get it to 1/2 min group, but only after checking all of the basic stuff first. A little under torqued base or action screws can definitely do that, but don't do the gorilla grip on it like I did once..... that's not good either

 

[oldblue56]

Thanks for all the replies. Glad to hear the barrel seems fine. Some good advice on here. I think I'll pull it apart and re-torque as well as look for any indication it might benefit from a bedding job. I know you are not supposed to need to bed with a chassis like this, but I've had good results with other rifles doing it.

Yeah big magnums definitely take a bit more work and technique to shoot tight groups. Had to work on that with my 300WM and 300PRC, but got them down pretty good. This is certainly a step up from those even, so working on technique is something I'm always trying to do.

Probably gonna try this new N568 I got super lucky and ran across with some 300gr bergers. I have had better results with Retumbo than H1000, but I don't have enough of it left to work up a load and can't find it anywhere for a couple years now at this point.

Either way it's still a blast to shoot and that's the main point anyway right

 

[SmartDonkey]

I don't think that you need to tear your rifle down and re-torque everything.... it is doing pretty good if you are shooting 3/4 moa at 100. The ammo could be the problem- because instead of shooting a 8" group at 1000 you said it opened up to the complete 30x18" plate. That's alot of vertical- probably the load.