I need some help

[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

 

[diverdon]

Given your story, if it were feasible, I would try a different scope mount.

 

[HousePlant]

I have a Howa 6.5 CM in a B&C stock that is inconsistent, not as bad as this but still. I like the Howa action, but I have little faith in their barrels. I know a few others that have chosen to rebarrel their Howa and it was like they built a custom rifle after that.

I'd first check your scope mounting again. Let's see the rifle and get a list of the parts.

Strike Eagles aren't the best scope in the world but aren't really known for being unable to retain POA so... kind of doubt it's the SCOPE.

 

[Nathan Steil]

I have a Howa 6.5 CM in a B&C stock that is inconsistent, not as bad as this but still. I like the Howa action, but I have little faith in their barrels. I know a few others that have chosen to rebarrel their Howa and it was like they built a custom rifle after that.

I'd first check your scope mounting again. Let's see the rifle and get a list of the parts.

Strike Eagles aren't the best scope in the world but aren't really known for being unable to retain POA so... kind of doubt it's the SCOPE.

I actually have another howa in 300 win that is custom. So ima prob just throw the scope on that and see what happens

 

[Wannashootit]

Cleaning/round count?
Heavy copper fouling could definitely degrade accuracy.

 

[Cpg3]

I have a bell Carlson stock too. Mine has issues where it touches the barrel. I have an MDT XRS coming in this week.

 

[mgoodrich]

With you scope screws backing off so much, I assume that you also checked your scope mounts as well?

 

[Mbaysinger89]

I have seen where the Bell and Carlson stocks did more bad than good. Check and make sure your barrel isnt touching. Im assuming shooting off a bipod? Put in in a table, load the bipod and see if your barrel still clears. Is the scope base stock? Maybe oil under the base.

I have never had a problem with Howas being inconsistent.