Before it goes down this road, please do not turn this into a Remington vs. Savage thread. That is not my intent and there are plenty of others like that.
I had wanted a .223 bolt gun for cheaper shooting for distances within 600 or so meters. I picked up a "cheap" 700 ADL over Thanksgiving. I couldn't leave it as-is so I picked up an AICS for it. I also got a Weaver base and SWFA 10x and rings to complete the project.
Fast forward to yesterday. I brought it shooting with me and just wanted to sight it in. It started off at around 3 MOA with zero repeatability. It was bad enough where I couldn't figure out what scope adjustments were necessary for a zero because thing were all over the place. I was just shooting a bulk pack of Federal ammo so I switched over to some handloads. Things got a little better but were still at about 2 MOA. I put about 25-30 rounds through it and groups continued to slightly shrink but I was frustrated and stopped. I'm currently the owner of a $1500+ setup that can only shoot 1.5-2 MOA which is a big disappointment.
I was shooting my Savage .308 at the same range during the same conditions well under 1 MOA so I'm confident the issue wasn't me. My shooting partner also had the same results with my rifle. In fact, he had purchased the same rifle and we shot it in its stock configuration with slightly worse results.
My long winded question is this. Do I have unrealistic expectations for accuracy with this rifle or do we have duds? I've never had a rifle shoot this poorly. Everything was purchased brand new and I confirmed that bolts are torqued down. My next step will be to throw on one of my 5-20 HD scopes to cross off the scope or rings as the problem but I really think it's the rifle. Are there any suggestions short of sending it off for truing with a new barrel, etc.? I've already spent more than I originally wanted on this particular rifle. Thanks.
I had wanted a .223 bolt gun for cheaper shooting for distances within 600 or so meters. I picked up a "cheap" 700 ADL over Thanksgiving. I couldn't leave it as-is so I picked up an AICS for it. I also got a Weaver base and SWFA 10x and rings to complete the project.
Fast forward to yesterday. I brought it shooting with me and just wanted to sight it in. It started off at around 3 MOA with zero repeatability. It was bad enough where I couldn't figure out what scope adjustments were necessary for a zero because thing were all over the place. I was just shooting a bulk pack of Federal ammo so I switched over to some handloads. Things got a little better but were still at about 2 MOA. I put about 25-30 rounds through it and groups continued to slightly shrink but I was frustrated and stopped. I'm currently the owner of a $1500+ setup that can only shoot 1.5-2 MOA which is a big disappointment.
I was shooting my Savage .308 at the same range during the same conditions well under 1 MOA so I'm confident the issue wasn't me. My shooting partner also had the same results with my rifle. In fact, he had purchased the same rifle and we shot it in its stock configuration with slightly worse results.
My long winded question is this. Do I have unrealistic expectations for accuracy with this rifle or do we have duds? I've never had a rifle shoot this poorly. Everything was purchased brand new and I confirmed that bolts are torqued down. My next step will be to throw on one of my 5-20 HD scopes to cross off the scope or rings as the problem but I really think it's the rifle. Are there any suggestions short of sending it off for truing with a new barrel, etc.? I've already spent more than I originally wanted on this particular rifle. Thanks.
