I need help plz

[Nathan Steil]

Hi, im having a super bizarre issue with my howa 1500 chambered in 7mm rem mag. Hoping some of yall can help me out. Im going to give a lil back story so yall can understand my confusion. So i bought this rifle with the cheap rouge stock and replaced it with a bell and carson stock. I took it out to the range and had semi decent results with it, i went hunting with it this recent season and punched a deer out at 450 yards. At the time is shot my deer it was super early in the trip and since we had time our group dialed our rifles more while at the elevation we always hunt at. The gun was shooting good. Fast forward to now and i took it out to the range to get some practice. Gun shot awful, like reallly bad groupings of maybe 8 inch. I took it home and found out all of my dam scope screws were loose so i locktight everything and put them at the right poundage. Took it out to the range today and yesterday and got very frustrating results. At a 100 yards it was shooting sub moa np, then at 200 it would do some weird stuff. It would shoot maybe 1 in or 2 in groups at best at 200 yards. Then randomly it would shoot like 6 to 8 in groups completely randomly. Mind you im shooting 3 shots then waiting for the barrel to cool down. It was shooting ok groupings(1 to 2 in groups) for like 2 sets of 3 shots then randomly a set of 3 would be all over. I used 5 different brands of ammo. Plz note i knew that using diffrent ammo would change where I'm hitting, however i was just trying to get consistency not accuracy yet. The scope on it is a vortex strike eagle 5-25 power scope that is56mm size. And yes it has plenty of clearance from the barrel. I had 3 other people try shooting it and they all had the same issue cause i thought maybe it was me, i have used alot of ammo trying to figure this out. Also i have cleaned the gun before every shoot day. Im getting extreamly frustrated and have no idea what to do. Thank you


The ammo info was;
Hornady cx(copper only) 150 grain
Hornady sst 162 grain
Handcrafted ammo by a company in oregon that gave me 160 grain accubond bullets.
Norma whitetail 150 grain
Remington 140 grain copper bullets

 

[Dochs]

Two things that may be worth the look.
1: recheck torque on the action screws
2: thoroughly clean the barrel
Aside from that I have heard of a few accuracy issues from the howas not to say that’s what it is but always a possibility. Let us know if you find the solution.

 

[AKMarty]

Do you have another scope you can put on it? Try a tracking test on the strike Eagle if you don’t.
Check the action to scope mount torque as well.
Just eliminating possibilities.

 

[AKMarty]

Update on what happened from there?

 

[Frank Green]

Check the stock fit/bedding might need to be done.

How clean is the bore of the barrel? A lot of fouling in it?

Check the muzzle crown for damage? (shouldn't take the gun to shooting 8" groups but who knows).

Damage to the bore of the barrel? Pitting etc....from not cleaning it, water damage from rain/moisture and pitted the barrel.

Did the bore go sour on you size wise? You won't necessarily be able to check this but it happens with button barrels....get it hot enough I've seen the barrel relieve itself and the bore went sour.

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels